THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETY 
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Ill., 60605 
Number 147 September 1968 
THE PRESIDENT'S PAGE 
by RAYMOND MOSTEK 
NATION’S PARKS FACE DANGER FROM HIGHWAY LOBBYISTS: Every 
park in the nation is now threatened as a result of passage by the House 
of Representatives of HR 17134. This bill eliminates som2 strong provisions 
passed in previous legislation by the Congress. It means in essence that 
the highway engineers could smash highways and super structures through 
every park, wildlife refuge, and forest and historic site in the nation. Nothing 
is sacred to these men whose very souls must be encased in concrete. 
The Senate has passed S. 3418, and it is hoped that differences can be 
reconciled over the two versions, but conservationists are aot depending 
upon this. They are wiring their senators to reject the House version, and 
some have called upon President Johnson to veto the measures if passed 
with most of the House provisions intact. 
In a recent column, in the Chicago Daily News, Drew Pearson charged 
that the highway lobby was led by such groups as the Firestone Rubber Cor 
the American Roadbuilders Assn., the American Automobile Assn., the 
Asphalt Institute, the National Assn. of Auto Dealers, the Portland Cement 
Assn., the National Assn. of Motor Bus Owners, and other groups. 
For several months now, we have been trying to obtain information on 
this bill and several others—which would destroy the Potomac Gorge and 
the Three Sisters Islands in Washington—from Illinois Congressman John 
Kluczynski, the 72-year-old Democrat who sits as chairman of the house 
subcommittee on public works. He has been unresponsive. First he denied 
that a road would be built across the Glover-Archbold Park in the federal 
city. Later, he sponsored a bill to do that very thing. The infamous bill 
had the support of both Democrats and Republicans, including the conserva- 
tive Republican John Erlenborn from DuPage County (14th district). 
Only two years after the Congress passed some of the most outstanding 
conservation bills in the nation’s history, it has turned around. Then the 
US House of Representatives has passed one of the most indefensible bills 
of the last two decades, HR 17134, which was approved July 3 in a quiet 
voice vote. The congressmen who talk about honor and bravery on the 
campaign stump were afraid to cast a tally vote on this urgent issue. Con- 
servationists throughout the country are writing and telephoning con- 
gressional offices to learn how their district congressman voted on this bill. 
As of this writing, the Senate has passed a much fairer bill, and it is 
hoped that the joint conference session will remove some of the uglier 
portions of HR 17134. The bill, as passed in the House, does the following: 
1. It removes Section 4 (f) of the Department of Transportation Act. 
