The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The Right to See the Scenery April 3 was a great day for the American people. What happened that day in the Senate and House may not seem tremendously important....
...It was this amendment which was finally passed on April 3. In a field like this, legislation must be approached with caution and common sense...
...He said that the ladies of the garden clubs across the United States "not only share in this victory...
...And it is to be done by the states with financial encouragement from Washington...
...A couple of billion dollars spent on building 41,000 miles of first-class interstate highway should be a pretty effective shot in the arm for our economy...
...but I also believe that they won it...
...But all this necessary information can be imparted without blotting out the beauties of the landscape...
...The Federal Government, of course, has no police power which would enable it to tell advertisers where they can put up which signs...
...They let the members of Congress know...
...It seemed as if half the motel, hotel and restaurant owners in the West had written or wired their Congressmen and asked to be saved from'this terrible law...
...A man who owns land along the highway has a right, said Senator Kerr, to do what he pleases with it...
...The scheme pivots on Right to the Scenery the Secretary of Commerce...
...Another point which sounds fanciful was made in all seriousness with the backing of accredited experts...
...My money undoubtedly helped to pay for some of those letters and telegrams...
...The multi-billion-dollar highway bill was merely amended to provide that the Federal Government shall encourage the states to regulate the erection of billboards along highways constructed with combined state and Federal funds...
...The people who love beauty and want to preserve and enjoy it came out victorious...
...The really smart thing from their point of view would- be to do their best to preserve and ' improve the scenic effects...
...Kuchel of California and Neuberger of Oregon were the originators of the bill...
...Travelers along highways have need of some billboards...
...My point is that we spenders don't cross the country to patronize the beautiful hotels and motels...
...One would almost think that these distressed businessmen were trying to cut down their own business...
...As almost everyone knows, the Federal Government is to pay 90 per cent of the cost of highways built under the plan...
...The men who stood up and exchanged blow for blow in favor of the scenery and against the unregulated billboards were mainly from the great mountain states where Nature is at her most magnificent...
...His main argument was that regulation is interference with the individual liberty of the property-owner...
...So a slightly roundabout but perfectly legal way of producing the desired effect was worked out...
...The people who want to manage it just to make monev were beaten...
...Since 1955, some of the best men in Congress have been fighting for regulations to cut down the wooden curtain of billboards which blots out the scenery along so many of our highways...
...It was made clear during the debate that billboards are to be regulated, not abolished...
...He is to establish a national standard of roadside signs, and any state which agrees to regulate its signs according to this standard will receive a bonus of one-half of 1 per cent from the Federal Government in addition to the 90 per cent already provided for...
...Pages upon pages of letters and telegrams opposed to regulation were read into the record...
...The new highway bill is an amendment to the Federal good-roads law passed in 1956, and it represents an anti-recession measure...
...The opponents of regulation were led by Senator Robert S. Kerr of Oklahoma, one of the ablest men in the upper house...
...Gore of Tennessee, Case of South Dakota, and Cotton of New Hampshire were among the chief battlers for beauty...
...The hard-fought battle which has been so magnificently won bears out the statement I made some time ago —that we have a bevy of first-class men in the Senate...
...It gives you an idea where political power lies...
...I have a right to speak on this subject with authority, for I am one of the fellows who go rolling over the highways and patronizing the eager hosts...
...But as I read the arguments about it in the Congressional Record, I had a feeling that this debate had decided whose country this is and who is going to run it...
...I recommend the discussion which preceded passage of this billboard amendment to anyone seeking pointers on methods of debate...
...Of these, three were Republicans and two were Democrats...
...We travel for the scenery—and 1 if we can't get a good view of it, we will not travel at all and the eager businessmen will wait in vain for our cash...
...While the statesmen were passing around the compliments in connection with the great victory, Senator Neuberger let out a significant hint...
...They need information about conditions of travel and various sorts of facilities—hotels, motels, restaurants, etc...
...It was the assertion that billboards lessen the danger of accidents by keeping drivers awake and alert...
Vol. 41 • April 1958 • No. 16
