Address by Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior at Conference of Regional Chairmen of the Highways Transport Committee Council of National Defense — John Shaqi
Address by Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior at Conference of Regional Chairmen of the Highways Transport Committee Council of National DefenseUnited States. Council of National Defense. Highways Transport Committee
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Address by Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior at Conference of Regional Chairmen of the Highways Transport Committee Council of National Defense
United States. Council of National Defense. Highways Transport Committee
Roads; Transportation, Automotive
I did not come to-day with the idea of bringing you anything new. On
the contrary, I have come here to get the inspiration which
association with those from the outside gives. There is no hope for
this place unless we can keep in contact with the remainder of the
United States. In isolation we think in a vacuum, and it is only when
we know what you are thinking of on the outside that we get the
impulse which leads to construction. I think I can say out of my
knowledge of 12 years of administrative work in this city, that we
have to look abroad, go up on the tops of the hills and see the great
valleys of our country, before we know really what our policies should
be. When we live alone or live in isolation and try to deal with
things abstractly or theoretically we make mistakes.
The problem that you deal with is one that I have never had any
contact with, but I know this from my knowledge of history; that you
can judge the civilization of a nation, of a people, of a continent,
or of any part of a nation, by the character of its highways. If you
will think over that proposition you will realize that what I have
said is true, that those parts of this Nation are most backward, where
people live most alone, where they develop those diseases of the mind
which come from living alone, where they develop supreme discontent
with what is done at Washington or what is done in their own State
legislatures, where they are unhappy and discontented, and movements
that make against the welfare of our country arise, are those parts
where there are poor highways and consequently a lack of communication
between the people.
Our eyes are all turned at this time to the other side of the water. I
suppose that there has never been a month in the history of the United
States when so many people were so anxious to see the morning paper or
the evening paper as during the past month. There never has been a
time when we have been so thrilled to the very core of our beings.
Achievements that those boys over there have made are things that will
live in our memories.
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