Address by Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior at Conference of Regional Chairmen

Address by Honorable Franklin K. Lane,

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Title: Address by Honorable Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior at Conference of Regional Chairmen of the Highway Transport Committee Council of National Defence Highway Transport Commitee, Council of National Defence, Bulletin 5
Author: US Government
Release Date: November 11, 2006 [EBook #19759]
Language: English
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BULLETIN No. 5
ADDRESS
BY HONORABLE FRANKLIN K. LANE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR
AT
CONFERENCE OF REGIONAL CHAIRMEN OF THE HIGHWAYS TRANSPORT COMMITTEE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE
WASHINGTON, D.C. SEPTEMBER 17, 1918
[Illustration]
RESOLUTION PASSED BY THE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE
"The Council of National Defense approves the widest possible use of the motor truck as a transportation agency, and requests the State Councils of Defense and other State authorities to take all necessary steps to facilitate such means of transportation, removing any regulations that tend to restrict and discourage such use."
WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1919
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING REGIONAL AREAS Highways Transport Committee Council of National Defense]
Recognizing the national value of our highways in relation to, and properly coordinated with, other existing transportation mediums, and more particularly the necessity for their immediate development that they might carry their share of the war burden, the Highways Transport Committee was appointed by, and forms a part of, the Council of National Defense.
The object of the committee is to increase and render more effective all transportation over the highways as one of the means of strengthening the Nation's transportation system and relieving the railroads of part of the heavy short-haul freight traffic burden.
National policies are directed from the headquarters of the national committee in Washington to the highways transport committees of the several State Councils of Defense. These State organizations, which by proper subdivisions reach down through the counties to the communities, are grouped together into 11 regional areas, as shown by the map used above. The State committees of the different areas are assisted by and are under the direct supervision of the 11 regional chairmen of the Highways Transport Committee, Council of National Defense.

COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE.
HIGHWAYS TRANSPORT COMMITTEE.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
ADDRESS BY HON. FRANKLIN K. LANE, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, BEFORE THE CONFERENCE OF REGIONAL CHAIRMEN OF THE HIGHWAYS TRANSPORT COMMITTEE, SEPTEMBER 17, 1918.
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