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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Lane, Secretary of the Interior at Conference of Regional Chairmen of
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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
Character set encoding: ASCII
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BY FRANKLIN K. LANE ***

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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