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

RESOLUTION PASSED BY THE COUNCIL OF NATIONAL DEFENSE

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1919

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