Lyndon Johnson on Environment

Lyndon focused on conservation; Lady Bird on beautification

Lady Bird Johnson's counterpart to Pres. Johnson's interest in conservation was "beautification," gradually taking over the bulk of her time. The White House had never had a First Lady who took such delight in a sweep of uncluttered hills and swirling clean rivers, a well-planted urban development or her own plantings.

Over the years, appearance had slowly become a workaday issue in the US. The rampage of junkyards and billboards along the highways, the air and water pollution resulting from the same attitudes, the physical deterioration of the cities were too obvious to ignore.

The results? In 1965-66, progress was incontestable. The pioneering highway beautification bill, however weakened by Congress, was the law of the land. Across the nation, Lady Bird was giving heightened status and popularity to appropriations for beautification, and the results had a cash register ring in the multimillions.

Source: Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, by Eric F. Goldman, p.372-373 , Mar 1, 1974

Focus academics on man's mastery of his environment

The partnership of the Federal Government and the Nation's universities in carrying forward man's quest for knowledge has produced enormous dividends in the past two decades. It has been an enlightened partnership. It must remain so. Creative research through free inquiry is the working way to new greatness in our society. It can open roads to:

man's mastery of his environment,
sufficient food, water, and energy to sustain the massed population that is making ours a crowded planet,
the building of corridors linking the earth to the stars,
ultimate victory over the tragedy of mental and physical afflictions, and
progress in helping man live in peace with his neighbor.

Source: Statement on Federal Grants for Academic Research (APP#522) , Sep 21, 1965

Developing lower Colorado River released men from drudgery

Of all endeavors on which I have worked in public life, I am proudest of the accomplishments in developing the lower Colorado River during the 1930s and 1940s. It is not the damming of the stream or the harnessing of the floods in which I take pride, but, rather, in the ending of the waste of the region.

The region--so unproductive and insignificant in capacity in my youth--is now a vital part of the national economy and potential. More important, the wastage of human resources in the whole region has been reduced, if by nothing more than the advent of electricity into homes. Men and women have been released from the waste of drudgery and toil against the unyielding rock of the Texas hills. This is fulfillment of the true responsibility of government.

Source: Johnson article in The Johnson Story, by B.Mooney, p. xv , Jun 1, 1958

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