WE MUST SEE TO IT THAT THIS MONEY IS REFLECTED IN THE SENATE VERSION OF THE
NARA FY-2007 BUDGET PROPOSAL. THAT BUDGET PROPOSAL IS CURRENTLY BEING
CRAFTED BY THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE SO NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT!

THE COMMITTEE WILL BE MAKING ITS RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE FY 2007 NARA BUDGET NO LATER THAN 18 JULY, AND UNLESS YOU CALL YOUR SENATORS, THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES FACES POTENTIALLY DEVASTATING REDUCTIONS IN SERVICES THAT WILL SERIOUSLY IMPAIR YOUR USE OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES.

PLEASE – CALL THE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD (202) 224-3121 TODAY – ASK TO TALK TO YOUR SENATORS. IT WON’T TAKE MORE THAN A COUPLE OF MINUTES.

TELL YOUR SENATORS THAT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES BUDGET NEEDS AN ADDITIONAL
$22 MILLION. URGE THEM TO TALK TO THEIR COLLEAGUES Senators Thad Cochran (R-MS), Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), Christopher Bond (R-MO), and Patty Murray
(D-WA) as more than any other members of the Senate, they hold NARA’s future in their collective hands!

URGE YOUR SENATORS TO SUPPORT A BUDGET FIGURE OF $369.5 MILLION FOR NARA – AN INCREASE OF $22 MILLION OVER THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE’S PROPOSAL.

BACKGROUND
In last week's NCH WASHINGTON UPDATE we reported on the dire predicament confronting the National Archives budget in FY 2007. We reported that there is an operational shortfall of $12 million in the President's proposed budget. On top of that, in a surprise move that took place on the floor of the House of Representatives recently, an ADDITIONAL $8 million was cut from the NARA budget to help pay for a drug interdiction initiative. In spite of the best efforts of Joseph Knollenberg (R-MI), the Chair of the Transportation/Treasury Appropriation Subcommittee that oversees NARA's budget (Knollenberg argued in vain to defeat the proposed amendment to NARA's budget), a majority of the members of the House -- not wanting to appear soft on fighting drugs -- felt obliged to support the amendment.

And now NARA is also dealing with $2 million worth of flood damage at its Washington D.C. Main Archives facility.

Unless the $22 million is added to NARA's base funding by the Senate here is what NARA officials may be compelled to do:
1) REDUCE RESEARCH ROOM HOURS OF OPERATION -- Research rooms throughout the country (including Archives I and II in the District of Columbia and College Park, Maryland) would be closed on evenings and weekends. They would be open only 9 AM to 5 PM Monday - Friday throughout most of the year. That means that the 16% of NARA's patrons who use the archives in the evenings, and for the 7% of users who conduct research on Saturday, will find themselves locked out of NARA's research rooms, permanently.
2) ROTUNDA HOURS REDUCED -- If you are planning a visit to Washington D.C. with family or friends and want to view the documents of American Freedom (the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and
Constitution) that are on display at the Main Archives rotunda, be prepared to stand in even longer lines as the hours of operation would be reduced evenings and weekends.
3) IF YOU ARE A RESEARCHER IN WASHINGTON D.C. -- there will be no more door-to-door shuttle service between Main Archives and College Park -- you will have to use Metro and a taxi cab to get to your destination. Also, expect a raise in the per page photocopying fee in research rooms. Oh yes, one last thing – there may be a charge for reference services.
4) IF YOU CONDUCT RESEARCH IN A PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY OR A REGIONAL ARCHIVES FACILITY -- be prepared to work fewer hours each day as research rooms across the county may well be shutting down earlier as well. You also will be paying a higher photo-copying fee.
5) IF YOU EVER HAVE MADE USE OF A COMPILATION OF THE PUBLIC PAPERS OF A PRESIDENT -- BEGINNING NEXT YEAR THE VOLUMES WON'T BE PRODUCED ANY LONGER -- for years NARA has compiled the collected public papers of the president (speeches, transcripts of press events etc.) into hardback volumes. No more.
6) RESEARCH IMPEDED BY NARA EMPLOYEE FURLOUGHS -- Researchers may be further inconvenienced if the National Archives has to balance its books by cutting employee travel and training, by zeroing out funding for overtime and staff bonuses, and by furloughing employees – a very real possibility for some NARA staff if Congress does not adopt a budget on or before 1 October 2006, when the new federal fiscal year begins. If Congress has not agreed to a budget by then, and if the President has not signed a NARA appropriation for FY 2007, Congress will be forced to adopt a Continuing Resolution (CR). NARA will have no alternative but to use in the CR the House recommended appropriation level as the new temporary base for NARA’s operations. Bottom line, NARA cannot absorb a $20 million cut without furloughing some employees.

WHAT CAN BE DONE? IF YOU ACT TODAY, YOU HAVE THE POWER TO HELP ENSURE THAT THESE CHANGES ARE NOT IMPLEMENTED!

HERE IS WHAT WE ARE ASKING YOU TO DO:

1) – CALL THE CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD TODAY – (202) 224-3121 – AND ASK TO TALK TO YOUR SENATORS’ OFFICE.

2) – WHEN A STAFFER ANSWERS THE PHONE, TELL THEM YOU ARE A CONSTITUENT AND THAT YOU WANT TO LET THE SENATOR KNOW THAT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES BUDGET NEEDS SOME $22 MILLION DOLLARS MORE THAN THE HOUSE APPROPRIATED.

IF YOUR SENATOR IS A MEMBER OF THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE (see list
below) URGE THEM TO RESTORE THE $8 MILLION CUT MADE BY THE HOUSE, PROVIDE FUNDING FOR THE NHPRC ($7.5 MILLION), PROVIDE $2 MILLION FOR FLOOD REPAIRS, AND FULLY FUND THE ANTICIPATED BUDGET SHORTFALL OF $12 MILLION – RECOMMEND A TOTAL BUDGET OF $369.5 MILLION FOR NARA IN FY 2007.

MEMBERS OF THE SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE ARE AS FOLLOWS:
AK - Ted Stevens (R), 202-224-3004
AL - Richard Shelby (R), 202-224-5744
CA - Dianne Feinstein (D), 202-224-3841
CO - Wayne Allard (R), 202-224-5941
HI - Daniel Inouye (D), 202-224-3934
IA - Tom Harkin (D), 202-224-3254
ID - Larry Craig (R), 202-224-2752
IL - Richard Durbin (D), 202-224-2152
KS - Sam Brownback (R), 202-224-6521
KY - Mitch McConnell (R), 202-224-2541
LA - Mary Landrieu (D), 202-224-5824
MD - Barbara Mikulski (D), 202-224-4654
MO - Christopher Bond (R), 202-224-5721, Chairman, Transportation/Treasury
Subcommittee
MS - Thad Cochran (R), 202-224-5054, Chairman, Appropriations Committee MT - Conrad Burns (R), 202-224-2644 ND - Byron Dorgan (D), 202-224-2551 NH - Judd Gregg (R), 202-224-3324 NM - Pete Domenici (R), 202-224-6621 NV - Harry Reid (D), 202-224-3542 OH - Mike DeWine (R), 202-224-2315 PA - Arlen Specter (R), 202-224-4254 SD - Tim Johnson (D), 202-224-5842 TX - Kay Bailey Hutchison (R), 202-224-5922 UT - Robert Bennett (R), 202-224-5444 VT - Patrick Leahy (D), 202-224-4242 WA - Patty Murray (D), 202-224-2621 WI - Herbert Kohl (D), 202-224-5653 WV - Robert Byrd (D), 202-224-3954, Ranking Member, Appropriations Committee

IF YOUR SENATORS ARE NOT ON THE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE LIST ABOVE, ASK THEM TO PERSONALLY TALK TO THEIR COLLEAGUES WHO ARE – ESPECIALLY Senators Thad Cochran (R-MS), Robert C. Byrd (D-WV), Christopher Bond (R-MO), and Patty Murray (D-WA) --THEY ARE THE KEY MEMBERS WHO WILL FASHION THE NARA BUDGET.

3) – TELL STAFF THAT YOU WANT TO HEAR BACK FROM THE SENATOR WITH NEWS ON WHAT ACTION HE/SHE TOOK TO INSURE A CONTINUED ADEQUATE FUNDING LEVEL FOR THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES.

4) – FINALLY, DROP US A ONE-LINE E-MAIL MESSAGE STATING WHAT SENATE OFFICE YOU CONTACTED – SEND YOUR E-MAIL TO: rbcraig@historycoalition.org

In the neat, quiet village of Fricourt in northern France stands a stubby street of modern bungalows. You might be in a patch of rural mock-suburbia anywhere in Europe. The street runs away into a rough farm track between fields of wheat and broad beans. Off to the left is a path of closely mown grass, like a strip of English lawn unrolled in the middle of a French cornfield.

The lawn leads to a walled cemetery, which has seven cherry trees and two yews. In June and July, when surrounded by ripening crops and a scattering of poppies, this cemetery is one of the prettiest and most peaceful places on earth.

There are 208 graves surrounded by a jumble of typical British garden flowers – roses, phlox, peonies, lupins – and more lawns, green and crisp enough to satisfy the Buckingham Palace head gardener.

This place, the Fricourt New Military Cemetery, is a little corner of a foreign field that is forever Yorkshire. Almost all of the young men buried here died on one day – 1 July 1916. Almost all of them died within a few yards of their burial place, which was then in the no man’s land between the British and German front-line trenches.

Many of them came from the 10th Battalion of the West Yorkshire Regiment, volunteers from Leeds and Harrogate and surrounding towns and villages. Before the war, they were clerks and mill workers, farm boys and solicitors. Wearing flat caps and boaters, they answered Lord Kitchener’s call and joined the Army together in 1914. They died together within a few minutes of the start of the Battle of the Somme, at 7.30am 90 years ago tomorrow.

Others are from the 7th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment – many of them friends and neighbours from Hull – mowed down in a second, futile assault in the afternoon. These wheat and bean fields were the bloodiest single section of the most calamitous day’s battle in the history of the British Army. The battle went on for another four and a half months with some local successes, but ended in overall strategic failure. By mid-November, the British and French had advanced the equivalent of 100 yards (the length of a football field) for each day’s fighting.

Like Verdun for the French, the Somme has become the abiding symbol for Britain – and the British Commonwealth – of the 1914-18 war. The two conflicts were almost one, 150 miles apart but overlapping in time. There were murderous battles in 1914 and 1915, but in 1916, at the Somme and at Verdun, the power of modern industry was applied in inexhaustible force to human flesh for the first time. There were more than 1,000,000 casualties at the Somme–roughly 400,000 British and Commonwealth, 400,000 German and 200,000 French. Of these,maybeoneinfourdied.The precise casualty figures are still in dispute but the Somme was the most destructive single battle of that war – or of any war. Up to 10,000 people are expected to attend the official commemoration of the 90th anniversary this weekend, centring on the Thiepval “Memorial to the Missing”, three miles from Fricourt.

There will be military bands and flags. There will be veterans of other wars and veterans of no wars at all in smart blue blazers and grey trousers. There will be readings of war poems. The Prince of Wales will make a speech. Henry Allingham, 110, Britain’s oldest man, one of the last six British survivors of the war – but not a Somme veteran – is expected to attend.

As far as one can establish, there are no living veterans of the Somme. There are no survivors from the 3,000,000 British, French and German – not to speak of Australian, New Zealand, Irish, South African, Canadian, Indian, North African and African – soldiers who fought there between 1 July and 18 November 1916. The battle has passed over the horizon of living memory. Is it therefore time to bury the Somme?

Martin Middlebrook, one of our most humane and influential historians of the 1914 war, says: “After the 80th anniversary in 1996, I would have told you that two things were inevitable: we would see declining numbers of people at future commemorations, and interest in the war would gradually reduce. The opposite has been true.”

There are more British visitors to the Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries in France and Belgium than ever before.

The nightly ceremony of the playing of The Last Post at the Menin gate in Ypres – the equivalent of the Thiepval memorial for the Flanders battles of 1914-18 – was attended by a handful of people 30 years ago. Now, there is a sizeable crowd each night. The excellent new information centre at Thiepval recorded more than 300,000 visitors in its first year, which was well beyond expectations.

Fricourt New is far from the largest or best known of the 148 Commonwealth War Graves cemeteries on the Somme. All the same, judging by the official book, it has a steady stream of British visitors. Hardly a day goes by without two or three entries. Some are distinctly 21st century in sentiment and spelling. Others are more traditional.

“It’s quite strange to find some1 (sic) the same name as me!” “Found my gran’s first husband lying here. If he had lived, life would have been different.” “Not lost but gone before.” “To Uncle John, you ended your life 1.7.16. You will never be forgotten.” “You fighted well.” One of the forces at work here is a rootless, modern obsession with genealogy, with roots. Many of the people you speak to at Thiepval, or elsewhere, say that they have been surprised to discover recently that a great uncle fought or died at the Somme.

As each generation goes by, it doubles the number of people with relatives who fought in the battle. Almost all of us have a relative who fought at the Somme. But there are other explanations – complex and sometimes contradictory – for the increasing interest in a war now almost a century old. Martin Middle-brook says that, for one reason or another, the 1914 war has “come out from behind the shadow” of the 1939 war.

Invitations for Monday's service that were sent to Australia, Britain, the United States and the Netherlands have been withdrawn. A letter delivered to embassies in Tokyo said Mr Aso will now make a "personal and private" commemoration.

"This fiasco never had a great chance of succeeding," said Robyn Lim, professor of international relations at Nanzan University. Lim, an Australian, is a former acting head of current intelligence at the Office of National Assessments in Canberra.

"Mr Aso is still in denial that his own family company enslaved Australian POWs and that two of them died in his mine," she said.

Earlier this week the Herald aired criticism by historians, political analysts and veterans' representatives of the planned ceremony. Central to their criticisms were doubts that Mr Aso, an ambitious right-wing politician, held genuine remorse for Japan's war record and concern that he might manipulate the event for political advantage in his campaign to become prime minister.

Yoshiko Tamura, a Japanese historian who founded the POW Research Network of Japan to document the history of prisoners of war, said the remains of POWs once held at the Juganji temple, the planned backdrop for the ceremony, had been removed about 60 years ago. The ceremony was a "propaganda opportunity" for Mr Aso, she said.

The episode appears certain to put another hole in Mr Aso's prime ministerial ambitions. It is likely that the last-minute withdrawal of the invitations happened because the embassies, sensing the proposed event had turned into a public relations disaster, planned to send only junior diplomats.

Mr Aso, a surprise choice as foreign minister about eight months ago, has been publicly unsympathetic to criticism by Korea and China of Japan's cruel war record.

Mr Aso was criticised earlier this year when he said that Emperor Akihito should start visiting Yasukuni shrine, a memorial to the war dead and the country's most potent nationalist symbol.

Talks this weekend in Washington between President George Bush and the Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, can be expected to discuss his likely successors.

The more likely prime minister is Shinzo Abe, heir to a right-wing political lineage at least as complex as Mr Aso's, but who is sending out pragmatic signals, a North Asia expert, Professor Ezra Vogel, said. He said Mr Abe "realises that this [Yasukuni shrine visits] is now a sensitive issue and is trying to back off".

'A third candidate, Yasuo Fukuda, has already declared that he will not visit the shrine. The test for the candidates comes on August 15, the anniversary of Japan's surrender in the war and a traditional day for visits to Yasukuni shrine.

Franklin, facing a June 30 auction, won a commitment from SunTrust Banks Inc. to provide short-term financing to buy the papers from King's children and keep then in Atlanta. The mayor then scrambled to get commitments from executives including Turner Broadcasting Group Chairman Phil Kent, developer John Portman and H.J. Russell & Co. founder Herman Russell.

Building a museum to house the 7,000-page collection will help Atlanta remain ``the center of the civil rights movement that we were in Dr. King's days,'' Franklin said today in an interview in New York, where she came to view the collection and attend a reception at Sotheby's. It includes a draft of King's ``I Have a Dream'' speech given at the 1963 March on Washington.

``I didn't think we'd have the King papers to even put into a civil rights museum a year ago,'' said Franklin, a Democrat, who became the first black female mayor of a major Southern city when she took office in Georgia's capital in 2002. ``I just wanted to get them before they went to bid.''

Franklin, 61, said site selection and financial planning for a civil rights museum, which may be built near Atlanta's historic Auburn Avenue district, will begin before year's end. Boston Consulting Group, which advises companies and governments on marketing strategy, finance, technology, and organization, agreed to work on the museum without charge, she said.

About half of the $32 million needed to pay for the papers has been raised so far from individuals and companies, Franklin said. Georgia Power Co., Home Depot Inc., BellSouth Corp., Delta Air Lines Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. are among corporations that have pledged support for the King papers purchase, she said.

Former Atlanta Mayor and UN Ambassador Andrew Young, a longtime mentor and Franklin's former boss, helped her contact other individuals, she said.

``We were delighted to provide the short-term financing that allowed Atlanta to keep the King papers,'' said Gary Peacock, president of SunTrust Banks' Atlanta unit, in an interview today.

King's papers will be owned by and housed at his alma mater, Morehouse College, which is located a couple of miles away from the King Center founded by his late wife, Coretta Scott King, who died Jan. 31 at the age of 78. King's four adult children will keep the intellectual property rights of the paper and speeches.

``It's an unusual collection in that you're able to see the evolution in his thoughts and views,'' Franklin said.

Scientists have used computer technology to recreate the face of Neanderthal Man, right. A Swiss-German team from the Rheinische Landesmuseum in Bonn used the top of 42,000-year-old skull found in 1856 as the basis for their reconstruction.

The model, which depicts quite a modern-looking caveman, forms the centrepiece of an exhibition called “Roots 2006”.

The original Neanderthal is a valley in western Germany.

Nominations of posts for future editions, which will now be monthly, can be submitted here

We should, however, graciously thank Chairman Knowlenberg and the other members of the House Transportation, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, District of Columbia Appropriations Subcommittee (T-THUD) for all their efforts to restore some level of funding to the NHPRC in this particularly austere funding environment. As was the case last year, the funding restoration is also due in part to the hard work by the coalition of archives and history organizations that devoted time and energy to this effort.

While the news from the House Appropriations Committee is certainly welcomed and definitely a step in the right direction, there is still much that needs to be done to insure funding for the NHPRC in FY 2007. To that end, NHPRC supporters now need to focus attention on the Senate, where, on 20 July the Senate Transportation/
Treasury Appropriations Subcommittee will be advancing its version of the FY 2007 funding bill. In your communications with senators, please request that the funding recommended by the Senate be no less than full funding $10 million for competitive grants, plus an additional $2 million for administration and staffing of the NHPRC in the National Archives budget. Realistically, this year the Senate will probably not appropriate a number higher than the House, but we still must establish a need beyond last year's appropriation levels.

As a result of recent communications with Senate Appropriations Committee staff, it appears there is support for the NHPRC by the committee and subcommittee chairs and ranking members and by some members of the committee (http://appropriations.senate.gov/members/members.htm
). However, all members of the committee need to hear from constituents and organizations. In conversations with committee staff, LETTERS FROM ORGANIZATIONS are especially needed this year. They should be sent to the Chairman (Senator Bond) with copies to the Ranking Member (Senator Murray).

Members of the full Appropriation Committee include: Republicans: Cochran (R-MS); Committee Chair), Allard (R-CO), Bond (R-MO), Shelby (R-AL), Specter (R-PA), Bennett (R-UT), Hutchison (R-TX), DeWine (R-OH), Brownback (R-KS), Stevens (R-AK), Domenici (R-NM), Burns (R-MT), McConnell (R-KY),Gregg (R-NH); Craig (R-ID); Democrats: Byrd (D-WV; Ranking Member), Feinstein (D-CA), Inouye (D-HI), Landrieu (D-LA), Mikulski (D-MD), Reid (D-NV), Kohl (D-WI), Murray (D-WA), Durbin (D-IL), Dorgan (D-ND), Leahy (D-VT), Johnson (D-SD) and Harkin (D-IA).

ACTION ITEM -- INDIVIDUALS: SEND LETTER TO SENATORS! If you are a constituent of any senator listed above, please make a telephone, e-mail, or fax communication in support of the NHRPC! You can obtain contact information for your senator by going to the following webpage:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

ORGANIZATIONS: PLEASE FAX A LETTER OF SUPPORT addressed to the Chairs of both the Senate Appropriations Committee and Subcommittee with jurisdiction over the NHPRC budget: The Honorable Thad Cochran, Chair, US Senate Appropriations Committee, Room S-128 Capitol Building, Washington D.C. 20510; Fax 202. 228-0248 and to: The Honorable Christopher S. Bond, Chair, Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary and Housing and Urban Development, Room 133 Dirksen SOB, Washington D.C. 20510; FAX 202.
224-4401.

Letters to the Ranking Minority Member of the subcommittee should be addressed to: The Honorable Patty Murray, Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary, and Housing and Urban Development, Room 128 Dirksen SOB, Washington, D.C. 20510; FAX 202. 228-0249 and to the Ranking Member of the full Appropriations Committee, The Honorable Robert C. Byrd, Room S-125A The Capitol, Washington, D.C. 20510; FAX 202. 224-8553.

BACKGROUND:
For over 40 years, the NHPRC has played an essential federal leadership role in preserving and publishing important historical records that document American history. The NHPRC has an outstanding success record of using a small amount of federal funds to leverage other contributions. It is important that the NHPRC be able to continue preserving our nation's historical records, promoting regional and national coordination in archives-related matters, and supporting a wide range of other activities relating to America's documentary heritage.

In the President's FY 2007 budget submission, all funding for the NHPRC is proposed to be eliminated. The House of Representatives has adopted a funding level of $5.5 million for grants and $2 million for program support. Funding decisions have yet to be made by the Senate. The archives and history communities are recommending the NHPRC be allotted no less than $10 million for grants and $2 million for staffing and administrative support for this small but essential federal program.

For additional background about the NHPRC, including guidelines for writing letters to members of Congress and other relevant information is located at the National Coalition for History webpage http://www.h-net.org/~nch/ under the section titled "NHPRC-Take Action!"

In 1986, Ana, 320km west of Baghdad, was flooded after the inauguration of the al-Qadisiya dam, built on the Euphrates River. The then-Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, ordered the preservation of the Ana mosque.

Archeological teams aided by army units broke the mosque's tower, or midhana, into 18 pieces and moved them to be re-assembled.

The 26-meter midhana survived the flood and other environmental hazards until it was blown up on Thursday evening.

I recently returned to TIME after two years of running the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a wonderful new museum and educational center on Independence Mall. While there, I got to know the great historian David McCullough, who has been on a one-man campaign to end the epidemic of what he calls historical illiteracy. I believe that our Making of America series is an antidote to historical illiteracy, which David describes as a great danger to our democracy. Being an American is not based on a common ancestry, a common religion, even a common culture--it's based on accepting an uncommon set of ideas. And if we don't understand those ideas, we don't value them; and if we don't value them, we don't protect them. A nation can never be ignorant and free, said Thomas Jefferson, our third Making of America cover subject, and one of the goals of our series is to help explain what makes us a nation and a people....

Memories of that obstacle course lingered with Eisenhower. And two decades later, as the Supreme Allied Commander in World War II, he noted how easily his armies disrupted German supply-lines by bombing railroads. But he also noticed how, despite Allied pummeling, the country's Autobahn had remained passable. In the 1950s, the general-turned politician, by then elected president, resolved to build a similar system across the United States. "The old convoy," he recalled, "had started me thinking about good, two-lane highways, but Germany had made me see the wisdom of broader ribbons across the land."

Military considerations — his perceived need for good roads to transport troops and materiel over far-flung continental distances — initially compelled Eisenhower. But, with the force of an idea whose time had arrived, the system and its eventual designers found broader inspirations — the German Autobahn, as well as the parkways built by New Yorker Robert Moses as early as the 1930s and the futuristic highway visions of Norman Bel Geddes and French Modernist Le Corbusier.

In a fuller sense, however, it was America's 1950s economic boom that proved the Interstates' true progenitor. The Federal-Aid Highway Act, passed by Congress and signed into law by Eisenhower on June 29,1956, allocated $25 billion to pay 90% of the costs of a 41,000-mile "National System of Interstate and Defense Highways," to be completed by 1972.

Is it any surprise when presidents try to borrow a bit of his halo? Bill Clinton had Teddy's bust on his desk. George W. Bush let it be known that he spent last Christmas vacation reading a Roosevelt biography, his second since he got to the White House.

Roosevelt stays with us because he seems so much like one of us. Although he was born in 1858, it's the 20th century he decidedly belongs to, the century he brought America into on his terms.