Even as concern for environmental quality is adopted as Federal policy,** there is little evidence that excessive noise will be taken seriously. It is Utopian to expect strict legislation against noise because it is ugly or uncomfortable. True, until the lobby for junkyards and billboards proved more powerful than the lobby for aesthetics, Congress did make a try at highway beautification. Why not money for "acoustic beauty"? Why not, indeed. There is a world of economic difference between getting a manufacturer to landscape his factory grounds and provide litter baskets, and getting him to design and re-tool for quieter appliances. Politicians will never ban helicopters and STOLcraft from the center of the city because they are unattractive, or because they make unmusical sounds.
So rare is the interest in the noise problem that as a freshman Congressman, Theodore Kupferman made national news when he first introduced a bill calling for an Office of Noise Abatement. However, several years of active nationwide campaigning netted him little more than the support of some 50 colleagues, and his bill remained in the House Commerce Committee, burial ground of all noise bills.