Promoting the Road During a War

The Road Evolves

On August 5-7, 1918, the Spanish Trail Highway Association held its annual convention in Durango, Colorado, with over 600 delegates in attendance.  (The name referred to a trail pioneered by American and Mexican traders from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, via Colorado, Utah, and Nevada, not the 19th century trail known as the Old Spanish Trail or the rival trails in Kansas.)  One of the important resolutions adopted was to change the name of the organization to the Spanish Trail-Mesa Verde Highway Association.  As a report on the convention observed, “The addition of the words ‘Mesa Verde’ immediately places the location of the Spanish Trail-Mesa Verde route in the mind of the stranger, and the convention no doubt acted wisely in making the change.”  The report added:

Probably the most important business transacted by the convention was the acceptance of a proposition made by the National Old Trails Road Association to this association, wherein the former offered to place upon its maps and in its road guide the route of the Spanish Trail-Mesa Verde highway, and to declare it the summer route for all transcontinental automobile traffic between New York and Los Angeles along their national line.  The Old Trail route touches the Spanish Trail-Mesa Verde route at Pueblo, where the latter begins, and instead of passing down thru New Mexico, would traverse the La Veta pass, the San Luis valley, Wolf Creek Pass and the San Juan basin, again touching its former line at Gallup, New Mexico.

Life memberships in the Old Trails were offered at $5.00 each, and since the date of the convention in Durango, the membership campaign has been vigorously pushed, and 1,000 members will be secured during the present month.  Thru this action, the Spanish Trail-Mesa Verde route will have as additional backing, the influence of one of the strongest good roads associations in the United States, and it is expected that the time is not far distant when the entire route will be hard surfaced and become a part of a great transcontinental route, leading from New York to Los Angeles.  [“Spanish Trail-Mesa Verde Holds Great Convention,” Colorado Highways Bulletin, September 1918, pages 5, 22]

The August issue of Dependable Highways, published by the National Paving Brick Manufacturers Association, featured an article on the surfaces of the historic National Road from Cumberland to St. Louis, all of it incorporated in the National Old Trails Road.  An editor’s note explained:

Data for this article are compiled chiefly from reports to the editors made by surveyors of counties through which the National Road passes.  While the information disclosed is not alarming in the sense that it is unexpected, it is alarming as indicative of the lack of progress really made in highway improvements.  The National Road affords a striking example of the error of the restrictive policy toward road building during the war, as well as a basis for demanding Federal participation in highway improvement on a large scale as a national necessity in war time.  The National Road should awaken us to the fact that, so far, nothing has been done.  How much farther will we get in the next 110 years?

The comment about 110 years referred to the origins of the Cumberland/National Road, which dated to when President Thomas Jefferson signed legislation on March 29, 1806.  The initial construction from Cumberland to Wheeling was completed in the late 1810s, built to the highest standards of the time, but by then already deteriorating from heavy use.  It would eventually be converted to the innovative macadam type of pavement.  In 1820s, Congress approved extension of the road to the Mississippi River, but stopped funding the work after a final appropriation in 1838, so the western section was never completed or, from mid-Ohio west, built to a high standard.  Piece by piece, the States took over and converted it to a toll road even as the spread of railroads became the primary mode of interstate travel.  (The limited federally funded work in Illinois ended in Vandalia, then the capital of the State.  Disputes on whether the road would cross the Mississippi River at Alton, Illinois, or St. Louis prevented further progress and was unresolved when Federal funds came to an end.) 

Even with this history, the magazine pointed out, “there is yet no completed thoroughfare”:

Control over the highway and its improvement reverted to the states and counties through which it passes, and at no time in its history has it been a passable thoroughfare from end to end; improved sections have been interspersed with stretches of mud; the improved portions themselves vary in type and quality.  Altogether the road is a veritable Joseph’s coat and its history has been one of sloth and dawdling.

The National Road passed through 29 counties from Cumberland to St. Louis, a distance of 725 miles.  Based on condition, the mileage was classified as:

	Miles	Percent
Brick	96.89	13.4
Concrete	48.00	6.6
Gravel	53.98	21.2
Macadam, all kinds	185.89	25.7
Unimproved*	240.48	33.1
Total	725.24	00.0

*Includes a few miles sparsely improved.

The article continued:

Fitness for travel most concerns the country at large and it is through lack of it, from end to end, that a large measure of the usefulness of the National Road fails to be realized upon.  One Indiana county deplores the fact that “the road is unfit for military use until permanently improved.”  Another, near the metropolis of Indiana, complains that an unimproved section is “rough and full of holes.”  Over in Illinois a county surveyor remarks that “some of the creeks are not bridged.”  Another county in the same state describes what is universally true of dirt roads:  “unimproved mileage good from nine to ten months in the year.”  Many sections once improved are much in need of repair, if not of entire reconstruction.  An Indiana county succinctly declares that “eighteen miles of gravel and stone are in poor condition; six miles are rotten.”

Only 20 percent of the National Road is surfaced with materials capable of bearing traffic without constant and perpetual maintenance; reports reflect the quality of brick and concrete improvements by a predominance of “excellent” and “good” and some “fair.”  Belmont County, Ohio, paved with bricks entirely across the county, claims “the honor of having the best brick road between Pittsburgh and Kansas City.”

Macadam and gravel sections show the need of early repairs, maintenance or reconstruction if previous expenditures are not to be irrevocably lost.  We read from an Ohio county:  “surface rough and almost worn out”; from another in the same state:  “very bad condition.”  The National Road is virtually unimproved across Illinois, excluding 20 miles in Clark County.  It is difficult of travel and in many places impassable in the winter and spring months, helping to account for the hundreds of thousands of bushels of old corn stored on the farms of eastern Illinois that could not be marketed earlier in the year.  Improvement of the road in Illinois is contemplated however.

The article included a table showing the composition of surface through the road:

State	Counties	Miles	Brick	Concrete	Macadam	Gravel	Unimproved
MD	1	13.30	1.25	3.00	8.80	None	.25
PA	3	80.80	6.22 .80*	None	8.00*	None	5.66
WV	1	15.00	8.50	None	4.00	None	2.50
OH	9	220.24	46.74	25.10	46.32 11.15*	62.48 9.35**	3.60
IN	8	151.90	18.25	16.00 1.00*	35.00	79.15	2.50
IL**	7	244.00	1.50	2.90	12.50	3.00	224.10
Total:	29	725.24	96.89	48.00	183.89	153.98	240.48

^*Under Construction
^**Approximately only, 3 counties report, balance derived from other sources.

[“National Road Is Like Patchwork:  Demonstrated Need of Federal Participation in Road Building,” Dependable Highways, August 1918, pages 5-7]

American Highways

The new role of motor trucks in the country’s freight network prompted Sinclair’s Magazine, founded by the Sinclair Oil and Refinery Corporation, to publish a series of articles beginning in March 1918 until the general title “American Highways.”  The articles, most written by Victoria Faber Stevenson, covered a wide range of topics, including several on named trails.  In addition to articles about the Lincoln Highway/Dixie Highway and the Yellowstone Trail/Pike’s Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway, Stevenson wrote about the National Old Trails Road in the sixth article of the series.

The article in the September 1918 issue began:

“There are no dirt men present, I see.  That is because we are looking forward, not backward,” announced Judge J. M. Lowe, the president of the National Old Trails Association [sic], when he presided at the recent convention of that organization in Kansas City.  Evidently dirt men are becoming scarce among the members of that Association, the president of which is a leader in advocating modern resurfacing of the road, extending from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles.  Unlike most lengthy highways, the National Old Trail Road was not “routed.”  It is a continuous transcontinental thoroughfare, made by joining shorter highways which grew as the Republic expanded westward, each road representing an epoch in the Nation’s history.

After describing the historic roads included in the national highway, Stevenson continued:

A story of the various conditions of these trails since they first became useful would cause the tourist to wonder why his ancestors ever traveled, but the condition of this highway to-day encourages him to take to the roads as thousands have done before.  The efforts of “hard surface men” are rebuilding this path from coast to coast so that the road may tell its story to a greater number of Americans who are tempted to take long journeys.  Already this highway is hard surfaced as far as the Mississippi River, or funds are provided for that kind of construction.  Across Missouri, Kansas and Colorado the greater part of the road has been rebuilt, or funds have been procured for the work, for Kansas alone is represented on this highway by nearly four hundred miles of road costing from twelve thousand to thirty thousand dollars a mile, with more such roads planned.  An account of the progress which has been made in grading and hard surfacing in Arizona shows what live interest can do.  A description of three hundred miles of California’s rebuilt road with its veritable boulevards through the Mohave desert is an allurement to the motorist to start across the continent on the National Old Trails Road and thus to turn the pages of United States history as he proceeds to follow the course the infant Republic took as it toddled west and grew to its giant strength of to-day.

She began a history of each segment, starting with the Cumberland Road:

The restless young Nation’s demand for a practical outlet west found its earliest satisfaction in the Cumberland Pike, or the old National Road.  It was from a plank taken out of the middle of this road where it was placed about eighty years ago that the gavel was made which Judge Lowe used at the April convention.  No road in the United States has received as much attention from a historical standpoint as this one, for it was the only road of any length built and maintained by the Federal Government. 

The article concluded with the Santa Fe Trail segment, noting:

This eleven-hundred-mile trail, passable at all times, for no bridges were needed on its entire length, was later surveyed by a road commission appointed by the United States through the efforts of Thomas Hart Benton, of Missouri, who made a trip to Monticello to enlist Jefferson’s support in the undertaking.

The article concluded:

With mention of the acquisition of the far southwest, the National Old Trails Road closes its story of national history; but he who seeks natural beauty may find further interest in the highway on the section recently added to include a road to Mesa Verde, where a sunset alone is considered worth a trip to southwest Colorado.

Other articles in the American Highways series included “Uncle Sam as a Road Builder,” about BPR’s work implementing the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916; “A Challenge to Battle,” about the fight to clear the main roads after snowstorms; “Wanted – A Master System of Highways,” discussing the need to develop a plan for a national system before the war ends; “Highways:  An Opportunity for Returned Solders,” about post-war employment opportunities; “Road Building with Convict Labor,” which pointed out that, “The man who toils at this useful work of road-building and who does his best during his term of punishment to provide for his dependents gains courage and strength to ‘come back’ to the big world to share its responsibilities and joys”; and “Highways of Tomorrow,” which included this observation:

Tomorrow’s trunk lines must be broader as well as thicker than those of to-day.  Officials believe road-beds should be twenty or preferably twenty-two feet wide with substantial, well-built shoulders of from three to five feet on each side . . . .  Broad thoroughfares allow traffic room for unexpected maneuvers and provide safety in case of skidding as well as affording sufficient space for the repairs of vehicles in case of accident when motor-cars are passing in both directions.  Another safety precaution is the careful attention to be given to the banking of curves.  The skilful [sic] management often required by the operator of the heavy truck should not be unduly taxed by preventable hazards of the road.

[Stevenson, Victoria Faber, “National Old Trails Road,” Sinclair’s Magazine, September 1918, pages 10-15.  The first American Highways articles, including those cited here, were collected in Stevenson, Victoria Faber, American Highways, Vol. 1, Winship Publishing Company, 1919, but the series continued through January 1921.]

Tightening the Wartime Restrictions

The United States Highways Council issued Bulletin No. 1 on August 5, 1918.  All proposed highway and street work should be submitted to the council through the State highway departments.  The council urged that highway and street work “be confined to the most essential needs.  If this is done there will be a far greater probability that the work thus selected can be promptly and effectively carried through to completion than if an amount far in excess of available facilities were to be undertaken.”  Further, “No manufacturer will furnish any road building material until the project has been approved by the United States Highways Council.” 

First consideration would go “to maintenance with a view to conserving all the highways already completed if possible.”  Reconstruction of a highway would be “favorably considered by the Council only where it is clearly established that maintenance is no longer possible except at prohibitive cost.”  New construction would be considered if the work was of military or national economic value.  The bulletin defined military value:

A highway of military value is one used regularly for the transportation of military supplies in considerable quantity; for the movement as an established practice of army truck trains, or which is essential to the efficient operation of a military cantonment, post or plant.

It also defined national economic value:

A highway of national economic value is one which serves or will serve, if properly improved, directly to promote the welfare of the Nation, and not merely the local welfare. As examples it may be stated that in this class would be placed (1) highways which although not directly used for military purposes, yet serve to help win the war by greatly facilitating the output or movement of war munitions and supplies; (2) highways which can clearly be shown to relieve congestion on railroad lines in a territory which is actually in need of such relief; (3) highways which give access to or promote the output of natural products needed by the Nation to a marked degree; (4) highways which further housing operations undertaken by the Federal Government or by other agencies with the approval of the Federal Government would justify at times this designation.

The council recommended that State highway departments “give most careful consideration to each application on its merits in the light of the policy announced.”  In addition, the council planned to work with BPR and the State highway departments to prepare “a program of road and street construction, reconstruction and maintenance throughout the United States for the working season of 1919.”  The council urged officials to “so materially eliminate the less essential projects as to make it possible for the Council to render active aid on the projects it approves.”

The bulletin, which went into effect on September 10, 1918, attached forms for carrying out the stated procedures, including:

HC-3 – Application for approval of projects
H-C-4 – Schedule for use in submitting program of proposed highway and street work during the working season of 1919.  [“New U.S. Highway Council,” Better Roads and Streets, September 1918, pages 354, 356]

On August 27, the council issued Bulletin No. 2 on “Petroleum, Asphalt, and Tar Products as Road Materials.”  The general policy was based on “the enormous increase in the demand for fuel oil due to war activities.”  As a result, the supply of petroleum, asphalt, and tar products had to be regulated.  “Most of these materials are made from raw products which are either directly or indirectly available as fuel.”  Each product “logically should be used where it will be of the greatest benefit to the country as a whole.”

During the war, the use of petroleum products for dust abatement on macadam, slag, or gravel was “considered the least important use of petroleum, asphalt, and tar products.” 

However, no “hard and fast rules can be applied; every application “must be considered on its own merits in the light of existing fuel conditions at that time.”  All applications had to be approved by the State highway department, except for those for direct Federal purposes; they required council approval.  The bulletin explained the steps for securing approvals via application forms HC-3. 

Further, any violations should be brought to the attention of the Fuel Administration, “giving the name, and address of the producer who sells material without permit, and the location to which the material has been shipped.”  The bulletin added, “Cases have come to notice where fuel, oil, for which no permit is required, has been sold as such, and illegally used for treating roads.”
[Better Roads and Streets, September 1918, pages 334-335]
On September 26, the United States Highways Council issued Bulletin No. 3, which covered highway bridge work during the war:

In view of the absolute necessity of providing for military and naval purposes such large quantities of steel and iron that the use of these materials even for the indirect war needs of the Federal Government has been necessarily curtailed, often against the strong protests of Government engineers.  It is the opinion of the United States Highways Council that the street and highway bridge policy of all sections of the country should be based until further notice upon the following principles.

Every endeavor should be made to keep existing structures in service by all available means, such as (a) effective supervision, (b) suitable repairs, (c) control of traffic,
(d) prohibition of use of bridges by street car, road rollers, traction engines, and other heavy vehicles.

The bulletin cautioned officials to remember that because products such as cement and bricks require fuel for their production, they cannot be produced in peace time quantities for civil purposes.  Consequently, public officials are not justified in assuming that if they change their plans for proposed structures from steel to concrete, it will be possible for them to build new bridges without any difficulty.

If a bridge cannot be maintained or replaced by a temporary bridge, officials should apply to the council, through the State highway department, for approval of a new bridge.  “Public officials are reminded that the United States Highways Council looks to them for assistance in reducing to the absolute minimum the bridge materials required.”  Three classes of bridge projects were considered worthy of consideration during the war:

• (1)  A bridge urgently required as a military necessity and so recommended by the representative of the War Department to the United States Highways Council.
• (2)  The replacement of an unsafe bridge which can not be made safe through suitable repairs, traffic regulations, or detour.
• (3)  Replacement of a bridge which has been destroyed and which is essential as a direct or indirect war need.  [“Highway Bridge Work Under War Conditions,” Good Roads, October 5, 1918, page 131]

Also on September 26, the council advised the State highway departments that the Priority Commissioner had issued a ruling that contractors and others engaged in construction of streets, pavements, and roadways “now substantially on the way” were authorized to continue such construction and materials suppliers and distributors “may continue to furnish same for such construction work up to November 1, 1918”:

Application for permits should be promptly made to the United States Highways Council through State Highway departments for the completion of all such work now under contract, and under construction which cannot be completed prior to November first.  No new contracts for the maintenance, construction, or reconstruction of streets, pavements, and highways should be entered into, or no new construction not now in progress undertaken, either prior to or subsequent to November 1, without first obtaining a permit from the United States Highways Council through the State Highway department.  [Better Roads and Streets, October 1918, pages 378-379] 

On September 17-19, the regional chairmen of the Highways Transport Committee of the Council of National Defense met in Washington.  They heard addresses from Roy Chapin, chairman; R. C. Hargraves, secretary; Food Administrator Herbert Hoover; Labor Secretary William B. Wilson; Commerce Secretary William C. Bedford; Interior Secretary Franklin K. Lane; Navy Secretary Josephus Daniels; Major General George W. Goethals, and others.

Chapin told the regional chairmen that the purpose of the Highways Transport Committee was to provide more transportation to advance the war effort.  He outlined the committee’s efforts to move military supplies, speed up war-related work, increase food production, and relieve railroads of short-haul traffic.  The committee divided the country on the basis of highway centers and 11 regional chairmen, and 15,000 committeemen who were relied on to expand the country’s war program.

Hoover warned of present and future food conditions:

The world never is more than 60 days ahead of famine between harvests, and in consequence of the draining of men from the usual occupations of food producing large areas of Europe today are facing starvation.  In the coming winter the deaths from starvation probably will exceed the deaths at the front.

He estimated that after the war ends, the United States would be called on to supply food to millions of hungry Europeans.  “If we are to do our duty by the world and ourselves, we must utilize every means to increase production and distribute food efficiently.”

He spoke of the role of highways:

One of the results of a perfected highways use would be to cut down the waste of perishable foods.  Fifty per cent of our perishables never reach the consumer.  We lose from 40 per cent to 60 per cent of our potatoes yearly.  Not only is the producing area of our perishables congested, but in general the producers are too remote from the markets.

Besides stopping this terrific waste a highly developed rural express would work to establish lower prices.  Europe has an intimate system of railway lines and canals to transport these products to nearby markets.  Where the rural express has been developed in this country it has operated to these ends.  I should say that the failure of public markets in this country is due to the tremendous loss of perishables shipped from remote distances.  A network of rural deliveries will provide the economic basis for a successful public market.

A further effect would be to bring into productive activity the large potential of labor now on the farm but not actively producing.  Wherever mechanical transportation can be employed there will be a decrease of work animals necessary.  Our 25,000,000 to 40,000,000 work animals are eating the crops of an acreage, that, planted to food, would sustain 40,000,000 more people.  I believe the Highways Transportation Committee in its brief career has demonstrated the value of rural express, returns loads and generally more efficient use of the country’s highways.  Let me pledge you the support of my administration and of the local organizations we have the country over in any way we can assist you in promoting your work.

(The Post Office Department had begun using motor vehicles for rural mail delivery on July 1, 1915 at Quarryville, Pennsylvania.  In July 1916, Congress authorized experiments to determine “the most practical means of extending the operations of the parcel post in the direction of promoting the marketing of farm products and furthering direct transactions between producers and consumers.”  The department operated the initial eight routes in the Baltimore-Philadelphia-Washington area with 19 government-owned 1-ton trucks.  In May 1918, Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson reported to Congress that the routes were profitable, except for the route between Philadelphia and Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Projecting gross revenues of $80 million if the network were extended throughout the country, Burleson estimated a surplus of $40 million that he recommended could be used to improve a 10,000-mile rural express network to reduce transportation costs and increase speeds.   He suggested roads of concrete or brick should be at least 16 feet wide and 9 inches thick.  They would cost about $20,000 per mile or $200 million for the network. 

(The experimental routes proved popular.  As in the quoted comments, Administrator Hoover praised the service as a way of saving food.  However, in July 1918, a Senate bill to launch the network failed in committee and Congress, instead, included $300,000 in the Post Office Department’s FY 1919 appropriation act for experiments in motor truck delivery in the vicinity of large cities “to promote the conservation of food products and to facilitate the collection and delivery thereof from producer to consumer, and the delivery of articles necessary in the production of such food products.”  Before progress could be made, the war ended and private enterprise soon filled the vacuum the experiment was designed to cover.  [America’s Highways 1776-1976, pages 99-100])

Secretary Lane anticipated that the government would give returning soldiers farming opportunities that would be united by rural expresses operated on the highways.  The Highways Transport Committee would be invaluable in developing these farming communities.   He said, “you can judge the civilization of a nation, of a people, of a continent, or 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.

Regarding the war, he observed:

And why has it been possible for France to carry on for four years, a successful war against the greatest military power that the world has ever seen?  Because France had the benefit of the engineering skill, and of the foresight of two men who are 1,800 years apart – Napoleon and Caesar.  Those men built the roads of France.  Without those roads, conceived and built originally by Caesar for the conquest of the Gauls, and for the conquest of the Teutons, without the roads built by Napoleon to stand off the enemies of France, and to make aggressions to the eastward, Paris would have fallen at least two years ago.  So that you gentlemen, who are engaged in the business of developing the highways of the country, and putting them to greater use may properly conceive of yourselves as engaged in a very farsighted, important bit of a statesmanship, work that does not have its only concern as to the farmer of this country, or the helping of freight movement during this winter alone, but may have consequences that extend throughout the centuries . . . .

It is not sufficient to pay $25,000 a mile for a concrete foundation, but you must put aside ten cents out of every dollar for the maintenance of these roads, or your money has gone to waste, and your conception is idle.  And you gentlemen know if you continue, as
I hope you will after the war, you will have not merely a function in the securing of the building of good roads, but will have a very great function in the maintaining of these roads as actual arteries in the system of transportation of the country. 

Secretary Redfield explained:

The transportation system of the United States is not a unity.  It cannot be run on what we may call unitarian lines.  It is a trinity, and has to be run on trinitarian lines.  You must link up railroads and waterways and highways to get a perfect transportation system for this county.

The railroad, for many years, dominated transportation to the detriment of waterways and highways:

Then came into the world a new tool:  The internal combustion engine, destined to work almost as great a change in the human life as the steam engine in its time, making possible a tool for the waterway that the waterway had never had before, making it possible to use for the highway what the highway had never had before, making necessary the alteration of the highway to suit the new tool built for it.

He was concerned that some States had forbidden motor trucks because of the damage they did to the roads.  If the States, he said, had taken the same attitude toward the railroads, locomotive development would have stopped 40 years earlier:

Up to a very few years ago, all of us who are not far-seeing would have thought of public transportation as meaning essentially the railroads.  Yet so rapidly in the last five years has the law of transportation been developed that it is a little bit difficult for us to keep up with the rush of this movement.

He said in closing:

So many are familiar with the automobile, not as familiar, I believe, as they are going to be, that it seems hard to think it can work as revolutionary a change in their life as it is going to do.  But I am perfectly certain that there abide these three elements of transportation, railway, waterway, and highway, that they are one, and that none of them will reach its full value to the community without the other and that each is the friend of the other.

Joseph D. Baker of the Priorities Division of the War Industries Board discussed the possibility of Federal licensing of motor car and truck licensing.  The idea was to conserve fuel, lubricants, steel, and workers employed in service stations.

Senator Chamberlain address the meeting as well.  He discussed the problems the railroad had experienced during the war, but as for highways, he said that the “strict doctrine of state rights is not contended for as it used to be,” leading to new possibilities for Federal cooperation “for purposes undreamed of in the days gone by”:

The subject of the utilization of the highways of the country is, or ought to be, near to the heart of everybody and there is no reason why you should not find active co-operation everywhere in your effort to develop this system of transportation of state and interstate purposes . . . .

We are just beginning to realize the uses to which the highways of the country may be utilized to aid in the great work of motor transportation.  The war has compelled a resort to it, and I believe that congress may be induced to aid the movement by large appropriations to be spent in cooperation with the states and by placing these highways used for interstate purposes under the control of a federal agency with power to prescribe rates and unify the licensing system so that no handicap will be placed upon the utilization of those highways by conflicting laws of the several states.

You have but to present the matter as forcefully as I am sure you can to your representatives in congress and I predict that good results will flow from your efforts.

When the conference ended on September 20, participants called on President Wilson at the White House.  The President extended his thanks to Chapin for his important work and for organizing the nationwide movement for developing rural motor express services, including return loads bureaus, and the use of the highways.  The regional directors expressed their thanks to Chapin by presented him a loving cup. 

[“Regional Highways Chairman in Meeting,” Motor Age, September 26, 1918, page 10; “The Food Situation,” The Washington Post, September 19, 1918, page 6; “Declares States Delay highways,” The Washington Post, September 20, 1918, page 4; Lane, Franklin, K., “A Story of Why Our Highways Should Be Greatly Developed,” Better Roads and Streets, October 1918, pages 369-370, 394, 396; Redfield, William C., “Highway Development as Important as Railroad and Waterway Development,” Municipal and County Engineering, November 1918, pages 170-172]

On September 18, the Council of National Defense announced it was creating a Field Division that would merge the State Councils section and the Woman’s Committee of the Council.  In accordance with President Wilson’s idea that the whole people should be involved in war activities, the move would put men and women of the council under one Washington body.  The combination would help channel the widespread desire of the country’s women to be of service in the war effort.  The new Field Division began operations on October 1.  An article in The Baltimore Sun said of the new division, “The part which women are playing in this war, and the increasing part which they are taking in making it possible to maintain it, make this consolidation no more than the recognition of a fact – all men and women are making, and are to make, common sacrifice and effort.” 

[“United Women’s War Bodies,” The New York Times, September 19, 1918, page 14; “To Arouse Nation Upon War:  Field Division of Council of Defense Begins Work,” The Baltimore Sun, October 2, 1918, page 2]

Progress on the National Old Trails Road

While road officials adapted to changes in wartime conditions, Judge Lowe continued to promote construction of the National Old Trails Road. 

He publicized a letter he received from W. B. Cauthorn, a civil engineer of Columbia, Missouri.  “You will be interested to know that the plans for the National Old Trails have been completed and that the money is available for the Millersburg district, in Callaway county, Missouri, approximately $44,000.”  Work was planned for several other locations:

Harg district, in Boone County, will advertise for bids immediately.  We hope to have this construction under way by September 15.  Columbia special road district is to be widened to 18 feet; bituminous macadam; estimate $33,000; work to begin at once.  Midway district surveys under way and will be completed about September 10, when funds will be available for immediate construction; estimate approximately $40,000.

That part of National Old Trails in Boone county not lying in special road districts will be taken care of by the county court.  Surveys will be completed in the next 10 days or two weeks.

This finances and assures completion of the new hard surface road from Rocheport on the Missouri River to Fulton.  This means substantially a new road, including new bridges of modern type, from Rocheport to Fulton.

Cauthorn concluded:

Know you will be glad to learn of the real progress in this vicinity.  This is not enthusiasm alone, but dirt, concrete, and real hard dollars.  [“Real Progress in Missouri,” The Road-Maker, October 1918, page 60]

On October 22, 1918, Ohio staged an elaborate ceremony for the opening “of the Nation’s most modern and substantial highway” on what was known as the East Pike out of Zanesville, Ohio.  The State highway department had submitted it to OPRRE in August 1917 as Ohio’s first Federal-aid highway project.  When the plan for driving new trucks to East Coast ports for shipment to France proved viable, this road became especially important.  BPR’s magazine Public Roads stated:

On account of its importance as a direct route for trucks between Detroit, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, and other points west, to Washington, it has been kept in very good shape, with the exception of a few stretches.  One of these unimproved sections was this section presented by the State of Ohio as a Federal project under the Federal aid act.

It was proposed at the time the project was submitted to proceed with the work in the regular fashion, letting the work to contract after duly advertising for bids.  Early in 1918, however, the Federal Government advocated the early completion of this contract in order to facilitate the movement of Army trucks and other war munitions east.  The matter was taken up with Gov. Cox, of Ohio, and through the State highway department, with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture, a contract was let on a cost-plus basis with a time limit, and a bonus for completion under this time limit, and a penalty for failure to complete within the time limit . . . .

The contract was dated the 22d day of March, 1918.  Work was started about the 1st of May, 1918, and practically completed about the latter part of October.  It may be said that the entire 14 miles were completed in approximately six months.  The cost was undoubtedly more than it would have been by the usual form of contract, but it was considered that the time gained was well worth the difference.  [“Work on Ohio Project No. 1 Rushed to Move Army Trucks,” Public Roads, March 1919, page 28]

American Motorist covered the opening ceremony:

Simultaneous celebration of the 100th birthday of the Ohio section [of] Old National Highway and the completion of its most modern link was effected October 22, when, in the presence of approximately 5,000 persons, Governor James M. Cox put into place the final brick of the new 16-mile stretch between Zanesville and New Concord, in Muskingum county . . . .

A photograph of the event depicted “Little Harriet Dodd,” about 2 or 3 years old, presenting the final brick to Governor Cox.  They and others stood around the opening where the brick was needed to complete the project:

Ohioans from every walk of life made the opening of the Zanesville-New Concord highway a gala occasion.  In each direction along the road – as far as the human eye could reach – motor cars were parked, while the human freight they had brought to witness the consummation of a great construction plan surged against the last brick-hole and cheered the beginning of a new era in Muskingum county.

The Road-Maker explained the project:

The improved road is a 13¾ mile section of the National Highway between New Concord and Zanesville, Ohio, and was rebuilt by order of the United States government as a necessary war measure . . . .

Actual work of regrading was begun March 22 and the urgent need of the highway for motor-truck transportation of army supplies called for an early completion of the job.

First, the original worn earth road was carefully graded by wheel scrapers after the low grades were filled and the necessary cuts made, with the use of plows, in higher elevated sections.  Then forms for concrete curbs were built to form a curb 30 in. deep by 6 in. width.

After the removal of the forms, there was laid between curbs a 15-in. course of run-of-crusher slag from the Bellaire furnaces of the Carnegie Steel Co.  When this had been thoroughly rolled and bonded, sufficient granulated slag from the Riverside furnaces of the National Tube Co. at Benwood, W. Va, and Wheeling Steel & Iron Co., Wheeling, W. Va., was placed to fill up the interstices in the slag base.  This course was then also thoroughly rolled and compacted.

On the slag bed thus prepared was laid a 2-in. cushion course of the same granulated slag carefully leveled, on which was placed 4 by 9 paving brick.  Bricks were laid in record time, the crew of two bricklayers and helpers laying as many as 54,000 bricks a day.

The advantages of run-of-crusher slag for road work are excellent bottom drainage, complete interlocking of the materials and the perfect consolidation and maximum density of the structure under the brick paving.

This type of base with a 2-in. layer of granulated slag forms a resilient cushion of great flexibility to take up expansion.  This expansion in the brick is taken up by the tar joints.

Under the personal supervision of R. C. Burton, of Zanesville, who was appointed to represent Ohio, a record in modern road construction was established by completing the improvement early in October, although handicapped by the severe weather conditions and a critical labor shortage that materially delayed operations earlier in the season.

After recalling the history of the road dating to the first half of the 19th century, the article concluded:

It is natural therefore that the National Highway, the greatest factor in the development of the Western states – harmonizing and strengthening the Union, and so vital in the present crisis – should be proclaimed the Nation’s most important roadway.

The project cost between $500,000 and $600,000.  [“Ohioans Add Strength to Old Road,” American Motorist, December 1, 1918, pages 16, 27; “East Pike Improvement – National Highway,” The Road-Maker, January 1919, pages 18-20; “National Road Completed in Muskingum County, Ohio,” Dependable Highways, October 1918, pages 5-7;]

About the Highway Industries Association

In early August 1918, Henry Shirley addressed the North Carolina Good Roads Association about the activities of the Highway Industries Association.  Shirley, who had been AASHO’s first president, had played key roles in development of the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 and development of OPRRE’s initial regulations for implementing the program.  Now, he explained that the manufacturers of road material machinery and “etc.” had formed the association to “promote good roads and nothing else.”  The association sold nothing but “the idea of good roads and the benefits derived therefrom.”  The association would help any road organization “in supplying literature and speakers in any campaign for better roads, or for larger appropriations, and in every way possible for the advancement of the good roads subject.”

The association had focused its efforts:

The time has arrived when there should be a Federal System of roads, a State System of roads, and county and township systems, and it is the object of the Highway Industries Association to co-operate with all these bodies to the end that this most beneficial result will be obtained . . . .

The time is here when it is necessary for the Federal Government to take over, build and maintain the trunk lines of this Nation, both east and west, and north and south; the State Highway Departments to take over, build and maintain the main State arteries leading into the federal system, and the counties and townships to take over those roads of local importance.

Similar proposals had been defeated in 1916 when Congress passed the Federal Aid Road Act.  The ideas, however, had not disappeared, only placed on hold during the war:

The war has only emphasized the close and logical co-operation between the State and Federal Government to secure the very best results, and the same co-operation must exist between the counties and townships, and the Highway Departments to secure similar results.

The State highway departments “have come to stay,” he said, but “their usefulness may be delayed by petty jealousies, small politicians and sectional narrowness, but it is such an important constructive unit that it is bound to take a most active part in the State and National road affairs.”  Each State had people “who seem to think it is their special mission in life to object to everything that goes to the promotion and advancement of the general welfare of the State, or changes the condition that existed twenty years ago . . . especially in road matters.”  He had seen how these people work against the State highway departments that were “legislated out of existence, or their appropriations and powers so restricted that they would be practically useless, and while struggling under such handicaps and burdens it was being attacked and criticized in the most vitriolitic and scathing languages.” 

Out of “the embers of the destroyed structure, restricted laws or burdens,” the modern State highway departments had emerged.  They were essential, especially because the Federal Government “undoubtedly will undertake to assist in constructing the main trunk lines of the country, and you may rest assured that they will not deal with a smaller unit than a State, and for this reason it is most essential that each State clothe its Highway Department with proper powers and appropriations to meet all the requirements that may be placed on such road construction by the National Government.” 

He concluded:

I can not impress upon your minds too forcibly the great necessity of formulating a plan, and system of State and county highways, for the development and returns from such development that will take place in the State when such a system has been constructed will far exceed the cost of such a system, not considering the recreational and many other advantages that are derived therefrom.  [“The Highway Industries Association,” Better Roads and Streets, October 1918, pages 375, 397-398]

By then, the long-distance road advocates who had not carried the day in 1916 saw an opportunity to renew the old fight in the country’s deteriorating roads amid the growing importance of motor trucks.  In October, the Highway Industries Association and AASHO announced a Joint Highway Congress for December in Chicago.  AASHO was to meet on December 2 and 3 at the La Salle Hotel.  The Joint Highway Congress would take place on December 4 and 5 at the Congress Hotel in Chicago.  On December 6, the Highway Industries Association and AASHO would hold separate meetings.  The invitation stated that, “Your presence at the convention will greatly assist in meeting the conditions our country will face in highway development and control after the war.”

The invitation included a copy of S. 4993, which Senator George E. Chamberlain of Oregon had introduced in the United States Senate on October 17.  It was, the invitation explained, “a very important measure especially to those States on whose roads is a great deal of Army motor truck traffic as well as the abnormal traffic that is now being carried by a great many roads on account of war activities.”  The bill would give “the Secretary of War the right to take over, and establish those highways that will be of greatest military value to the country.”  In meetings with State highway authorities, the Secretary would “disclose, so far as reasonably practicable, the outlines of his plans for highways designed for military purposes to the end that unnecessary duplication of highways be avoided, and that highways constructed for other than military purposes may be in a strategic location wherever reasonably possible.”  The Secretary would construct the system “in such installments or divisions as may seem . . . expedient and desirable”:

That the Secretary of War shall forthwith proceed to take over, improve, construct, and maintain such roads of said system of highways as are most necessary to the welfare of the people of the United States.

The bill would appropriate $100 million “for the purposes of defraying the expenses pertaining to taking over, improving, constructing, and maintaining of said highway system.”  

The invitation advised, “Everyone interested in this Bill should write his representative in Congress asking for aid in having it speedily passed.”  [“Important,” Better Roads and Streets, October 1918, pages 386-388]

Numerous organizations endorsed the Joint Congress, including AAA and the National Old Trails Road Association, the Lincoln Highway Association, and several other named trail associations.  “The program will be devoted to the most important phases of highway development, both National and state, covering such subjects as:

Development of the motor parcel routes, and the great possibility of their future usefulness.
Neglect of highways during the war.
A suggested National highway policy and plan.
Highway transportation, present and future.
Underlying principles of laying out, marking and maintaining a state trunk highway system.
Proper license fees for motor vehicles and drivers.
Motor trucks and trailers as transportation essentials.
Regulation of speed, weight, width and height.

The road situation has become so critical that aggressive measures are considered necessary to put it on a sensible and constructive basis.  The amount of highway traffic is increasing at a much greater rate than highway construction, and it is necessary to provide for this traffic by increasing the amount of road construction.  At least 450,000 miles of roads today should be surfaced, but they have not been improved.  Economical development of traffic demands that at least a third of this mileage should be built quickly and plans are to be formulated and worked out, if possible, at this convention whereby the country at large can undertake the work immediately and push it to completion.  [“Road Organizations Endorse Meeting,” Motor Age, November 14, 1918, page 11]

The Armistice

In September, President Wilson kicked off the Fourth Liberty Loan drive to raise funds for the war.  On September 27, he explained that, “The common will of mankind has been substituted for the particular purposes of individual states.”  He said:

Individual statesmen may have started the conflict, but neither they nor their opponents can stop it as they please.  It has become a peoples’ war, and peoples of all sorts and races, of every degree of power and variety of fortune, are involved in its sweeping processes of change and settlement.

The drive raised $7 billion.

As Wilson biographer A. Scott Berg described:

Two days later, Bulgaria became the first of the Central Powers to surrender; and independence spread across the region.  Within eight days, Poland declared itself an independent state; the following week a provisional government of Czechoslovakia formed; and eleven days later a council established itself in Budapest to create a Hungarian nation separate from Austria.  The Germans, recognizing the inevitable, realized that their best hope for rational terms of surrender was with the opponent they had fought for the shortest time.

On October 6, a representative of Germany formally asked President Wilson “to take steps for the restoration of peace, to notify all belligerents of this request, and to invite them to delegate Plenipotentiaries for the purpose of taking up negotiations.”

Germany accepted President Wilson’s terms on October 12, “but their army kept fighting”:

Days later, Germany agreed to cease submarine warfare; and by the end of the month, the Allied commanders met to discuss means of rendering Germany militarily impotent.  While the Kaiser went into seclusion in Belgium, refusing to abdicate, Sultan Mehmed VI of the Ottoman Empire requested terms of capitulation, as did the Emperor of Austria. At the end of the first week of November, Prince Max [von Baden, the German Imperial Chancellor] sent a delegation of diplomats to France to negotiate specifics of his nation’s surrender and then announced his resignation.

Although President Wilson had brought the country through what was known as the Great War, voters did not reward him during the November 5 mid-term elections.  Republicans took control of both Houses of Congress, a reality that would have major implications for the peace:

Despite his joy that the war was ending, Wilson privately revealed that he was “of course disturbed by the result of Tuesday’s elections, because they create obstacles to the settlement of the many difficult questions which throng so on every side” . . . .

While it was Woodrow Wilson’s intention to lead his nation into a millennium, he now faced a hostile incoming Congress.  Notwithstanding, he remained confident that “by one means or another the great thing we have to do will work itself out.”  After all, he reminded one junior member of the Administration, “I have an implicit faith in Divine providence . . . .”  [Berg, A. Scott, Wilson, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013, pages 502-507]

Germany and its allies signed the Armistice on November 7.  Word spread around the world.  It was to take effect on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. 

On that day, November 11, 1918, President appeared before a joint session of Congress at 1 p.m.

Wearing a black tailcoat and light gray pants, he strode before the Congress.  A standing ovation welcomed him, the audience’s cheers extending to the gallery as the presiding officers permitted the spectators to join in the demonstration.  Wilson quieted the chamber and launched into defining the terms to which the Germans had agreed in “these anxious times of rapid and stupendous change.  [page 514]

After spelling out the conditions of the Armistice in detail, he continued:

The war thus comes to an end; for, having accepted these terms of armistice, it will be impossible for the German command to renew it.

It is not now possible to assess the consequences of this great consummation.  We know only that this tragical war, whose consuming flames swept from one nation to another until all the world was on fire, is at an end and that it was the privilege of our own people to enter it at its most critical juncture in such fashion and in such force as to contribute in a way of which we are all deeply proud to the great result.

He discussed the impacts on the countries and people freed from “the yoke of arbitrary government and who are now coming at last into their freedom.”  He concluded:

There are some happy signs that they know and will choose the way of self-control and peaceful accommodation.  If they do, we shall put our aid at their disposal in every way that we can.  If they do not, we must await with patience and sympathy the awakening and recovery that will assuredly come at last.

Berg described public reaction to the Armistice:

Washington celebrated all day, sweeping even Wilson into the festivities.  November 11 happened to be the birthday of the King of Italy, and the Italian Ambassador was celebrating the occasion that night with a ball.  A little before 11 o’clock, the President proposed to [First Lady] Edith that they crash the party.  The Ambassador was only too happy to welcome a giddy Wilson, who toasted the King and lingered for another hour.  Back at the White House, Woodrow and Edith sat on a couch by her bedroom fireplace, where he read a chapter from the Bible before retiring.  [pages 514-515]

As a headline in The Baltimore Sun put it on November 12:

THE WHOLE COUNTRY GOES WILD WITH JOY AT ADVENT OF PEACE

The Post-War Period Begins

The highway business soon felt the impact of peace. 

Automobile Topics declared in its November 16th issue:

Brightening skies in world events have brought with them something of immediate relief to industrial conditions in the United States, so far as supplies of raw materials are concerned.  That is in effect the substance of a statement given out by the War Industries Board this week in Washington.  Priorities, which heretofore have imposed relentless restrictions on all industries in the greater need of materials for war manufactures, have been so altered as to allow tentative steps to be taken toward production of non-war products on a larger scale than has been possible during the past few months . . . .

Restrictions are entirely removed from some of the activities which have been held tightly in check heretofore.  In this class are included construction and maintenance of highways. 

The War Industries Board’s action would benefit the automobile industry as it converted to peacetime production.  [“Priorities Change To Usher in Peace,” Automobile Topics,
November 16, 1918, page 121]

Before the Armistice, BPR Director Page had written to State Highway Departments on November 4 in anticipation of the war’s end:

The Secretary of Agriculture, having in mind the return of our soldiers after the war, and wishing to assist in providing employment for such of them as need it, is anxious to ascertain as early as is practicable, the number of returned soldiers who may be employed to advantage on road repair, construction and maintenance.  The co-operation of the State Highway Departments is earnestly sought in the matter.

It is believed, with minor exceptions, the soldiers will naturally desire to return to the localities they came from.  Unquestionably, such a wide distribution would result in a more ready absorption into the industries in which they will be needed.  It would seem, too, that they should be given the preference by employers.

For the purpose of determining the value of highway work as a field for such labor you are requested to furnish a statement in letter form, of the approximate number of men your State Department could use in connection with either force account or contract operations.  It would be convenient to have the statement indicate separately the number of skilled and unskilled men that could probably be employed, including in the skilled labor, carpenters, masons, stationary engineers, roller-men, quarry bosses, etc., and also the period of the year for which they would be employed.

We, of course, wish to get this information together as soon as practicable, because, although the need may not be immediate, it will be necessary to compile the data and correlate it with similar information obtained for other activities.  This will probably take considerable time.  [“Government Asked to Aid Colorado Roads,” Colorado Highways Bulletin, December 1918, page 12]

After the Armistice, Page convened a final meeting of the United States Highways Council on November 13.  To that date, the council had held 25 meetings for the transaction of business.  Now, as chairman, he sent a telegram after the meeting to the State highway departments conveying the council’s decisions:

United States Highways Council announces no further applications need be made to it for approval of highway projects, and that previous disapprovals are revoked, and pending applications require no further action.  Procedure in securing materials and transportation should follow normal practices.  Removal of restrictions does not affect highway bond issues which are by law under control of Capital Issues Committee.  State Highway Departments will not be asked to submit programs for next year’s work.

Chairman Page followed the telegram with a letter to the State highway departments later in the day:

This action has been taken as a result of the general release of bituminous road materials by the Fuels Administration and the general release of other materials except steel, by the War Industries Board.  The use of steel in highway structures is still under restriction, and it is impracticable at this time to furnish information concerning the future control of the use of this material for road purposes.  The suggestion is made that if steel and iron products are required for highway purposes, it may be practicable to obtain them with minimum difficulty if the dealer from which they are ordered will state that he will not replenish his stock for the remainder of the year, provided he is authorized to fill this order. 

State Highway Departments will please notify all applicants of this decision and not transmit copies of HC3 to the Highways Council after this.  [“Embargo Raised on Road Building in U.S.,” Colorado Highways Bulletin, December 1918, page 3]

BPR’s annual report for 1919 summarized the council’s work:

Applications for approval, including those which had been submitted to the Office of Public Roads prior to the establishment of the council, reached a total of 7,307.  Many of these applications were considered several times by reason of requests for reconsideration or by reason of requirements by the council of further information, so that the total number of considerations aggregated 9,712.  No statement as to the exact number of approvals or disapprovals can be given, as many cases were merely deferred and not disapproved, others were conditionally approved or disapproved, others were reconsidered, and still others were affected by an amendment issued September 16 by the War Industries Board to circular 21 permitting the completion to November 1 for projects substantially under way.  Still other projects were pending at the time the council ceased its activities, and in consequence it is impossible to segregate those applications which might be considered as definitely disapproved.

On capital issues such as road bonds, the Capital Issues Committee had jurisdiction, with the council serving as an aid.  Overall, the committee had considered requests for $49,538,075, but overall approvals totaled to $7,334,821.  [Annual Reports of the Department of Agriculture for the Year Ended June 30, 1919, page 395]

Secretary of Agriculture Houston expressed his views, including on road building, to agriculture editors at a meeting in Washington; he released the remarks to the public on November 27.  The Evening Star in Washington summarized the remarks in a front-page article:

Reconstruction plans, in the opinion of Secretary Houston, should include resumption of highway construction under the Federal Aid Road act, creation of a system of personal credit unions for farmers, systematic supervision of land settlement, provisions for safeguarding the rights of tenants and encouragement of farm ownership, continuation of government supervision of stockyards and related industries, and extension of the benefits of modern medicine and sanitation.

He predicted that because the agriculture sector in the United States “probably was the best-prepared interest in the nation when the war came,” it would be the first to adjust to peacetime.  He anticipated that many of the returning soldiers would go back to the farms or want to start their own farms:

The public highways, the secretary told the editors, will be a vital factor in the reconstruction period.  For that reason, he said, highway construction should be started as soon as possible.  Under the federal aid road act federal and state funds, appropriated for road building and not expended owing to the stoppage of construction by the war, will amount this year to about $75,000,000.  Road building he termed a worthy project for employment of the surplus labor supply expected to result from demobilization of the Army. 

He indicated that about $20 million would be available in the following year, but added that “it seems to me that we should take a further step . . . .  It would be in the public interest to make available larger appropriations from the Federal treasury to be used separately or in conjunction with state or local support”:

It seems to me that we should take a further step – take this step not only because of the importance of good roads, but also because of the desirability of furnishing worthy projects on which unemployed labor during the period of readjustment may be engaged
. . . .  There need be no delay in the execution of such a program; the nation has already provided the machinery in the Department of Agriculture and in the state highway commissions.  The Federal Aid Road Act was fruitful of good legislation, and each state in the Union now has a central highway authority with power and funds to meet the terms of the federal act.  The two agencies, in conjunction, have been engaged in devising well considered road systems and in making surveys, plans and specifications.  The task will be one of selection, and those roads should be designated for improvement which are of the greatest economic importance, with due regard to such military and other needs as are proper for consideration.

There is no necessity for any departure from this scheme.  The suggestions made have been canvassed with the President, the Secretary of War, and the Postmaster General, and they are in accord with the view that additional funds should be made available to this department and that they should be expended through the existing machinery.

By letter, Secretary of War Baker agreed with Secretary Houston "that there should not only be a prompt resumption of road construction under the Federal Aid Road Act . . . but also that additional funds should be made available to your department for the extension of such work.”

President Wilson also supported the idea in a letter to Secretary Houston:

I heartily agree with you that it would be in the public interest to resume in full measure the highway construction operations under the Federal Aid Road Act, and to do so as speedily as possible.  I understand the necessity which existed for their contraction during the stress through which we have been passing, but that obstacle is now removed.

I believe that it would be highly desirable to have an additional appropriation made available to the Department of Agriculture, to be used in conjunction, if possible, with any surplus state and community funds, in order that these operations may be extended.  It is important not only to develop good highways throughout the country as quickly as possible, but it is also at this time especially advisable to resume and extend all such essential public works, with a view to furnishing employment for laborers who may be seeking new tasks during the period of readjustment.  Knowing that the Department of Agriculture and the state highway authorities in each state have been carefully working out road systems and developing plans and specifications, I have no doubt that all activities in this field can be vigorously conducted through these two sets of existing agencies, acting in full accord.

News of the official favor for road construction was widely reported around the country and in the good roads magazines of the day.

E. J. Mehren, editor of the weekly Engineering News-Record and a strong supporter of the Highway Industries Association, prepared an editorial that focused on one word in Secretary

Houston’s speech:

The important word in this statement is the word “separately,” which we have taken the liberty to put in italics.  Later in the interview the secretary stated that he had canvassed his various suggestions regarding highway work with the President, the Secretary of War, and the Postmaster General, and had found them in accord with regard to the appropriation of additional funds.  He does not say in the latter connection that he specifically canvassed the matter of separate expenditure of funds by the Federal Government but it is presumed from the context that such was the case.

The statement does not commit the secretary to the policy of building a national highway system, but, by considering it as an alternative of Federal aid, he shows at least that he is not averse to such a proposal.  The Government attitude in the past has been strongly set against a national highway system, to be built and maintained by Federal funds.  In thus taking a step forward, the President and his cabinet advisers are merely reading, and reading aright, not only the public demand but the new conditions which had made necessary the adoption of a policy of national highway construction.  Engineering News-Record in the past has been opposed to a national system, but new conditions introduced by motor trucking have so changed the situation as to leave no doubt of the necessity of completing the highway net of the country by adding to our county and state systems a national system tying in the various states just as efficiently as rail lines now do for the bulk of our transportation.

Secretary Houston’s views lend added importance to the highway congress which will convene under the joint auspices of the American Association of State Highway Officials and the Highway Industries Association in Chicago next week.  The subject will be among the other broad questions of policy discussed.  The meeting, taking its cue from Secretary Houston, should do much to crystallize the nation’s thinking on highway work, particularly as to the advisability of building a national highway system.

[“Deems Good Roads Vital to Farmer,” The Evening Star, November 27, 1918, page 1; "Would Expedite Highway Development," Engineering News-Record, December 5, 1918, page 1045; “Cabinet Attitude on a National Highway System,” Engineering News-Record, December 5, 1918, page 1010; "Wilson for Early Resumption of Construction Work," The Road-Maker, January 1918, page 16; “President and Cabinet Officers Favor Additional Federal Road Expenditures,” Good Roads, December 7, 1918, pages 222, 224]