Part I

Promoting the Road During a War

Senate Action

In the September 1921 issue of American Motorist, M. O. Eldridge explained the Senate’s action:

The Phipps-Dowell-Robsion bill passed the House of Representatives in June. When the bill reached the Senate it was referred to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads. A compromise was reached in the committee by combining with the House measure many of the features contained in the Townsend bill then before the Senate. As a result of this compromise a new bill was reported to the Senate about the middle of August. This bill was revised on the floor of the Senate, passed, and sent to conference, and the conferees on the part of both Houses were appointed just before Congress adjourned for the recess.

The Senate committee bill included Senator Townsend’s proposed National Highway Commission to administer the act, but during debate the Senate eliminated the commission. Administration of the program would be left with BPR. Senator Townsend explained:

Neither Senator [Charles] Curtis [of Kansas] nor any other single Senator could have defeated the commission plan under ordinary circumstances. The fact is, however, that I was practically hopeless of success some time ago, when such a revulsion of feeling set in against commissions generally. Senator [George WE.] Norris [of Nebraska] had proposed a commission in his agricultural bill to look after farmers’ credits, and especially relative to foreign markets. The decision against that commission was overwhelming. The Shipping Board has been under condemnation for a long time, and it in fact is a commission. I have seen the sentiment grow in the Senate against commissions for some time, and for that reason I repeat I was rather hopeless of success. I know that our plan is the right one for efficiency and economy, but we have made distinct progress. I feel confident of success. We will have taken some great forward steps, and I think our provisions will result in a more efficient service by the public roads bureau.

The approved Senate bill restricted Federal-aid expenditures to a system of 7 percent of the highways in each State, with primary or interstate roads equal to no more than three-sevenths of the 7 percent. Up to 60 percent of the Federal-aid funds available to each State could be applied to this interstate system. By contrast, the House bill had provided that not less than 60 percent must be used on the interstate highways. American Motorist continued:

Confining all Federal-aid money to a limited system of highways in each State has long been contended for by the American Automobile Association and other organizations of individuals whose vision has been broad enough to view the road situation from a national standpoint. As early as 1912 – four years before the original Federal Aid Road Act was adopted – a resolution was passed by the American Automobile Association which indicated the need of confining Federal highway activities to a definite and limited system in each State . . . .

The great bulk of organized motorists have been convinced for some time that the ultimate solution of the road problem in this country involves the building and maintenance of a national system of highways entirely at Federal expense, such system to be properly correlated with State and county roads built and maintained at State and local expense. Although the Phipps-Dowell-Townsend compromise recently adopted by Congress does not provide for a national system of roads, it must be admitted that this compromise measure marks a distinct step in the right direction. If these measures are properly amalgamated in conference they will constitute an organic act which is undoubtedly a great improvement over the existing Federal-aid law . . . .

The Senate bill required that State matching funds had to be provided by the State instead of by “State or civil subdivisions thereof.” The State must have absolute control of the funds. “The provision will prevent the States from passing their Federal obligations on to the counties and will have the effect of centralizing the control of the construction and maintenance of Federal-aid roads in the hands of competent State authorities. If a State’s constitution prohibited this arrangement, the Senate bill allowed 2 years for an amendment to comply with the new law. “In the meantime, projects may be approved as heretofore by the Secretary of Agriculture, provided he is satisfied that such projects will in all probability become a part of the system provided for in the bill.”

Kansas, one of the States along the National Old Trails Road that had been a longstanding trouble spot for the association, was one of the States that would be affected by this provision:

However, in Kansas the State may now engage in road construction to the extent of paying 25 per cent of the cost thereof. It would appear, therefore, that Kansas and the other States mentioned will have to change their constitutions so as to permit them fully to meet their Federal-aid obligations without calling upon the counties or other civil subdivisions to do so . . . . The new Federal-aid measure should offer a sufficient inducement to these States to so change their constitutions as to permit the States to function as States instead of functioning through counties.

The bill also provided “that only such durable types of surface and kinds of material shall be adopted for the construction and reconstruction of any highway which is a part of the proposed system as will adequately meet existing, and probable future, traffic needs and conditions thereof”:

If this provision is finally enacted into law it will, if properly administered, have the effect of raising the standard of road construction in the South and middle West, where much of the Federal-aid money has heretofore been expended in the construction of roads which are not well suited to all-the-year-round traffic. In other words, this provision should prevent further use of Federal money in the construction of earth roads composed of clay or alluvial soils in the humid regions of the United States unless the contract for each project fully provides for surfacing of the road as soon as practicable after the grades have settled.

As requested by President Harding, the House and Senate bills contained strong State maintenance requirements for Federal-aid projects:

If such roads are not adequately maintained, the Federal Government may, after due notice, have the roads maintained and charge the cost thereof to the State. This provision marks a distinct advance over the existing law, which permits civil subdivisions to maintain the roads.

The article concluded:

With the modifications granted by this measure, the responsibility now rests squarely with the chief of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads to see that its provisions are efficiently carried out. The results will be watched with close interest by all who are concerned in sound highway development. [Eldridge, M. O., “Improvement of Federal Aid Act Seen in New Legislation,” American Motorist, October 1921, page 18, 24]

Congress would return to Washington on September 21, 1921, with many matters to be concluded, including the highway bill.

The 1921 Convention

The final shape of the Federal road bill was unclear, but what was clear was that it would not include a Federal Highway Commission to build and maintain national interstate roads – a goal that Judge Lowe and the National Old Trails Road Association had favored for years.

On September 15, 1921, the National Old Trails Road Association met in the Hotel Baltimore in Kansas City for its ninth annual convention. Judge Lowe welcomed the members to the meeting:

I can tell you now, while we may not be so great in numbers, yet it will be great in the future history of this country, this convention will be, because we are going to deal on questions of vital concern, of National concern, as well as local concern, in a way as has never been dealt with, to my knowledge in this country . . .

The programs for the convention had not arrived, but he said, that they probably would have been treated “the way we have been in the habit of treating the constitution. Some fellow said to another: “What is the constitution between friends, anyway?”

He told the story of his gavel:

That was taken out of an old plank buried in a mud hole, just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana, and dug up when they were grading the road, and found it as solid as it was when placed there, more than seventy-five years ago, and it was taken and made into a gavel, and presented to me at Indianapolis when the National Old Trails Road convention was held there in 1913.

Judge Lowe had prepared a speech, but said, “I am not going to continue apologizing to this convention why I cannot address you as I should like to. It is unnecessary. I have simply worn my old voice out.” He asked Fred H. Chambers of Higginsville, Missouri, to read the speech. Chambers agreed, adding that Judge Lowe’s “doctors absolutely forbid him attempting anything in the way of a speech.”

The speech began with a quote from the French novelist and playwright, Honoré de Balzac:

“There exists in all human sentiments a primitive flower, engendered by a noble enthusiasm which grows constantly weaker and weaker, until happiness ceases to be more than a memory and glory more than a lie.”

This may be true upon the large scale, because human life has been so perverted, so contaminated, and overwhelmed by the baser elements which are inherent in all life, and are slovenly and freely permitted to dominate and control human activities to the degree that the “primitive flower which engenders a noble enthusiasm” loses its power and purpose, and thus indeed becomes only a memory. But, the movement in which we have participated has been more than justified if we shall have added a little to the betterment of human life, if we have contributed to the culture of that “primitive” flower, adding strength, beauty and immortality, which perpetuates and ennobles memory, and makes glory more than an ephemeral lie. Civilization has advanced only in proportion as the world has been made habitable, and more endurable. The Creator intended that this “primitive flower of a noble enthusiasm” should grow strong and stronger, rather than weaker and weaker, and that happiness shall be more than a memory, and glory the crowning result of worthy achievement, or else man would not have been created at all.

He recalled that in April 1912, few of those who founded the association “had the faintest conception of the mighty wheels of progress we were setting in motion.” Less than a month later, he had announced the principle of setting apart the automobile tax for building State systems of highways. “This was soon adopted in many of the states, Missouri being the last to adopt this method.” Yet another month later, a bill had been introduced in Congress “establishing, mapping and defining a National system of roads, connecting every state capital with the national capital, and covering some thirty-two thousand miles of roads.”

The pending Federal Highway Act was “a compromise measure which had passed the Senate and will pass the House, as it has been unanimously approved by the joint committee of each chamber and is now in the hands of a committee of conference, the full fruition of all our dreams.” He explained that Federal-aid highway funds would be limited to up to 7 percent of the roads in each State, divided into two groups. Primary or interstate highways “shall not exceed three-sevenths of the total mileage which may receive Federal-aid,” while the remainder would consist of secondary or intercounty highways. Not more than 60 percent of each State’s Federal-aid apportionment “shall be expended upon the primary or interstate highways until provision has been made for the improvement of the entire system of such highways,” with a higher percent possible if approved by the Secretary of Agriculture. The bill added that, “in approving projects to receive Federal aid under the provisions of this act the Secretary of Agriculture shall give preference to such projects as will expedite the completion of an adequate and connected system of highways interstate in character,” with at least 20 feet hard surfaced:

The bill is a compromise measure, it is true, retaining some of the best features of the Townsend, Dowell and Phipps bills. It is true, that out of regard for the sensitive nerves of such men as [Senator] Tom Watson of Georgia, and others, many of them from the Western states, including many State Highway Boards, so-called “practical men,” who have sought excuses for delay, and reasons against all forms of internal improvements, and who spring the old ghost of “state rights” on every possible occasion, and who saw, or thought they saw, a subtle purpose to blot out state lines, opposed it so bitterly it was decided to eliminate the obnoxious words “National Roads,” and substitute “Interstate Highways.” Well, “a rose will smell as sweet by any other name.”

He estimated that 7 percent of the 2.5 million miles of rural roads in the United States amounted to 175,000 miles of national roads, while 3 percent this total amounted to an interstate system of 75,000 miles on which “not more than” 60 percent of Federal-Aid funds were to be used:

Now, one hundred and fifty thousand miles of national roads were the most that our friend Charles Henry Davis [of the National Highways Association] . . . has ever suggested, and they "laughed him out of court." It is his turn to laugh and rejoice at the great triumph which has come, if not in name, substantially in fact.

For example, Judge Lowe’ calculated that Missouri had 102,700 miles of roads. “Seven per cent of these will be 7,189 miles, and three-sevenths of these or 3,081 miles, are primary or ‘interstate roads,’ upon which sixty per cent of Missouri’s share of the appropriations must be applied.” Some “of our friends were thrown into fits when we stood for 6,000 miles of state roads. Now the general government pledges us one-half the cost of 7,189 miles of Federal Aid Roads.” A similar calculation for Kansas resulted in 3,360 miles of interstate highways:

These are some of the things this Association has always favored. It is certainly permissible, on occasions like this, to repeat that this Association first suggested the application of the automobile taxes to the building of a connected state system in all the states, but, when the state bonds of Missouri carried, other large and, no doubt, well meaning road organizations immediately appealed to the legislature in favor of an insignificant mileage of high priced, largely experimental roads, to be built out of this bond issue, while we declared in favor of keeping absolute faith with the people, and provide for the largest possible road mileage. The legislature of Missouri, after much ill-natured criticism and abuse, has written into the statutes the finest road law in the United States, bar none. We most sincerely rejoice with this epoch-making legislature on the splendid results of its action.

If this were a proposition to scatter the State and Federal funds promiscuously “in spots about,” or upon some ill-considered and wasteful project, we might well hesitate. But all this has been well considered and provided against in both the State and Federal Acts.

(On June 20, 1948, U.S. Representative Abraham Lincoln, during his single term in the House, had used the phrase “in spots about” in a speech about the value of internal improvements. He explained that public projects inevitably benefited the State or States where they were built, but also could have general benefits. The national capital, for example, obviously benefited local land owners, but if that were a disqualifying problem, “where shall we set it down, and be free from the difficulty? To make sure of our object, shall we locate it nowhere, and have Congress hereafter to hold its sessions, as the loafer lodged, ‘in spots about?’” Judge Lowe reprinted the speech in his compilations titled National Old Trails Road: The Great Historic Highway of America, as in the March 1925 edition on pages 173-183.)

Will it pay? This is always the first question to be considered. The best authorities put the saving in transportation alone, on a good road, over a bad road, at twenty cents per ton mile. On the National Old Trails Road a traffic census was taken by the State Highway Board of Colorado in 1919, from the Kansas State line to Pueblo, 162 miles, and the state engineer wrote that a saving of twenty cents per ton mile would pay the cost of construction in one year, at $25,000.00 per mile, and it parallels the Santa Fe Railroad, from end to end.

Will it pay?

President Harding says it will. Congress says it will. The Missouri Legislative, except two votes, say it will.

When? NOW.

(As noted earlier, the Missouri State Highway Department dates to 1913, but was limited to helping counties that requested help improving public roads. The Centennial Road Law of 1921, which Governor Arthur M. Hyde signed on August 4, 1921, gave the Missouri State Highway Commission authority to locate, design, construct, and maintain a system of State highways consisting of 1,500 miles of primary roads and 6,000 miles of secondary roads. The commission was authorized to construct, improve, and maintain highways and bridges with State funds and to use State funds to match Federal-aid highway funds. Governor Hyde appointed the commission members on December 1, 1921. [Serving Missouri’s Transportation Needs for 75 Years, Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission, 1996, pages 4-6]

Judge Lowe quoted Henry Ford, “the greatest constructive genius in the world,” as saying about the railroad problem: “keep the wheels moving.” That was the key in all fields of human endeavor:

There are six million idle men in the United States! And 35,000 in Kansas City are crying for work. Herbert Hoover, the greatest all-round intellect in public life says: “The building of a great system of roads will solve the labor and financial ills of this country.” Oh, that it had come sooner! And it would, had it not been for a few backward-looking, so-called “financial” experts, “practical” men, “with their feet always on the ground.”

Work building highways would not drain the Treasury; it would pay dividends beyond initial expenditures. “Can these idle men be so employed as to increase instead of drain the National Treasury? Undoubtedly they can.”

He continued:

These backward looking men, or their descendants, when the Arch-Angel Gabriel shall stand with one foot upon the sea, and one upon the land, and shall declare that time shall be no more, will declare that “this is entirely too sudden, the country is not prepared,” and demand a postponement to a better and more opportune time. But they shall be swept away into that oblivion to which they are so well entitled. And why not? This brood of spineless charlitans [sic] who have ever posed as “practical” and not idealists, have always sought to block the march of Christian civilization from the beginning. They are the blood clot on humanities’ brain. May I repeat here substantially what I said to the Highway Industries Congress at their Chicago convention, December 12, 1918, when paying my respects to the slackers, laggards and drones ever hanging on the outskirts of the march of civilization? These men have never won a victory on any of life’s great battlefields. They never gave birth to a great purpose, nor added anything worth while to the general good. They never offered cool water to parched lips, nor planted hope in the heart of the dying. They never cut the brambles and thorns nor smoothed the rough places in life’s pathways. They have neither inventive genius nor constructive imagination. They never inspired a line worth remembering, nor added anything of value to the world’s literature. If the principle which directs them had been the only principle to escape Pandora’s box, if optimism, hope, faith, imagination, had not opposed them from the beginning, the world would have indeed, and in fact, been nothing but a mad-house. All the joys of life, all the hopes of the future, would have been destroyed. Man, now, “but little lower than the angels,” would then have been but little higher than the brute. Let him go “with his head in the clouds,” hugging to his heart the “primitive flower engendered by a noble ambition,” if you will; it is infinitely better than burrowing in the earth. I would, had I the power, drive it out of all hearts and back to its native hell, its congenial habitat. Keep your eyes toward the sunrise, and your “wagon hitched to a star” is the only safe and sane rule of life. A man without ideals is dead. He had as well never have lived.

He repeated his comments stemming from Victor Hugo’s motto, “Always forward!” Judge Lowe then concluded:

The great achievements along all lines of human endeavor are but the results of the fruition of the primitive flower planted in the human soul, and but dimly seen by Balzac, and more gloriously glimpsed by Hugo, Shakespeare and Milton, and by all the great seers and prophets of the world. But we stand upon the threshold of mighty achievements of the near future. Winter nor indifference will not freeze or destroy it, for so it is written in the doom book of God.

Happy are we to have been humble workers in the ranks of this great army which has contributed to these great and immortal achievements.

After Chambers finished reading Judge Lowe’s speech, the following dialogue took place:

Judge Lowe: That was a good speech (laughter)! The only criticism I feel like making on it is, Mr. Chambers stuck a little bit too close to his manuscript.

Mr. Chambers: I could do nothing else.

Judge Lowe: I have heard him make good speeches.

Judge Lowe, despite his failing voice and doctor’s orders, said the reason the country did not already have “the greatest wagon road system” mapped out and funded “is just two words”:

The bill as mapped out and as it passed the House (of Congress) provided that “not less” than sixty per cent or three-sevenths, or seven per cent of all the roads in this country should be applied to the interstate system. They chose the word “interstate” as being less objectionable, and didn’t so drastically get on the nerves of a certain class of people in Congress, and had that substituted for “National.”

After going through the mileage in Kansas and Missouri, he continued:

Our resolutions provide, and we want to get them to Washington as soon as possible after this convention adjourns, that the bill as passed in the House, providing that “not less” than sixty per cent of the money allotted to Missouri and Kansas, and all the other states (I mention those states because we are more familiar with the figures), that “not less” than sixty per cent shall be applied to the National and Interstate system.

Judge Lowe recalled the bill he had created in 1913 to provide for construction of 32,000 miles of roads and they ‘laughed me out of court.’” And yet within the next few weeks, Congress would approve an interstate system far larger.

“Where is the money to come from,” he asked, to build these interstate roads? He had an idea:

There has been a great deal of talk on the Allied debt of the Allied nations to this country. Some people, in a gush of liberality and sentimentality seem to think we should give that $10,000,000,000 to the Allies. We gave them our boys, and we gave them a lot of our money, and our boys laid down their lives, that civilization might live. I don’t know why we are called upon to cancel this debt. I think it is a manly thing, and they ought to be held to their obligation, given all the time they want, forty or fifty years if they want, and we should turn the interest over to the building of roads. That will build this system of roads, and by the way, when the war was over, it left them with a great and most wonderful system of highways. If we disarm, and we ought to if the other nations do, it ought to be absolute; that will leave us eleven billions of dollars to devote to road building.

(Depending on how the total is calculated, the European allies owed the United States approximately $10 billion for supplies and war materials before United States entry in April 1917 as well as cash loans and other goods before and after entry. The allies urged the United States to forgive the debt and some in the United States supported the idea. However, the Harding Administration opposed forgiveness of the debt. In February 1922, Congress approved a World War Foreign Debt Commission that concluded agreements with 15 countries to repay the debt, plus interest, over 62 years, with help from reparations from Germany totaling $33 billion. Germany defaulted on payments in less than a year, and most of the allies would eventually default on their loan agreements.)

The key, Judge Lowe explained, was to remember that unlike countries such as France, the United States was just getting started in road building:

They have their system of roads and we have no system, and no roads worth talking about
. . . .

Sam Jones told a story (he always told good stories), he said that one time a train had stopped at the station and was slow to start again, when the conductor ran up and asked the engineer why the train didn’t go on. The engineer said he didn’t have steam enough. The conductor said, “have you steam enough to start,” and the engineer said “yes.” He started and by the time they got to the turn of the road she was going thirty miles an hour. That’s it, start, and make steam as you go . . . .

The importance of this meeting is, we are right at the turning point at Washington, where we have looked so long for assistance in building roads, and we are going to get it. They reconvene the twenty-first of September, and I believe by the first of October, we will have it.

Colonel E. W. Stephens, a publisher from Columbia, Missouri, and president of the association’s Missouri Division, was one of the speakers. He began by noting that outside the Hotel Baltimore, a building was under construction on one side, with a street car on the other:

In the first place, I can’t speak against that thing going on on the outside, and I didn’t know I was to speak this afternoon. In the next place, I am afraid unless we hurry up, we old men of the Old Trails Association will be walking the golden streets before the Old Trails, and I think the time has about arrived when we ought to be doing something towards putting the Old Trails over.

I believe I am down on the programme to talk about “Progress in Missouri.” There is only one man I know of that has made progress in Missouri, and that is Judge Lowe. I think we ought to erect a monument one hundred feet high, right here in Kansas City, to Judge Lowe. He is the greatest pioneer of good roads on the American continent. He has kept this great movement alive. We owe that honor to him. If we don’t build the road before he dies, we ought to.

After discussing the historic old trail and progress in Missouri, Colonel Stephens concluded:

What we want is the sympathy and co-operation of the Old Trails Association from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It will bring benefit not only to Missouri, but to all the states on the east, and on the west of us. Missouri is the only mud-hole on the whole road. Someone said, we are going to make mud a thing of the past, just as we made whiskey a thing of the past; but I hope we will make it more of a thing of the past than we have made whiskey . . . .

If we have the energy and pluck and enterprise and courage that our ancestors had, those noble men who came out from the east and laid the foundations of prosperity we enjoy, if we have what they had, we will build this road. We not only have the country we need, we have the opportunity, we have the money, and we have the people. I don’t hesitate to say this, that no better and nobler people on the face of God’s earth ever settled any country, than those products of the Revolution, those people that came out in the early days, and saw what this country was. No nobler people ever lived than those people.

I hope all of us will live to see the Old Trail, and new trails running all over Missouri. We have been handicapped long enough. Let us hope we have gotten to the time when Missouri will be lifted out of the mud. Let us have good roads all over the state, and then indeed, will we see the salvation of the world.

Judge Lowe told the convention:

I appreciate more than I can tell, the compliment paid me by Colonel Stephens, and in answer, I want to say when you go to erecting monuments, there is but one that will make me sleep a little sounder and a little sweeter, that you could erect to my name, and that would be to finish building the National Old Trails Road.

The proceedings note after his comment: Applause.

One of the association's main concerns was the condition of the western half of the route. Kansas was a particular problem, as usual. Mr. C. E. Edlin of Kansas addressed the convention:

The best thing I can promise is brevity. We had a report outlined to give you across the state by counties. You know what our troubles are in Kansas. We cannot come to you with such an offering as Missouri does. We have a very good beginning. We will have, I think, four strips of paved road, and thirty or forty miles of oiled road on the Old Trail, in the state, and it is a beginning. We have about four hundred miles left.

In Kansas we have laws that are peculiar to Kansas. The powers in control are the county commissioners. We are working, and planning, and hoping, for a state system plan; planned, I think, after the plan of Missouri. In contemplating this system, the plan seems to be among those in control of politics, that we have three classes of roads in Kansas. The first, the hard surface roads and graduated down to macadam and gravel roads. We hope the Old Trails road will be a first-class road. Under the present system, we have undertaken to build roads in short strips in counties, and connect up as we can. We have come to recognize there is a Trinity in Heaven, and a Trinity on earth. The Trinity on earth is against us. We want to begin a new form of thinking. If we have any influence with our representatives, we must begin on them now. We should not be satisfied until we have a complete set road program.

The condition of the road in New Mexico and Arizona also was a continuing problem. The chairman of the auditing committee, Mr. George L. L. Gann of Pueblo, Colorado, after summarizing the condition of the association's books ["in perfect shape, and the balance of cash is $3,067.67"], described activities in the two States:

From Durango to Gallup is through a reservation. There are no personal interests down there, and we have to depend almost altogether on the Interior Department to sneak off a little money from the Indians to keep the roads in shape. That puts us to Gallup. We have not been able – with all the forces we can muster – to induce Arizona to do any road work on the road between Gallup to Holbrook. It is a bad road. A friend of mine came through there a few days ago – he had a Cadillac car – and the best he could make was about fifteen miles an hour. We are up against it with the Arizona people. I understand that Mr. Becker is here from Springfield [sic], Arizona. I met the old gentleman three years ago at the convention, and tried to persuade him to put some money on that road. I would like to have Mr. Becker tell us why he cannot get some action on that piece of road. It is about the only piece of road I have to make any apologies for, between the Kansas state line and Los Angeles.

A few moments later, the "old gentleman" addressed the convention:

I have never been up before an audience before in my life. We are very anxious for good roads in Arizona. I think the gentleman from Colorado asked why we were not doing anything toward building a road between Holbrook and Gallup. This portion of the road is about equal distance to one that passes through the petrified forest. Eighty-five per cent of the people in Apache county live on this other highway, and that's one reason why the highway is being built there first, and we haven't any more money than we need. The road from Holbrook to the Arizona-New Mexico line is all graded. We are preparing to spend about three hundred thousand dollars more on that road. From the Arizona to New Mexico line at Springerville to Magdalena, is a distance of about one hundred fifty-nine miles. With the exception of thirty-eight miles, that road is all graded, and half of it is graveled and being graveled. There is never any difficulty in getting over that road. From Sorocco (sic) north, the road is in good shape. I think that answers your questions.

Later, Colonel Stephens asked to address the convention again without telling Judge Lowe why:

I want to move that the thanks of this National Old Trails Road Association are hereby extended to our honored president, Judge J. M. Lowe, for his unselfish, devoted service to this body, and to express our high esteem for his character, and our respect for him, and wish for him a long successful and happy life. I think I may be pardoned in adding to this if I say something of her who has stood so faithfully by his side, and we convey to her, his daughter, and all members of his family, our appreciation. I offer that resolution, and ask those who favor it, will make it known by rising. [Unanimously carried.]

The convention adopted a series of resolutions, including:

The National Old Trails Road “is now completely and splendidly hard-surfaced from Washington, D.C., to the Missouri River at St. Louis. It is more than one-half built, in different sections, across the state of Missouri; fully seventy-five per cent of it financed across Kansas; all of it either built or under contract across Colorado; graded and a large percentage of it under contract across both New Mexico, Arizona, and California. Funds have now been provided in all of these states by which it can easily be finished at a very early date.” The bill pending in Congress calls for a State-Federal partnership in construction of national interstate roads. The association called “upon the states, most earnestly and seriously, that they shall provide revenue sufficient to meet the amount pledged by the Government as Federal Aid.”
That Kansas and Missouri respond to the Federal action in building interstate and State systems of road.
The association gives “our most hearty appreciation to the Congress of the United States in having proposed to furnish funds sufficient to equalize the building of roads in the western states, where, because the ownership of such large percentages of land is still in the Government, as to make it almost, if not impossible, to build large systems of highways.”
That the conference committee adopt the House language that “not less” than 60 percent of the Federal-aid funds shall be expended on interstate or primary roads instead of the Senate’s “not more” provision.
“That these roads, whether Interstate or State roads, are being built by taxation of all the people for the benefit of all the people; therefore, we protest most seriously against the use of these improved hard roads by common carriers for hire, by using heavy automobile trucks, and by other heavy vehicles, such as tractors, etc.; the use by private interests, and which would result in the speedy disrepair, deterioration and complete destruction of said highways without any compensation from such private enterprises so using and abusing them. We protest the use of such vehicles, unless the tonnage be not to exceed three tons or less, for each vehicle. We are neither building “Peacock Lanes for joy riders,” nor massive roads to be taken over and destroyed by private interests for selfish purposes.”
At least six million men and women were unemployed. “Nothing would contribute more to the relief of these people, and to the general relief of the whole country in speedily bringing about prosperity and happiness, than for the Government and the states to commence at once the construction of a vast system of dependable highways; and we call upon the authorities that, if they would prevent the greatest financial and commercial depression this country has ever known, they should take immediate steps to go forward in building roads as the only way that will bring relief. Mark you, these funds are not to be expended recklessly, or charitably, but both government and state will receive benefits of at least ten dollars worth of value to every dollar expended upon this great project – the greatest and wisest now contemplated anywhere in the world.
“That the transportation question is one of the greatest, if not the very greatest question now facing our country. The railroad systems have largely broken down, and many of them are failing to function. We should do all in our power, not to destroy, but to help build up, and make this means of transportation successful at all points; and to this end we do not know of anything which will add more in solving this problem than the building of the system of highways above indicated.”
Resolved, that in view of the deplorable condition of the highways of the United compared with the highways of the Allied Nations, “we respectfully memorialize Congress to set aside the whole of the war loans to the Allies as a National Highway fund, to be used in part as follows: Not less than sixty per cent of all allotments to the states to be applied to the construction of the primary or Interstate system of highways, until their completion, and the remainder to the construction of the other four-sevenths of the highways provided for in the pending Phipp-Dowell Bill [sic].”
The original alignment of the road from Herington to Marion, Kansas, be changed to “the line extending directly west from Herington, via Hope, to Gypsum, and thence in a westerly direction to a connection with the Meridian Highway north of Lindsborg, and thence in a southerly direction via Lindsborg, to a connection with the original alignment of the road at McPherson, be adopted, and that the original alignment as adopted in our first convention, across Morris County, Kansas, be and the same is hereby confirmed.”
The association extended “our heartiest and sincerest congratulations to the Governor of Missouri, and the Legislature at its recent session, for having enacted the wisest, most liberal and best road law of any state in the Union.”
That the National Old Trails Road in Missouri “adopt as an additional route, to-wit: That part of the state highway system extending from St. Charles in an easterly direction to the Mississippi River, to West Alton.”
That the association “extend our thanks and appreciation to the people and to the Highway Board of Illinois, for having completed in such splendid form the National Old Trails Road across that state, the first state in the Central West to complete the road in its entirety.”

An addenda to the proceedings contained letters from highway officials in the States of the National Old Trails Road.

Maryland State Roads Commission: “From Baltimore westward through Cumberland to the Pennsylvania line, the entire stretch is waterbound macadam, surface treated, with the possible exception of a few isolated spots of concrete through incorporated towns.
Pennsylvania State Highway Department: “The Section of the National Pike lying in the state of Pennsylvania is entirely of macadam. Surface treatments of bituminous material have been given the road and it is in excellent condition.”

You can easily see that there is much more progress in the eastern part of the state on the roads north and south of the National Old Trails. This is going to lead the traveling public to take the routes where they are the best developed, and as these routes become more firmly established it will be a difficult matter to get them back on the Old Trails Highway. I just call this to your attention, as it would appear to us that something ought to be done to stimulate building along the Old Trails.

West Virginia State Road Commission: “The following are types of road on the National Old Trials Road across West Virginia: 10 miles of brick, 2 miles of bitulithic, 1 mile of Warrenite, 1 mile of concrete and 3 miles of bituminous macadam.”

Ohio State highway Department: Exclusive of mileage in incorporated cities and villages, the mileage was as follows:

Concrete (cement)

31.18 miles

Bituminous Concrete

19.39 miles

Brick

55.18 miles

Bituminous Macadam

27.30 miles

Waterbound Macadam

25.09 miles

Asphalt

0.84 miles

Gravel

38.00 miles

Total

196.98 miles

“Included in the above are 6.22 miles of concrete and 10.0 miles of Bituminous Concrete now under construction.”

Indiana State Highway Commission: “The National Highway across the state of Indiana is 86 miles concrete, already completed, or contract let to be completed this fall; 66 miles of gravel and macadam road, contracts to be let this fall.”
Illinois Division of Highways: Officials were out of the office in time for the response, but a reply noted that, “The uncompleted sections approximate nine miles, all of which it is hoped will be completed by the close of the present construction season.
Missouri State Highway Department:

Boone County – 2.8 miles, 16 ft. bituminous macadam, Columbia west.
Callaway County – 7.66 miles, 9 ft. gravel, Millersburg special road district.
Callaway County – 15.7 miles, 9 ft. gravel, Fulton District to Montgomery
County line.
Cooper County – 5.57 miles, 16 ft. bituminous macadam from Boonville east.
Cooper County – 7.83 miles, 16 ft. bituminous macadam from Boonville to
Lamine River.
Jackson County – Finished. Bituminous macadam.
Montgomery County – 8.24 miles, 9 ft. macadam, New Florence to Danville.
Montgomery County – 8 miles, 9 ft. gravel, Mineola Special Road District.
St. Charles – 1.66 miles, 16 ft. bituminous macadam, St. Charles to Harvester.
Saline – 9.26 miles, 16 ft. bituminous macadam, Malta Bend Special Road
District.
Saline County – 8 miles, 16 ft. asphalt macadam, east and west out of Marshall.

These are all Federal or State aid projects, some have been constructed, some are under construction and some are yet to advertise.

A p.s. noted, “Total in Missouri hard surfaced, 164 miles.”\
The letter from the Kansas State Highway Engineer M. W. Watson reported little activity on the National Old Trails Road compared with named trails to the north and south of it:
State of Colorado – “Colorado is completed or under contract.”
State of New Mexico – “I wish to say that we are doing fine work on the National Old Trails between Los Lumas and the state line, and will shortly have a Federal aid Class A road for the entire distance (162 miles). The appropriations are made and it is only a matter of time for construction.”
State of Arizona – “I am at the head of highway building in this [Mohave] county and we have a number of contracts under way. We have just finished a contract in the amount of $200,000 on the National Old Trails between Oatman and Topock, and while the surfacing is not yet finished, we have a good road. Another section of this road diverts west of Seligman and ends at Peach Springs. This cut out one of the worst pieces of road on the route across Arizona. We are having what is known as Crozier Canyon surveyed, and will build over a bad piece of road there. About 5 miles of road west of Kingman is to be built this fall, which will give us the best stretch of road in the state – 106 miles. San Bernardino County is to meet our good road with a hard surfaced road east of Barstow to the Arizona line, and Arizona counties east of us are making an effort to get good roads. With all this building the Old Trails in Arizona and California will be in fine shape within another 12 months.
State of California – “We are advised by the local division of the State Highway Commission that that portion of the National Old Trails road lying between the summit of the Cajon Pass and Victorville will be advertised for bids in the very near future, and placed under construction this season. The definite location of the road between Victorville and Barstow will be decided this season and placed under construction early in 1922. However, between Barstow and Needles there is no work planned for the immediate future. I might say, however, that the road from Barstow to Needles is probably the best piece of desert road in existence, with the possible exception of that stretch of it between Ludlow and Amboy, a distance of 15 or 17 miles, which is uniformly rough; with the exception of this piece just mentioned there is really no cause for anyone to complain regarding the present condition.

Concrete (cement)	31.18 miles
Bituminous Concrete	19.39 miles
Brick	55.18 miles
Bituminous Macadam	27.30 miles
Waterbound Macadam	25.09 miles
Asphalt	0.84 miles
Gravel	38.00 miles
Total	196.98 miles

The association elected Judge Lowe to continue as president and George Gann as secretary. Judge Lowe said:

May I say in response to your action of electing me again as your president, that so far as I now know, the remainder of my life will be devoted to this cause, and this alone. I don’t know how long it will last, but before it ends I think we shall ride down the long, long trail, together, over a finished road.

As the convention came to an end, Judge Lowe assured the members of one thing:

The next time we hold a meeting here, I am going to insist on getting a room back somewhere in the building. We don’t want to hold it on this corner, with a street car on one side and a building under construction of the other side.

[Proceedings, Ninth Regular Convention, National Old Trails Road Association, September 15, 1921]

The Federal Highway Act of 1921

As expected, the House-Senate conferees did not need much time to complete their work. The Conference Committee completed a unified bill after extended sessions on October 6, 7, and 8. Although restoration of $100 million was considered, the committee retained the $75 million single-year appropriation in the Senate bill, with $25 million to become available immediately, and the remainder to be available on January 1, 1922. (For forest roads, the bill appropriated $5 million for FY 1922 and $10 million for FY 1923.) The Federal-State matching ratio remained 50-50, but the Secretary could increase the Federal share in public lands States.

The committee bill clarified that each State must "make provisions for State funds required . . . for construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of Federal-aid highways within the States, which funds shall be under the direct control of the State highway department." The committee also addressed the concern that the bill would override State constitutions. The States were given 3 years after passage of the Act to bring State laws into compliance.

Federal-aid highway funds would now be restricted to roads contained in a designated system of Federal-aid highways. The system would comprise up to 7 percent of all rural public roads in each State, but three-sevenths of the system must consist of roads that were "interstate in character." The roads that were "interstate in character" would have a right-of-way "of ample width and a wearing surface of an adequate width which shall not be less than eighteen feet, unless, in the opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture, it is rendered impracticable by physical conditions, excessive costs, probably traffic requirements, or legal obstacles."

As noted, much debate had centered on whether to require the State highway agencies to use up to 60 percent or at least 60 percent of the Federal-aid highway funds on these interstate roads. The conferees settled on "not more than" 60 percent.

The legislation, like all previous versions, also addressed the President's concern by strengthening the maintenance provision of the 1916 Act. Section 2 of the new legislation redefined "maintenance" to mean "the constant making of needed repairs to preserve a smooth surfaced highway." Under Section 14, a State highway agency would receive a 90-day notice of a failure to maintain a Federal-aid highway. If the road was not "placed in proper condition of maintenance" during that period, the Secretary "shall proceed immediately to have such highway placed in a proper condition of maintenance and charge the cost thereof against the Federal funds allotted to such State, and shall refuse to approve any other project in such State" until the State reimbursed the Federal highway fund for the amount expended.

The legislation also redefined the term "State highway department" to be any department, commission, board, or official "having adequate powers and suitably equipped and organized to discharge to the satisfaction of the Secretary of Agriculture the duties herein required."

The House approved the final bill on November 1, with the Senate acting on November 3. President Harding signed the Federal Highway Act of 1921 on November 9.

Engineering News-Record pointed out that the signing "was accompanied by more than the usual ceremony, so that a motion picture could be made of the event which marks the establishment of an important precedent in the government's highway policy." The article described the ceremony:

There was a preliminary statement by W. C. Markham, of the Kansas Highway Commission, who has been acting as the legislative representative of the American Association of State Highway Officials throughout the consideration of the bill. His remarks were followed by a statement from the Secretary of Agriculture, who pointed out that the bill contains provisions for road maintenance, which should meet the full requirements specified by the President in his message to Congress. Senator Townsend then handed a specially wrought pen to the President who signed the engrossed bill. Others who participated in the exercises incident to the filming of the ceremony were John M. Parker, Governor of Louisiana; Thomas H. MacDonald, chief of the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads; the senators and representatives making up the conference committee which perfected the bill and Paul Wooton, Washington correspondent of Engineering News-Record.

An editorial in the same issue referred to the proposal to establish a commission to build national roads:

Perhaps the bitterest fight on any single feature of the new measure centered on the proposal of a federal highway commission to administer the work in place of the Secretary of Agriculture, through the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads. The commission plan was defeated and control will rest with the bureau which, during recent years, has demonstrated its ability to administer the work.

The passage of the bill, too, probably marks the end of the propaganda for a federal-built and maintained "national highway system." The federal-aid plan has come off victorious. ["Constructive Progress in New Highway Act" (page 799), and "President Signs $75,000,000 Federal-Aid Road Bill" (pages 831-832) Engineering News-Record, November 17, 1921]

Senator Townsend accepted the compromise established by the legislation. He called the legislation "the most progressive step ever taken by Congress in aid of good roads":

That continued and increased activity in road construction is of the highest importance to the people ought to be accepted as a self-evident proposition. It will give employment to the unemployed. It will contribute largely to restored industrial and commercial prosperity. It will reduce the cost of transportation at a time when such reduction is essential to the very life of production. It will lessen the danger from possible railroad paralysis. It will encourage agriculture and add to the attractions and benefits of rural life. It will indeed be one of the wisest internal improvements which can be made . . . .

In the bill which has just passed the Congress, I did not obtain all that I hoped for. I was, perhaps, asking too much, considering the organized forces against a proposition which had so little of selfish interests to serve.

After describing the 7-percent Federal-aid system, with its 60-percent share of interstate highways, he commented that, “Thus for the first time do we have a recognition by the Federal Government of the principle that it is the first duty of the Government to assist in building its primary or inter-State roads.” The key, now, was “proper administration of the act . . . to secure approximately the objects which the friends of good roads have constantly in mind. Much will depend upon the administration, and I am confident that we are not going to be disappointed.” [Eldridge, M. O., “Many National Benefits Included in Passage of Federal Highway Act,” American Motorist, December 1921, page 24]

Roy Chapin of the NACC issued a statement:

While the new highway act is not all that students of the question would like to see, the law as it now stands marks a distinct step forward in the evolution of our highway policy . . . . [The] educational campaign waged by Senator Townsend to bring about a clearer appreciation of the importance of the highway problem, has been a successful one. [Chapin, Roy, “Chapin on the New Federal Aid Law,” Good Roads, November 23, 1921, page 239]

The western States were happy, as reflected in an article in Western Highways Builder that began:

A new era in the history of the West, as historians of the future will see it, was ushered in on November 9, when President Harding signed the Phipps-Dowell Federal Highway Act. From our present perspective, the tangible effect of the act will be merely to provide another Federal appropriation, $75,000,000, for road construction with certain concessions to the Western States in the amount of cooperation required on account of the vast extent of the public domain situated therein. But those of us who look ahead sufficiently can see the whole attitude of the Federal government toward the empire west of the Rockies changed in the next two or three decades.

The adoption of the graduated scale as a part of the Phipps-Dowell Bill constitutes nothing more or less than a tacit recognition of the Federal government's moral and financial obligations to the Public Land States. We cannot under estimate the immediate effect of the application of the graduated scale, but, beneficial as this may be, it is infinitesimal when considered in relation to its effect as a precedent by which the Federal government will be guided in other development work. [Calcitrosus, "Western States Triumph in New Federal Highway Act," Western Highways Builder, December 1921, page 14]

The Department of Agriculture issued a statement summarizing the features of the 1921 Act. Regarding the 7-percent interstate system, the statement said:

The roads to be paid for by this money, if placed end to end, would encircle the earth and extend from New York to San Francisco on the second lap . . . . ["All States Will Receive Federal Aid for Highways," Highway Engineer and Contractor, December 1921, page 27]

AASHO held its 7th annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 5-8, 1921. Chief MacDonald began his remarks to AASHO:

Again we meet in conference to measure critically our efforts of the year, and to plan more thoroughly, more understandingly, I trust, our future work together. With the deepest conviction I record my faith in the principles set forth in the Federal highway legislation founded on the certainty of the progress that is being made, and that will, in a larger way result from the new legislation.

He commented on designation of the interstate system:

The Act itself is remarkably comprehensive in defining and demanding a systematic plan, national in its extent, for future highway development. None of us has had, or is ever likely to have a more serious responsibility than the one imposed of selecting the Federal-aid system to be composed of the most important highways, articulating not only within the States, but with the systems of the contiguous States. Here is an opportunity to do a big, basic work, such as comes to few in the course of a life-time. The individual who fails to vision the importance of the task has no moral right to hold a position of authority in its performance.

He also put the bill in historical context:

From a conception of highways as a purely local institution, a viewpoint we held for over a half century of our national life, we progressed to an acceptance of their importance to the State. This attitude persisted for another quarter of a century, until through the universal use of the motor vehicle, the transportation crises of a great war, the repeated threats of extensive railroad tie-ups, and the results already secured with Federal aid, we have, in the short period of five years, visioned our more important highways extended and interconnected to form a vast network, serving local, State and national traffic, only limited by the confines of the United States. This is the conception which has been written into the law, and which, because of the projected effect of that which is done now into the future, lifts the importance of this requirement, that is, the selection of the Federal-aid system, above any other principle or duty therein announced.

Senator Phipps, in a letter regretting that he must decline an invitation to address ARBA during its annual meeting in Chicago in January, said he was proud that his name was connected with the measure, sometimes called the Phipps-Dowell bill, but he gave much of the credit to Senator Townsend, "one of the most stalwart champions of good roads for many years." Phipps recalled his thoughts while watching President Harding sign the bill:

As President Harding affixed his signature to the bill, it occurred to me that here was one measure concerning which there was no question, one legislative proposition which could not be called in any sense an experiment but which represented a forward step along sane and constructive lines.

There should be no difference of opinion as to the vital principles involved; there should be no sectionalism, no feeling of class discrimination; for, as a matter of fact, good roads inure to the benefit of all our people – the farm, the manufacturer, the local merchant and incidentally the tourist . . . .

I believe that acting as a unit the people of the United States will establish at an early date a system of good roads second to none in the world.

A letter from President Harding, dated January 10, 1922, to ARBA stated:

There is now pretty nearly universal agreement that no single public improvement has done in recent years or will do in the coming years, more for the general good of the country, than the development of our highway system. The task is an enormous one, but better methods both in physical construction and in the relations of the community to highway development have been taking form in a most encouraging way. [“The Nineteenth Annual Convention of the American Road Builders’ Association,” Good Roads, January 25, 1922, pages 50-51]

The Federal Highway Act of 1921 would settle the battle between national roads and the Federal-aid highway program by combining the two into what Engineering News-Record had called a “golden mean.” This resolution of the battle was reflected in the views Judge Lowe had expressed during the National Old Trails Road Association’s 1921 convention. In his 1925 compilation, he reprinted the legislation and observed:

Note: - It requires no great amount of legal acumen to construe this Act. The application of common sense and an honest purpose is all that is required.

It is stated elsewhere in this book the cost in each State of constructing a National (Interstate) System of Roads; and if an inter-county System is to be included under this Act, and if the States will capitalize the automobile tax in order to raise a State fund with which to co-operate with the Federal Government, as twenty-four of them have done, then, in such States it will not cost the tax payers one dollar, whether one owns a car or not. If any State refuses to raise such State fund this will not block the wheels of Government for one moment, the only effect will be that such State will have to pay its proportionate part of Federal taxes in any event. It is for each State to decide whether it shall share in the benefits of this measure or prefers to see the Federal taxes paid by such State appropriated to the States prepared to receive it. [National Old Trails Road: The Great Historic Highway, pages 276-277]

Professor Seely summed up the result of the 1921 legislation:

After the discord of the 1910s, the ensuing two decades were notable for their quiet, as state engineers settled down to construct a road system that could handle the influx of drivers. In a number of respects, the golden age of highway engineering was beginning, with Thomas MacDonald and his Bureau of Public Roads once more the recognized leaders of the field. [Seely, page 64]

(For a more detailed account of the battles leading to the Federal Highway Act of 1921, see “"Clearly Vicious as a Matter of Policy": The Fight Against Federal-Aid, on this Website.)

Progress Noted

Good Roads reported on a ceremony that took place on October 29, 1921:

The City of Greenfield, seat of Hancock County, Indiana, and birthplace of James Whitcomb Riley, will celebrate, October 29, the opening of the completed paved road between that city and Indianapolis, a distance of 21 mi. The Hoosier Motor Club is preparing to erect a number of needed danger signs along the route. The highway Commissioner has seen to it that heavy guard railings are erected at many embankments.

“This is but another link on the National Old Trails Road, which eventually will be hard-paved across the Nation,” stated Secretary Noblet of the Motor Club. “Our organization believes the Old Trails Road should be made a national memorial highway under federal direction and is working to that end. It is the main St. of the nation and is much more entitled to be known as a memorial highway than any other.” [“National Old Trails Road Celebration,” Good Roads, October 26, 1921, page 203]

As Noblet’s comment indicated, good roads advocates thought of designation of a memorial highways to those who gave their lives for the victory. One project was a transcontinental named trail called the Victory Highway. American Motorist discussed the route:

The first step toward a national monument to those who fought and gave their lives in the world war has been taken by the California State Automobile Association, which has sent a specially designed motor truck to sign a new transcontinental route to be known as the Victory Highway.

This route, which will stretch from San Francisco to New York, will be laid out by the Federal Department of Public Roads over a consolidation of present integral highways. The Victory Highways [sic] was born in Kansas, where there has been organized and incorporated the Victory Highway Association, headed by George Stansfield, a capitalist of Topeka, Kansas . . . .

The Victory Highway at present is routed over the Pikes Peak Ocean-to-Ocean Highway from Reno to Colby, Kansas; the Golden Belt Highway from Colby in Kansas City, and the National Old Trails Highway to Jefferson City, Missouri . . . .

The remainder of the Victory Highway was to be laid out later:

The plans of the Victory Highway Association call for the erection of monuments to America’s soldier dead at both San Francisco, the western terminus of the highway, and New York, the eastern terminus. [“Mark World War Memorial Road,” American Motorist, September 1921,
page 18]