Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/113

 type surfaces such as earth, sand-clay, gravel, or macadam which were incapable of carrying heavy truck traffic without excessive maintenance, and were, therefore, unsuitable as long-distance national roads. (However, the same reports showed that 65 percent of the funds were spent for high-type roads such as concrete and brick.)

Chief MacDonald was well aware of these shortcomings when he assumed office in 1919. He appreciated the need for a connected system of interstate highways, but he did not believe that a separate national system under a Federal commission or department was the way to achieve it. Such a system, he thought, would eventually absorb a very large part of the funds Congress was willing to vote for roads and, thus, weaken Federal aid to the States. MacDonald also questioned the assumption that long-distance highways were necessary for national defense, and in June 1920, he wrote :

"There is no support for the assumption that long transcontinental roads will be needed for military defense, a transcontinental road which merely crosses the continent is of little military value. What is needed is a series of roads connecting all important depots, mobilization, and industrial centers, which, as thus connected, may give us a transcontinental route eventually ; but the transcontinental feature is of secondary importance."

The real need, in his mind, was to strengthen the State highway departments by giving them full control over both the Federal-aid matching funds and the maintenance of Federal-aid highways. In time, he believed long-distance highways would come into existence as the States improved their trunk highways, provided they could be persuaded to agree on a restricted mileage of interstate roads on which to concentrate the Federal-aid funds. The immediate problem was to bring about such an agreement and, thus, blunt the arguments of the national road advocates.

MacDonald's handling of this problem was typical of his approach to many later ones. First, he obtained the support of the State highway departments by persuading Secretary Houston to set up a Federal-Aid Advisory Committee of six members recommended by the Executive Board of AASHO, of which MacDonald himself was a member. The members of the Advisory Board were from all parts of the country, and they all favored limited State road systems under the complete control of strong highway departments.

MacDonald then asked the War Plans Division of the Army General Staff and the Corps of Engineers to cooperate with the BPR to select those highways that were of national strategic or military importance; and when the military accepted this invitation, he supplied them with maps of all the States on which the BPR had plotted the tentative road systems submitted by the States and also all of the approved Federal-aid projects.

These preparations completed, MacDonald announced in March 1920, that the BPR, with support of the Advisory Committee was going to make a nationwide survey of the roads of the country and a classification of all highways in respect to their importance and character of service. This was necessary, he said, because the rate of improvement of the public roads is much slower than the public is de-manding; yet, "There must come a realization that only a percentage of the resources demanded for increasing the rate of road production can be provided for this purpose, and so the production of roads must be studied and programs determined the same as for any large industrial undertaking, and in order that the roads which meet the greatest economic needs will receive first consideration."

The survey, MacDonald said, would enable the Bureau and the States to segregate the roads into systems according to their national, State, county, or local importance, determine their needs for improvement, and allocate the costs of improvement and maintenance between the systems.

Meantime, the States were approaching a serious financial situation. Under the Bankhead Act of 1916 and the Post Office Appropriation Act of 1919, Congress had provided funds for Federal aid only through fiscal year 1921. When the 2d session of the 66th Congress opened in January 1920, Senator Chamberlain of Oregon introduced an Administration bill backed by AASHO which would have provided $100 million per year for Federal aid in fiscal years 1921, 1922, 1923, and 1924, with the provision that the money be concentrated on an adequate national highway system selected by the States and connected at the State lines. Senator Townsend also introduced his proposal for a Federal highway commission and a national highway system.

In committee, a measure known as the Sells bill, which provided funds for only fiscal year 1922, was substituted for the Chamberlain bill and was then passed by the House by a margin of almost 8 to 1. However, it failed narrowly in the Senate, and Congress adjourned without passing a highway bill. MacDonald warned of hardship ahead for the States:

"The fact that a new apportionment of funds was not made in January 1921, made it impossible for the States to maintain an unbroken continuity of policy and administration in respect to Federal-aid work, and this condition has resulted in an unprecedented number of withdrawals, cancellations, and modifications of existing projects as the States have endeavored to adjust their programs to a reduced rate of expenditure. This condition has emphasized the fact that in so large and important a national policy as Federal aid implies, the action of the Federal Government should as nearly as possible be uniform, consistent, and prompt. The probable cost of administering Federal aid in the several States will no doubt be appreciably increased, owing to the fact that the States do not yet know whether Federal aid will be continued, under what conditions it will be continued, or what appropriation is likely to be made, so that it is practically impossible for them to make any definite plans with respect to the administration or financing of future work or to conduct the necessary studies preparatory to filing applications for additional aid."

107