May/June 2002
The
Man Who Loved Roads
by Richard F. Weingroff
One
of the little-known quirks of history is that Harry Truman could have
been the Father of the Interstate System.
President
Dwight D. Eisenhower deserves that title as much as anyone. He participated
in the U.S. Army convoy that crossed the United States in 1919. He
saw the German autobahn in operation during and after World War II.
He made the Interstate
System one of his Administration's top priorities and continued to
promote the idea even after he had signed the Federal-Aid Highway
Act of 1956. (See Public Roads, Summer
1996, for a discussion of President Eisenhower's role.)
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Generals
Dwight D. Eisenhower (left) and George S. Patton with Harry
Truman in Berlin, Germany, 1945.
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But what
about President Truman? He loved cars and roads his whole life. While
he was Vice President, the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 called
for designation of a "National System of Interstate Highways."
The government designated most of the Interstate System (37,700 miles)
on August 2, 1947, while he was President. And yet, little progress
was made on the Interstate System during his Administration.
To understand
why, a look at the life and times of Harry S. Truman will provide
some insight.
Truman
and Eisenhower, 1945
On July
20, 1945, President Harry Truman was racing along the autobahn from
Berlin to Potsdam, where he was meeting with England's Winston Churchill
and the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin to discuss the shape of post-war
Europe. Truman had delivered a speech in Berlin to commemorate the
raising of the flag that had flown over the Capitol in Washington
on December 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked. In part, he
said: "If we can put this tremendous machine of ours, which has
made the victory possible, to work for peace, we can look forward
to the greatest age in the history of mankind. That is what we propose
to do."
The President
was in an expansive mood on the ride back to Potsdam as he chatted
with General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the U.S. supreme commander, and
General Omar Bradley. "General," Truman said to Eisenhower,
"there is nothing you may want that I won't try to help you get.
That definitely and specifically includes the presidency in 1948."
Flabbergasted
by the unexpected comment, Eisenhower replied, "Mr. President,
I don't know who will be your opponent for the presidency, but it
will not be I."
Truman's
Love Affair with Roads
If a
fortune teller in the back seat during that ride had gazed into a
crystal ball and attempted to predict whether President Truman or
General Eisenhower was more likely to be known to history as "The
Father of the Interstate System," Truman would have been the
clear favorite. He had been closely associated with roads as a user,
builder, and promoter all his life.
In 1913
his father, John Truman, had been appointed road overseer for the
southern half of Washington Township, MO, with responsibility for
upkeep and repair of county roads. While trying to remove a boulder
from one of the roads in 1914, he experienced a severe hernia that
caused an intestinal blockage. John Truman died soon after, and his
30year old son, Harry, took over as road overseer for the next 6 months
until losing the job when a new political faction took over the county.
Harry
Truman loved cars and driving. As a young man, he longed for an automobile
when he was courting his future wife, Bess, who lived in Independence,
MO. "Just imagine how often I'd burn the pike from here to Independence,"
he wrote to her from his family's farm on Blue Ridge Boulevard in
Grandview (now part of Kansas City, just off U.S. 71 in the southern
part of the urban area).
In 1914,
his mother agreed to pay for an auto—but Truman didn't want a
Model T that would brand him a farmer. For $650, he bought a used
handmade 1911 Stafford that could do 60 miles per hour. As biographer
David McCullough observed, Truman wanted all the power his car could
give: "With a little work on the engine, Harry found, he could
go up Dodson Hill—considered the great test locally—so fast
he had to shut off the power before reaching the crest."
Soon,
he was visiting Bess regularly and taking her for a "spin"
in his "machine." This love of driving never left him.
One of
the defining periods of Truman's life was his service in the military
during World War I. In France, he discovered his ability to lead men
and to earn not only their respect but also their loyalty. But that
wasn't all he learned. As he wrote to Bess on May 19, 1918, from France:
"The French know how to build roads and also how to keep them
up. They are just like a billiard table. ..."
Later
that year, on November 10, he revealed his homesickness to Bess: "This
has been a beautiful Sunday—the sun shining and as warm as summer.
It sure made me wish for Lizzie and five gallons of gas with her nose
pointed down Blue Ridge Boulevard and me stepping on the throttle
to get there quickly. I wonder how long it will be before we do any
riding down that road."
Road
Builder
In 1922,
Truman ran for election as a Jackson County Judge, an administrative
post. He campaigned for better roads and sound management. At one
campaign stop, he told the crowd: "The time has arrived for some
definite policy to be pursued in regard to our highways and our finances.
They are so closely connected with our tax problem that if they are
properly cared for, the tax problem will care for itself."
He wanted
to select road overseers like his father, who "will do a day's
work for a day's pay."
Following
his election, he fulfilled his promise. McCullough summarized how:
"Harry Truman, as he later boasted, made himself completely familiar
with every road and bridge.
Years of mismanagement and crooked
contracts had produced roads so poorly constructed that they caved
in like pie crusts. Bridges were inadequate or in sad repair. ...`When
a road project or a bridge application is brought before the county
court, here is what happens,' wrote one Republican. `Judge McElroy
turns to Judge Truman and asks him what about it. Nine times out of
ten Judge Truman already has been on the ground and knows all about
the proposition. He explains it to the court. Judge McElroy then says,
`All right, if you say so I move the work be done,' and it is ordered."
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Harry
Truman was born on May 8, 1884. Shown here around age 10.
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Despite
an excellent record, Truman lost his reelection bid in 1924 against
Republican candidates aligned with the Ku Klux Klan, which was in
the ascendancy at the time and having an impact on races in several
States.
President
Harry S. Truman's Highway Message, 1948
(Excerpt)
The
roads of this country have been improved tremendously in the
past thirty years. Over the years we have developed an increasingly
efficient highway network. This has been made possible by active
cooperation between the states and the Federal government.
In this partnership the Federal government has contributed part
of the funds, extensive technical assistance, and the means
for unifying the state systems into a national network. The
states and local subdivisions also have contributed funds, and
have been primarily responsible for planning and actual construction.
Working together, the Federal, State and local governments have
developed the most efficient and extensive road systems in the
world.
In
recent years, our highway construction has not kept pace with
the growth in traffic. ... By any reasonable standard our highways
are inadequate for today's demands.
To build highways
that will meet these needs will require continuous effort over
a long period of time and on an extensive scale. For the immediate
future, we must limit expenditures to avoid excessive costs
resulting from overtaxing the capacity of the construction industry
and to avoid inflationary pressure on the national economy.
But we can and must continue to rebuild and modernize our highways
where their present obsolescence results in excessive safety
hazards and wasteful maintenance costs, and where present traffic
capacity is most seriously inadequate.
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In
the front seat, Bess and Harry Truman, who wanted a 1911 Stafford
because he thought that a Model T would make him look like a
farmer.
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A
Life on the Roads
To earn
a living, Truman took a job selling memberships in the Kansas City
Automobile Club on commission. He became a top salesman, clearing
$5,000 a year. "Roads, highways, the new age of the automobile,"
McCullough wrote, "had become his specialty."
In 1926,
Truman was named president of the National Old Trails Road Association.
This association, which predated even the powerful Lincoln Highway
Association, had been formed in Kansas City in April 1912 to promote
improvement of a transcontinental trail from Baltimore, MD, to Los
Angeles, with branches to New York City and San Francisco. The name
of the road signified that it followed several of the Nation's historic
trails, including the National Road and the Santa Fe Trail (much of
the road, from Colorado east, became U.S. 40 in 1926).
Former
Jackson County Judge J. M. Lowe, who died on April 16, 1926, had headed
the association since its inception. Judge Lowe had been a tireless
speaker on behalf of good roads—despite the fact that, as he
once told the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, "I
do not even own an automobile, and would not know what the dickens
to do with it if I had one." Under Judge Lowe, the association
had become well respected among the groups aligned in the Good Roads
Movement that had agitated since the 1890s for government involvement
in improvement of the Nation's roads.
Truman,
as the new president of the association, periodically drove the National
Old Trails Road from coast to coast and met with members of the association
in each State to discuss improvement of their segments. He enjoyed
the travels, but he missed Bess and their young daughter Margaret,
as reflected in the many letters he wrote to his wife while on the
road. At one point, he told Bess, "This is almost like campaigning
for President, except that the people are making promises to me instead
of the other way around."
Truman's
name would remain on the letterhead of the National Old Trails Road
Association well into the late 1940s, listed as "president."
"When
Franklin Roosevelt died, I felt there must be a million men
better qualified than I to take up the Presidential task. But
the work was mine to do, and I had to do it. And I have tried
to give it everything that was in me."
President
Harry S. Truman's Farewell Address
January
15, 1953
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Madonna
of the Trail
One of
Truman's accomplishments as president of the National Old Trails Road
Association was the placement of Madonna of the Trail statues in the
12 States along the National Old Trails Road. Conceived by Mrs. John
Trigg Moss of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), the
statues are dedicated to the pioneer mothers of covered wagon days.
Each statue is 18 feet high, consisting of a 10foot high pioneer mother
mounted on a base. The DAR describes the statue: "The `Madonna
of the Trail' is a pioneer clad in homespun, clasping her babe
to her breast, with her young son clinging to her skirts. The face
of the mother, strong in character, beauty and gentleness, is the
face of a mother who realizes her responsibilities and trusts in God."
Competition
among the towns for the Madonna of the Trail was stiff, and Truman
had to choose the sites carefully. Here, for example, is an excerpt
from his letter to Bess about the review in Springerville, AZ: "Arizona
put up its claim and I want to tell you it was some job to decide.
L. S. Williams from Williams, Arizona, made the best plea I ever listened
to, but Williams was like Independence—they never had done anything
for the National Old Trails [N.O.T.]. Springerville, which happens
to be the residence of J. W. Becker, national vice president of the
N.O.T., has never missed an opportunity to boost the road and pay
its money [i.e., dues to the association]. Davis [Frank A. Davis of
Rosedale, KS, secretary manager of the N.O.T.] and I voted for Springerville
and Mrs. Moss voted for Williams. Kingman had a little old maid here
who was a member of the committee and who was supposed to have an
unprejudiced mind but who put forward an argument for Kingman every
time a point was made for another town. The man from Williams named
her incompetent. She was. She lost her town every opportunity to win."
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During
the Great War, Lt. Harry Truman learned about leadership, loyalty,
and the good roads of France.
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The last
of the statues was dedicated in Bethesda, MD, on April 19, 1929. The
decision to place Maryland's statue in Bethesda, which was connected
to the National Old Trails Road by a spur, instead of Cumberland,
which was the starting point of the National Road authorized in 1806,
was a tough one. While staying at the Fort Cumberland Hotel in Cumberland,
Truman wrote to Bess on April 17, 1928, to describe the difficulties
of placing the statue in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Backers of placement
in Washington and Uniontown, PA, were "at swords' points because
the former got the monument." He added, "They're worse than
Kentucky mountaineers." As for Maryland, he said: "Same
here in Maryland. But Davis and I are going to straighten them out
I believe if we can get the feminine part of the row satisfied. The
local D.A.R.'s in both states are at outs with Mrs. Moss and with
each other."
The Bethesda
monument, placed on a post office site at the corner of Montgomery
and Wisconsin Avenues, was dedicated before a crowd of 5,000,
with Vice President Charles Curtis among the dignitaries. Truman attended,
as was the case with most of the dedications, and delivered an address
that was noted, but not quoted, in The Washington Post the
next day. The inscription on the north side of the base reads:
THIS,
THE FIRST MILITARY ROAD
IN
AMERICA
BEGINNING
AT ROCK CREEK AND
POTOMAC
RIVER,
GEORGETOWN,
MARYLAND
LEADING
OUR PIONEERS
ACROSS
THIS CONTINENT
TO
THE PACIFIC.
The
inscription on the south side reads:
OVER
THIS HIGHWAY
MARCHED
THE ARMY
OF
MAJOR GENERAL
EDWARD
BRADDOCK
APRIL
14, 1755
ON
ITS WAY TO FORT DUQUESNE
Mrs.
Moss, in a tribute to the National Olds Trails Road, once said, "Those
trails are the autograph of a nation written across the continent."
The Madonna of the Trail statues placed by Association President Harry
Truman were seen as a fitting memorial to the pioneering spirit and
the roads that helped move a Nation west.
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In
his 1922 race for Eastern District Judge, Jackson County, MO,
Truman promised good roads. And he delivered on that promise.
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The
Good Roads Judge
Back
in Jackson County, MO, Truman was elected Presiding Judge in 1926
and took office the following January for a 4year term. Roads would
again be his top priority. McCullough summed up Truman's history with
roads and bridges: "It was as though all he had absorbed in his
readings in the history of the Romans, the model of Caesar's bridge
[that he and a friend had made as a school project], the experience
of countless misadventures by automobile since the days of the old
Stafford, the memory of the roads he had seen in France, not to say
his own experience with the farm roads in and about Grandview and
the father who
had literally died as a result of his determination to maintain them
properly, converged now in one grand constructive vision. He would
build the best roads in the state, if not the country, he vowed,
and see they were built honestly."
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In
1929, Truman decided to place Maryland's Madonna of the Trail
in Bethesda (shown here in 2002 next to the Bethesda Post Office)
instead of Cumberland. In 2001, when Cumberland officials suggested
moving the statue to their city, the President of the Bethesda
Chamber of Commerce replied, "You all are welcome to come
look at it, but you're not leaving with our Madonna."
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The roads
were built on schedule and under budget, but Truman also planted
trees along the sides to create the sort of roadsides he had seen
and admired in France. The farmers who lived along the roads mowed
the seedlings down, so his vision, in this regard anyway, was not
achieved.
Truman
as Road Traveler
Another
of his accomplishments was construction of the Kansas City Courthouse.
Here, too, roads played a part. Judge Truman was unsure what he wanted
in the new building, so he educated himself by setting off in his
automobile—his own car, at his own expense—on a cross-country
tour to look at public buildings. He traveled thousands of miles,
as far west as Denver, as far east as Brooklyn, and as far south as
Baton Rouge, LA. In Shreveport, Truman found what he was looking for,
the Caddo Parish Courthouse. He hired the architect, Edward F. Neild,
as a consultant
on the Kansas City Courthouse.
Truman
wanted an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, the county's
namesake, to stand in front of the courthouse. He liked the statue
of General Stonewall Jackson, the Civil War hero, in Charlottesville,
VA, so Truman hired the sculptor, Charles L. Keck, for the Jackson
County statue. Truman wanted the statue to be life-size, neither smaller
nor larger than life. "I wanted a real man on a real horse."
To ensure historical accuracy (and because he admired the former President),
Truman drove to the Hermitage, Jackson's home in Tennessee, to measure
his clothing.
Senator
Truman Takes to the Roads
In 1934,
Truman ran successfully for election to the U.S. Senate. He campaigned
by car, traveling Missouri's back roads. He told reporters he felt
as if he were on a vacation. "Fact is, I
like roads. I like to move.
" As
a Senator, he spent many hours in his car driving between Independence
and Washington on
U.S. 40, the former National Old Trails Road.
Originally
regarded as a lightweight sent to Washington by Kansas City's "Boss"
Pendergast, Truman made his reputation as a determined investigator
of financial finagling by the railroads. After the United States entered
World War II in December 1941,
he applied his dogged, common sense investigative skills to military
procurement. The investigation began unofficially when he left Washington
in his Dodge and drove to Florida, then to the Midwest, and finally
to Michigan, stopping at Army installations and defense plants along
the way. Based on the abuses he found during his tour, the Senate
established the Special Committee to
Investigate the National Defense Program, commonly called the
Truman Committee after its chairman.
In this
new and highly visible position, Truman gained national stature. Although
many still thought of him as the lightweight political hack he had
appeared to be when he arrived in Washington in 1935, his success
gave him the opportunity to be considered for the position of Vice
President in 1944.
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At
the 1944 Democratic National Convention, Truman, shown here
with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was everyone's second
choice for Vice President.
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President
Harry S. Truman
For Democrats
approaching the 1944 presidential election, the critical decision
was who would be the nominee for Vice President. Everyone knew President
Roosevelt would be the Democratic nominee and that he would not survive
a fourth term as President. Sooner or later, whoever was chosen to
be Vice President would become President.
At the
July convention in Chicago, Truman quickly became an improbable, if
acceptable, alternative to the other candidates, including Vice President
Henry A. Wallace, whom McCullough described as "pathetically
out of place and painfully lacking in political talent, or even a
serious interest in politics." When the nomination was close
but it looked like it was going his way, Truman told a friend, "Feel
sorry for me. I'm in a terrible fix."
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April
12, 1945. Under a portrait of former President Woodrow Wilson
in the Cabinet Room at the White House, Bess Truman looks on
as Harry S. Truman (left) takes the oath of office administered
by Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone. No one had high expectations
for the new President except the Nation's road builders.
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No candidate
won on the first ballot. But on the second, the break came when Alabama's
Favorite Son candidate, Senator John Bankhead—the son of the
Senator who introduced
the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 that established the Federal-aid
highway program — withdrew his name and cast 22 Alabama votes
for Truman. South Carolina then switched its 18 votes from Bankhead
to Truman and, as McCullough wrote, "the stampede was on."
Truman was nominated, soon becoming known as "the Missouri Compromise"
because he had been everybody's second choice for Vice President.
Thus,
it was a 10,000mile auto journey to military installations around
the country that propelled Truman into a position to become President
of the United States on April 12, 1945, following the death of President
Roosevelt earlier that day in Warm Springs, GA.
Little
good was expected of Truman. As McCullough put it: "[The] news
of Franklin Roosevelt's death, followed by the realization that Harry
Truman was President, struck like massive earth tremors in quick succession,
the thought of Truman in the White House coming with the force of
a shock wave.
`Good god, Truman will be President'
was
being said everywhere. `If Harry Truman can be President, so could
my next door neighbor.' "
"He
was a certifiable member of the human race, direct, fallible,
and unexpectedly wise when it counted.
He said he lived
by the Bible and history. So armed, he proved that the ordinary
American is capable of grandeur. And that a President can be
a human being."
Mary McGrory
The
Washington Star
Following the funeral of Harry S. Truman on December 27, 1972
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Despite
the skeptical reception to his presidency, the man who once told reporters,
"I like to move," was in a position to do something about
it. He loved roads and bridges. He knew how to build them. The Federal-Aid
Highway Act of 1944 had authorized designation of a 40,000-mile National
System of Interstate Highways. President Roosevelt had seen the highway
program as a jobs
generator for the post-war era. The war was soon over and the country—and
the economy— needed
work.
President
with a Full Plate
Immediately
after the war, Truman had to deal with the political aftermath in
Europe and economic disruption in the United States. That's what he
was doing in Potsdam on July 20, 1945, when he talked with General
Eisenhower about the 1948 presidential race. Then there were internal
problems. The Pentagon canceled billions of dollars in war contracts.
Layoffs from wartime jobs were common. Strikes broke out across the
country. The Nation faced
the biggest housing shortage in history.
Newspaper
Clipping
Truman
and Former FHWA Administrator Rex Whitton
One
side of a wall in Whittons large office is covered by
awards and photographs of highway ceremonies. He is especially
proud of the centerpiece, a picture of former President Harry
S. Truman, former Gov. John M. Dalton of Missouri, Mrs. Whitton
and himself at a ribbon-cutting to mark the opening of the Southeast
Trafficway in Kansas City. The photograph is inscribed: Kindest
regards to Rex Whitton, who refused me the only request I ever
made of him. Harry S. Truman.
The
inscription relates to a highway [U.S. 71] that ran through
a Jackson county farm owned at the time by Truman. The former
President insisted that he granted the right-of-way under terms
entitling him to an underpass joining two plots of the land.
Whitton rejected this. The two men have made up their differences.
Whitton says he believes Truman will rank with the great Presidents.
Raymond
P. Brandt
Whittons Views on Road Issues
St. Louis Post-Dispatch,
December 18, 1966
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As Truman
wrote in a letter to his mother, "The Congress are balking, labor
has gone crazy and management isn't far from insane in selfishness."
After
a period of disruption, however, the Nation entered what is typically
known as the "post-war boom." By the time of Truman's State
of the Union address on January 6, 1947, he could accurately say the
Nation was prospering as never before. A year later, Fortune
magazine would refer to "the greatest productive record in the
peacetime history of this or any other nation."
Automobile
sales did more than keep pace with the boom—the sales spurred
the economy. The auto industry could hardly keep up with demand as
vehicle registrations rose from 32 million motor vehicles in 1940
to 49 million in 1950. Vehicles crowded the roads to the new housing
developments on the fringes of the cities.
All things
considered, the highway industry expected a boom. In particular, there
was the Truman factor. He had been paying dues to the American Road
Builders Association (ARBA) for years as a member of the Jackson County
group. On May 7, 1946, James J. Skelly, president of ARBA, and Charles
M. Upham, its engineer-director, presented Truman with an honorary
life membership in the association. The President received a gold
membership card in a pigskin
case and an engrossed parchment bound in blue leather in appreciation
of his activity and interest in local and national highways.
Instead
of experiencing a boom supported by the President who loved roads,
the industry floundered. Inflation ate away at the value of a dollar
while highway agencies had trouble luring contractors from housing
projects. Funding for highways was up, but because of inflation, the
added dollars resulted in fewer miles of finished highways. Truman
and his advisors, like their predecessors, saw the highway program
as a tool for managing the economy. While giving priority to housing
programs, the Truman Administration fought the inflationary trends
by reducing other public works projects.
In 1948,
with the Federal-aid highway program up for reauthorization, Truman
sided with his economic advisors who considered the program inflationary
and wanted to constrain it. The surplus in Federal-aid highway accounts—accumulated
because the State highway agencies had been unable to build roads
as fast as the funding came in—prompted Truman to ask for only
$300 million a year. As he explained: "The program I am recommending
now is a conservative one, necessary to maintain prudently our investment
in highways. When conditions permit in the future, we should plan
to accelerate our progress toward a highway system adequate to carry
our expanding agricultural and business traffic, to accommodate with
safety and speed the personal travel of
our people, and to meet the needs of our national security."
In the
Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1948, Congress authorized no new funding
for fiscal year (FY) 1949, but authorized $450 million per year for
FY 1950 and the same for FY 1951, compared with the $500 million per
year authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944.
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ARBA
visited the White House on January 27, 1948 to invite President
Truman to the Annual Road Show. He was unable to attend. Left
to right: Jennings Randolph, president, ARBA Airport Division;
ARBA President J. T. Calloway; President Truman; ARBA Engineer-Director
Charles Upham.
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For
the Interstates, One Step Forward, One Step Back
While
the highway community marked time, the Public Roads Administration
(PRA) worked with the State highway agencies to identify routes for
the Interstate System. On August 2, 1947, Commissioner of Public Roads
Thomas H. MacDonald and General Philip B. Fleming, administrator of
the Federal Works Agency (a New Deal agency that housed the PRA during
the 1940s), announced designation of 37,681 miles of future interstate
highways, including 2,882 miles of urban thoroughfares. They reserved
2,319 miles for additional urban circumferential and distributing
routes to be designated later.
Congress
had not authorized funds specifically for interstate construction.
Because many States thought
of the Interstate System as a Federal program, they used much of their
Federal-aid for State priorities. The 1949 PRA annual report indicated
that $270 million, or 22 percent of the funds authorized in the Federal-Aid
Highway Acts of 1944 and 1948, had been used to improve 2,917 miles
of interstate highway and 981 interstate bridges, while eliminating
120 railroad grade crossings. Generally, however, the improvements
involved upgrading the existing U.S. numbered highway in the Interstate
corridor rather than construction of an interstate freeway on a new
parallel location, as would become common after 1956. In bureaucratic
understatement, the report noted: "However, any feeling of satisfaction
with the present rate of progress or thought that traffic troubles
on main highways will be solved within a few years disappears when
one compares what needs to be done on the interstate system with the
rate at which work is being done."
With
the Administration focused on the Nation's post-war housing problems,
Commissioner MacDonald and General Fleming tried to advance their
plans for urban expressways as part of a broader program of urban
redesign. On December 21, 1948, General Fleming wrote to the President
to propose a coordinated approach under which MacDonald would use
his urban road-building program to remove thousands of substandard
houses as "the framework of the redeveloped city." (See
"A Genie in the Bottle," Public Roads, September/October
2000, for a discussion of this proposal.) President Truman dashed
the plan on April 20, 1949, when he turned down Fleming's request
and supported instead the housing bill under consideration in Congress.
Highway
Boom on the Horizon
By 1950,
the highway community finally appeared ready to address the deficiencies
of the Nation's highway network. Demand was certainly there, as it
always had been. The material shortages had lessened. Labor was available.
And in May, the House of Representatives passed a Federal-aid highway
bill that expanded the Federal-aid program and, for the first time,
authorized $70 million for the Interstate System, to be used on a
75-25 Federal-State matching ratio instead of the traditional 50-50
ratio.
The Senate
was considering the legislation and President Truman was spending
a weekend at home in Independence, when he received word on June 24,
1950, that North Korea had invaded South Korea. Within a month, the
northern Communists occupied most of the Korean peninsula. The President
ordered American troops to join with forces that the United Nations
Security
Council had sent to the Korean Peninsula. An advance battalion under
Major General William F. Dean landed in Pusan on July 1.
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Although
President Truman could not attend ARBA's 1948 Road Show, Major
General Philip B. Fleming (Administrator, Federal Works Agency)
attended to promote the Interstate System.
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In reaction
to the emergency, President Truman asked Congress on August 17 to
restrain nondefense expenditures. He asked that Federal-aid be held
to $500 million at most. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1950 authorized
$500 million a year, with no special funding or enhanced matching
ratio for the Interstate System. The system remained in limbo where
it depended on the priority each State assigned to it.
The mood of the highway community, which had thought its turn had
finally arrived, was perhaps best summed up in an editorial in the
October 1950 issue of American Highways, the magazine of the
American Association of State Highway Officials: "Our peacetime
economy is built around highway transportation; in war, our very survival
depends upon it. And yet, the people have not been made to understand
these facts. Why? Where have we failed?"
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To
ensure stability during the Korean War, President Truman retained
Commissioner of Public Roads Thomas H. MacDonald after he reached
the mandatory retirement age of 70.
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Through
the remainder of the Truman Administration, the Korean War dominated
the President's activities, including his decision to retain Commissioner
MacDonald. Under a variety of titles, MacDonald had headed
the Nation's road agency since 1919, but he had now reached the mandatory
retirement age of 70. Because of the war emergency, President Truman
waived the requirement and persuaded MacDonald to stay on as head
of the renamed Bureau of Public Roads. The President felt that in
an emergency, he could ensure stability in an important sector by
retaining MacDonald, the most respected man in his field, nationally
and internationally.
When
consideration of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1952 began, Truman
asked for a $400 million ceiling on annual highway spending. MacDonald
testified, loyally, in support of the President's request, prompting
Representative George Fallon (D-MD), chairman of the Subcommittee
on Roads, to tell him, "I can only say that we feel sorry for
you when you have to defend and support a measure we all know falls
short of the minimum needs."
As Representative
Fallon put it, "We are a nation on wheels," and Congress
knew more money was needed. In the end, Congress authorized $550 million
a year for the primary and secondary systems in FY 1954 and FY 1955,
plus funding for an assortment of other activities, including the
Inter-American Highway and a token $25 million for the Interstate
System in each year. This was the first Federal funding specifically
for the Interstate System. The matching share remained 50-50. President
Truman signed the bill on June 25, 1952.
By then,
Truman had announced he would not be a candidate for reelection. The
Interstate System, in short, would have to await the arrival of the
other fellow in that vehicle racing along the autobahn to Potsdam
on July 20, 1945.
The
Verdict of History
When
Harry S. Truman boarded the train at Union Station for Independence,
MO, on January 20, 1953, the verdict of contemporary pundits,
politicians, and the public was in. He had been the failure
they expected he would be when he became President following
the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The
verdict of history has been different. In rankings of Americas
Presidents, Harry S. Truman is among the top 10, one of the
near-great Presidents (the universally acclaimed great Presidents
are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt,
with historians divided over the proper sequence of the three).
Over nearly 8 years in office, President Trumans record
earned the approval of history, if not his contemporaries. As
biographer David McCullough has pointed out, He was not
without flaw. He could be intemperate, profane, touchy, too
quick with simplistic answers. McCullough added, however,
that for Truman, Principle mattered more than his own
political hide. His courage was the courage of his convictions.
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A
Love That Never Dies
In the
years since Potsdam, relations between General Eisenhower and President
Truman had become embittered by political and other differences. By
Inauguration Day, January 20, 1953, President-elect Eisenhower had
lost his normally sunny disposition when the subject of President
Truman came up. Contemplating the traditional drive the two would
make on Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House to the Capitol, Eisenhower
wondered aloud "if I can stand sitting next to that guy."
Even the subject of hats could divide the two men. Without consulting
Truman, Eisenhower decided to wear a homburg instead of a top hat.
Truman, not wanting to quarrel over a hat, decided to wear a homburg
as well.
Shortly
after Eisenhower took office in January 1953, citizen Harry S. Truman
went to Union Station for the train ride home to Independence. Truman
shook hands with his Secret Service escort and said goodbye—once
he left Washington, he would have no government protection.
|
The
photo shows cars on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. While "perking"
along the turnpike in 1953, former President Truman was pulled
over by a State Trooper for twice cutting in front of vehicles
trying to pass him.
|
Back
home, he bought a four-door black Chrysler for Bess. For himself,
he bought a two-tone green Dodge coupe. In June, he decided to give
the Chrysler "a real workout" by driving with Bess to Washington
on U.S. 40, the National Old Trails Road the former President knew
so well. To convince her to go, Truman had to promise he would obey
the speed limits and convince her they could travel without being
recognized. Margaret Truman, in her biography of her father, described
the start of the trip: "They weren't on the road more than an
hour, when Mother asked, `What does the speedometer say?' `Fifty-Five.'
`Do you think I'm losing my eyesight? Slow down.' As they slowed down,
other motorists passed them and quickly began recognizing the ex-President.
Soon they heard people shouting, `Hi, Harry—Hey, wasn't that
Harry Truman? Where are you going, Harry?' `Well,' Dad said, `there
goes our incognito —and I don't mean a part of the car.' Everywhere
they stopped along their route, Dad was instantly recognized by motel
owners or filling station attendants. Local reporters were notified,
and police chiefs rushed to escort or guard them. The trip became
almost as well publicized as a whistle-stop campaign."
After
a pleasant visit with friends in Washington, Truman and Bess drove
to New York City for the weekend, then turned west to go home. McCullough,
who described the
trip in his biography of Truman, concluded his account with the following
incident: "Heading home for Missouri, `perking along' on the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, Truman was signaled to pull over by the police.
According to what State Trooper Manly Stampler told reporters, `Mr.
Truman' had twice cut in front of vehicles trying to pass him. `He
was very nice about it and promised to be more careful.'
"But
according to Truman, who had never had a traffic violation, the young
man had only wanted to shake hands.
"It
was his last venture with Bess on their own by automobile. Thereafter,
they would go by train, plane, or
ship."
|
President
Harry S. Truman
|
The
Special Guest
On August
17, 1962, a 5.2-mile long section of the Southeast Freeway opened
in Kansas City. The principal speaker was Federal Highway Administrator
Rex Whitton, a native Missourian who had worked for the Missouri highway
agency since 1920, becoming commissioner in 1951. Reminding his listeners
that the Southeast Freeway is part of I-70 and that I-35 passes through
Kansas City, Whitton said: "So the Interstate System will bring
all of the United States to Kansas City's doorstep. And it will take
Kansas Citians coast to coast and border to border, swiftly, comfortably,
and safely.
Transportation has strongly helped to produce this
vibrant nation whose prosperity and well-being today serve as a model
and goal for the entire world.
When
all the speeches were done, Whitton and his wife, Callie Maude, grasped
the red ribbon, along with State and local dignitaries and a special
guest. As Mrs. Whitton snipped the ribbon and the Air Force provided
a carefully orchestrated sonic boom high above them, standing next
to her was Harry S. Truman. The former President told reporters that
he had attempted to arrange for construction of such a traffic connection
while he was presiding Judge of the Jackson County Court. "I
know something of this project," he stated. "I wanted it
built 30 years ago."
Once
the barrier was down, a steady stream of traffic began to move over
the route.
Richard F. Weingroff, the information liaison specialist for
FHWA's Office of Infrastructure, is the only reader in America who
underlined every single reference to roads in David McCullough's Pulitzer
Prize winning biography Truman (Simon and Schuster, 1992).
The biography was a major source of information for this article.
Other
Articles in this issue:
Arizona
Tackles Work Zone Delays
A
Hallmark of Context-Sensitive Design
Safer
Roads Thanks to ITS
Do
Better Roads Mean More Jobs?
Exciting
Opportunity for ITS Work
See It Before It's Built
Roadway Lighting Revisited
The Man Who Loved Roads
Benefitting from LTPP—A State's Perspective