Before the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956: Francis V. Du Pont In Context By Richard F. Weingroff It’s never a good idea to take over for a legend. You just might some day be as forgotten as Commissioner of Public Roads Francis V. (Frank) du Pont is today. He had the dubious distinction of following a legend on April 1, 1953, when he replaced Commissioner of Public Roads Thomas H. MacDonald. MacDonald had headed the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) since March 1919 through a series of title and agency name changes. Throughout the highway community nationally and internationally, MacDonald was recognized as the greatest figure of his era. He was widely respected in Congress, especially in the public works committees and roads subcommittees, and had been retained after he hit the mandatory retirement age of 70 by President Harry S. Truman to avoid disruption during the Korean War. In 1919, his title was Chief of BPR. That became his nickname. Those who knew him called him the Chief or Mr. MacDonald. Anyone calling him “Tom” or “Thomas” clearly did not know him well.1 Two months after the start of the Eisenhower Administration, MacDonald retired on March 31. Actually, he was fired because the new Administration wanted control of the Federal-aid highway program and its funding (about half the Commerce Department’s budget). That would not be possible if MacDonald remained in office in view of his stature and relationship with congressional leaders. On April 1, 1953, he looked on as Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks administered the oath of office to the new Commissioner of Public Roads, Francis V. du Pont. Calling MacDonald “Mr. Public Roads,” Secretary Weeks said: For all practical purposes, you have been the only public-roads commissioner in the history of this government. You have given many years of earnest and untiring effort in behalf of better highways. Your service and the results accomplished have been notable primarily because of your great ability in this field, coupled with the integrity and high character you have always displayed in your conduct of the office. All this makes me very sure that your devotion to the cause of better highways will provide inspiration to those who follow you long beyond our time. 2 1Lewis, Tom, Divided Highways: Building the Interstate Highways, Transforming American Life, Updated Edition, Cornell University Press, 2013, page 5. 2“MacDonald to Texas,” News of Men, Better Roads, April 1953, page 52; “Road Chief takes Oath,” The New York Times, April 1, 1953. In speaking to the press prior to leaving office, MacDonald stressed the importance of the Federal-State partnership: [It] is a workable plan to accomplish a continuing program that involves both local and national services; second, it sets a pattern in harmony with the concepts of federal government. He traced the partnership to the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, which created the Federal-aid highway program. He told reporters: [It] recognized the sovereignty of the states and the authority retained by the states to initiate projects. All through the legislation since then, the same mechanism of checks and balances has been maintained evenly so that the states and the federal government both have to agree before they can accomplish a positive program. The condition of the Nation's roads was, as ever, very much on his mind. Most of a Federal-aid system of interstate roads – basically, the U.S. numbered highways – had been surfaced by the mid-1930's, but only to the standards necessary for that period. Now, those same roads remained in service but based on the increased number of vehicles and miles traveled, society expected them to provide at least eight times the service they were designed to handle. Less than 25 percent of the National System of Interstate Highways as designated in August 1947 – mostly rural mileage with lines through the main cities, with urban networks not yet determined – was adequate for modern traffic. About 16 percent of the System was "critically deficient." (Note that at the time, engineers expected that for the most part, existing roads would be upgraded to Interstate standards, not that most Interstate highways would consist of new roads built on a different alignment.) To meet growing needs, he told reporters: It is logical to borrow for important needs and to retire the borrowings from user income. By setting aside the income from a fraction – say a cent of the gasoline tax, there is an assured fund that can be used to retire bonds. The Federal Government had begun collecting a tax on gasoline in 1932 as part of a deficit reduction plan. The funds had never been used, directly or indirectly, for the Federal-aid highway program. As always, his attitude toward toll roads was cautious: Financing toll roads with bonds paid for entirely out of revenue [tolls collected on the road] can lead us into a dangerous situation. Only certain stretches of heavy traffic roads, like the New Jersey Turnpike, can be self-supporting on that basis. Issuing bonds backed by earmarked gasoline tax receipts was one way of paying the difference between bond charges and toll collections. Noting that the Federal Government collected $800 million a year in fuel tax revenue but provided funds to the States at a rate of only $575 million, he thought it "desirable to equate federal aid to federal gas tax revenues." He was not, however, convinced that all Federal highway user tax revenues should be dedicated to highways, citing excise taxes on such products as perfume and alcoholic beverages as examples of taxes levied simply to meet government expenses. "Take the cigarette tax," he explained. "I don't know how you would apply its proceeds for the benefit of cigarette users." A reporter asked MacDonald if general reductions could be achieved in road expenditures if the use of highways were restricted to lighter vehicles. "We start off on an absurdity," MacDonald replied. "I've never subscribed to any part of that theory. If we didn't have to support an army all our taxes could be reduced." He added that even if it were possible to ban commercial carriers from the highways, officials would still have to build the roads for heavy traffic as a national defense measure.3 Secretary Weeks had announced the change on March 17. Author Earl Swift, in his book about the people who created the country’s highway network, wrote of MacDonald: In the last week of March, he showed the new man around the office, making introductions, explaining bureau procedure. After finishing his last day of government service, MacDonald agreed to preside over a farewell dinner thrown by his closest friends and colleagues at Washington’s Metropolitan Club. After attending the swearing in ceremony for du Pont, MacDonald left by car for College Station, Texas, where he would work part time to help Texas A&M University, in collaboration with the Texas Highway Commission, develop a transportation research institute, to be named the Texas Transportation Institute.4 T. Coleman du Pont Commissioner du Pont knew about replacing legends because MacDonald was actually the second legend du Pont had to follow. The first was his father, T. Coleman du Pont. "Coly," according to biographer William H. A. Carr, was, "Six feet four, good-looking, [and] a complete extrovert . ." He liked to perform simple magic tricks and enjoyed playing practical jokes on his friends and employees. An 1885 graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), du Pont began his career at the family's coal mines in western Kentucky. In the 1890's, as general manager of the 3"MacDonald Retires as Commissioner of Public Roads; F. V. du Pont takes over," Engineering News- Record, April 2, 1953, page 52; Odlin, William S. Jr., "MacDonald Stresses Antiquity of 76 Pc. of U.S. Main Roads," Transport Topics, April 6, 1953, page 1. 4Swift, Earl, The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011, pages 161-162. Johnson Company, he began by manufacturing street railway rails and switches, then moved into building and operating street railways. In 1902, the family's E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company was in financial difficulty and in danger of passing out of the family's hands. He and two of his brothers acquired the company, with Coly appointed President, a position where his outgoing good humor and promotional skills helped restore the company to financial health. By the mid-1910's, du Pont was also part owner of a hotel chain that included the Waldorf Astoria and the Sherry Netherland in New York City; the Bellevue-Stratford in Philadelphia; and the Willard Hotel in Washington; as well as the Du Pont Hotel in Wilmington. Du Pont had a longstanding interest in good roads. He claimed that it went back to his days in the Kentucky coal fields. Production was plagued by a large hole in the road outside a mine in Centre City. Finally, du Pont concluded that it would be cheaper to fill it with coal than pull loaded wagons out of it several times a day. Whatever the cause, his interest was reflected in his role as Chairman of the National Highways Association's Board of National Councillors. The association was dedicated to construction by the Federal Government of a national highway network, as well as “Good Roads Everyone,” as its motto proclaimed. He would be a spokesperson, with his picture printed in all its publications. (You will find more information on the association on this Web site at https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/davis.cfm.) More direct evidence came in 1911, when he announced, "I am going to build a monument one hundred miles high and lay it on the ground." The road in Delaware would be "the straightest, widest, and best [road] in the world." Through Coleman du Pont Road, Inc., he began construction of the road at the Maryland State line on a 200-foot wide right-of-way.