Thomas Harris MacDonald
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Thomas Harris "Chief" MacDonald (July 23, 1881 – April 7, 1957) was an American civil engineer and politician with tremendous influence in building the American
Interstate Highway System The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Hi ...
. He served as chief of the
Iowa State Highway Commission The Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) is the government organization in the U.S. state of Iowa responsible for the organization, construction, and maintenance of the primary highway system. Located in Ames, Iowa, DOT is also respon ...
, chief of the
Bureau of Public Roads The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...
from 1919 to 1939, and commissioner of the
Bureau of Public Roads The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...
from 1939 to March 31, 1953, when he resigned shortly after President
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...
's first term began on January 20, 1953. He directed national road policy for 34 years, serving under seven different
U.S. Presidents The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. Under the U.S. Constitution, the officeholder leads the executive branch ...
. During his time, he supervised the creation of 3.5 million miles of highways. Later, he personally directed the creation of the Alaskan Highway, and helped the countries of Central America in building the
Inter-American Highway The Inter-American Highway (IAH) is the Central American section of the Pan-American Highway and spans between Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Panama City, Panama. History The idea of a road being built across all of Central America became a tangib ...
. " ewas a force as powerful as his counterpart at the FBI,
J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...
," insists historian Stephen B. Goddard, "yet was virtually unknown to most Americans."


Biography


Early life and career

Born a Scotsman in a
Leadville, Colorado Leadville ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Statutory city, statutory city that is the county seat, the most populous community, and the only List of municipalities in Colorado, incorporated municipality in Lake County, Colorado, Lak ...
log-cabin to John MacDonald and Sarah Elizabeth Harris, his family returned to
Poweshiek County, Iowa Poweshiek County is a County (United States), county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Iowa. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 18,662. The county seat is Montezuma, Iowa, Montezuma. The county is named for the c ...
when he was young. (He attended elementary and high school at public schools in
Montezuma, Iowa Montezuma is a city and the county seat of Poweshiek County, Iowa, United States. The population was 1,442 at the time of the 2020 census. Geography Montezuma's longitude and latitude coordinates in decimal form are 41.584737, -92.525258. Acco ...
, the county seat.) His father was a partner in T. Harris & Company, a grain and lumber dealer founded by his maternal grandfather, and Thomas grew up frustrated with the poor state of local roads. Lumber traveled in wooden wagons which were unusable in the spring and fall mud. Most people of the era saw railroads as the solution, but MacDonald went to
Iowa State College Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a public land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricultural College and Model Farm, Iowa State be ...
of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts at
Ames AMES, short Air Ministry Experimental Station, was the name given to the British Air Ministry's radar development team at Bawdsey Manor (afterwards RAF Bawdsey) in the immediate pre-World War II era. The team was forced to move on three occasion ...
(transferring after a year at Iowa State Teachers College) to learn road building as a student of Anson Marston. He received his bachelor's degree in civil engineering in 1904. (His senior thesis, written with L. T. Gaylord, was entitled "Iowa Good Roads Investigations.") In 1907, he married Elizabeth Dunham of
Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines, Iowa, Des Moines in central Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University (ISU). According to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Ames ha ...
and they had two children before her death in 1935. After graduation from college, he was named Assistant in Charge of Good Roads Investigation for the Iowa State Highway Commission (ISHC). He then became chief engineer and then Iowa highway commissioner, overseeing a budget of just $5,000 a year. He was soon named president of the
American Association of State Highway Officials The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a standards setting body which publishes specifications, test protocols, and guidelines that are used in highway design and construction throughout the United St ...
(AASHO) and at the age of 38, was suggested by that group to serve as chief of the Bureau of Public Roads. Congress quickly accepted. He demanded (and received) a salary increase from $4,500 to $6,000 and remained an AASHO board member. He also insisted on adoption of "the most liberal policy possible under the existing laws, in order to get actual construction work under way as early and as rapidly s reasonable" MacDonald pulled together a coalition including the Portland Cement Association, the
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, the American Road Builders Association, the Association of Highway Officials of the North Atlantic States, the Rubber Association of America, the Mississippi Valley Association of State Highway Officials, the National Paving Brick Manufacturer's Association, the
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, and more. MacDonald's popularity was such that when visiting towns he was given the finest hotel accommodations, free food and drink, and a guided tour of local roads. In 1920, an impostor took advantage of this to swindle the citizens of
Blackwell, Oklahoma Blackwell is a city in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States, located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 177 and State Highway 11 along Interstate 35. The population was 6,085 as of the 2020 census. Blackwell was established following the Sep ...
by taking advantage of their hospitality and passing bad checks. MacDonald was known to have a severe stare. "When you were in Mr. MacDonald's presence you were quiet. You spoke only if he asked you to," reports one subordinate. "He came as close ... to characterize what I would call royalty." He began what was then called a propaganda campaign to argue that good roads were a human right, with radio addresses as early as 1923; the creation of the Highway Education Board (HEB), an affiliate of the BPR that posed as an independent organization; and the Highway Research Board. The HEB wrote materials for schools, held nationwide contests, published booklets, and had a speakers bureau. He worked closely with the industries that would benefit from roads to extend his Federal budget. He persuaded Congress to grant him the authority to sign contracts with the states. He used this to write contracts promising the states money, which the U.S. Government was then obliged to fulfill (the US Constitution says that Congress may not abrogate any contracts). President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
fought bitterly to have MacDonald's powers repealed. In 1947, toward the end of his career, MacDonald argued for an end of "the preferential use of private automobiles" in cities and said the AASHO should "promote the patronage of mass transit... Unless this reversal can be accomplished, indeed, the traffic problems of the larger cities may become well nigh insoluble." But it was too late; in 1953, President Eisenhower asked for his resignation. He died in
College Station, Texas College Station is a city in Brazos County, Texas, United States, situated in East-Central Texas in the Brazos Valley, towards the eastern edge of the region known as the Texas Triangle. It is northwest of Houston and east-northeast of Austin, ...
in 1957.


Legacy

In 1949,
Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...
insisted "There is no better example of nonpolitical, effective, and prudent Federal, State and local cooperation than that afforded by the Public Roads Administration for almost 30 years under the respected leadership of Commissioner Thomas H. MacDonald."


Political views

MacDonald believed that, "Next to the education of the child," road building was "the greatest public responsibility." He argued, against critics and eventually evidence to the contrary, that roads would never take traffic away from railroads, but instead would complement them. "Perhaps what set MacDonald apart from his fellow engineers and certainly his railroad competitors," writes one historian, "was his early recognition that to sell roads, Washington would have to market them like a detergent.".


See also

*
Robert Moses Robert Moses (December 18, 1888 – July 29, 1981) was an American urban planner and public official who worked in the New York metropolitan area during the early to mid-20th century. Moses is regarded as one of the most powerful and influentia ...
* ''
The Power Broker ''The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York'' is a 1974 biography of Robert Moses by Robert Caro. The book focuses on the creation and use of power in New York politics of New York City, local and Politics of New York (state), sta ...
'' * Herbert S. Fairbank


References


Further reading

* *


External links


Past FHWA Administrators: Thomas Harris MacDonald
** FHWA
Firing Thomas H. MacDonald--Twice
* Biographical Dictionary of Iowa
MacDonald, Thomas Harris
*
American National Biography The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Lea ...

Thomas MacDonald
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Macdonald, Thomas Harris 1881 births 1957 deaths American civil engineers Iowa State University alumni People from Montezuma, Iowa People from Leadville, Colorado Administrators of the Federal Highway Administration