rapidly. When the Department of Agriculture decided in 1922 to send an exhibition to the Brazilian International Centennial Exposition, the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) was selected to participate. Its exhibit was a large model of a gravel road in various phases of construction placed in front of a realistic background supplied by an oil painting. For this meeting a special report explaining the work of the Bureau and its exhibit was prepared, translated into Portuguese, and distributed.[1]
Following the successful demonstration at the Brazilian exhibit, Chief MacDonald was appointed as a delegate to attend the first Pan-American Road Congress in Argentina in October 1925. H. H. Rice, Chairman of the U.S. Delegation, clearly defined the reasons for participation in this Congress when he stated:
We feel that our mission is especially important on account of this country’s long and costly experience in establishing an adequate system of highways. Those who have been connected with the good roads movement in the United States since its inception have learned many lessons which should be of the greatest value to any other nation in the earlier stages of highway development.
If, by citing our own experiences, we can help our sister nations of the south to avoid the needless waste of time and millions of dollars of money which we were obliged to go through before highway construction had become systematized as it is now in this country, we feel that our return trip to South America will be productive of . . . good results. . . .[2]
After his return from this Congress, Chief MacDonald presented a paper titled “Our International Relations as Shown by the Pan-American Congress at Buenos Aires” to the 11th Annual Meeting of AASHO. In concluding his address, Chief MacDonald established what was to be the guiding policy of the Bureau when he stated:
What is here written must be heard for its one purpose—rather two purposes. The first is to stimulate our own imagination and to sustain a more profound faith in this work of highway building. The other is to point one way in which we may be of the greatest service to these other countries. There are many opportunities open to help in the tremendous highway improvement program they must have. . . . There is a definite responsibility upon this generation for the establishment of international relations of enduring character. In the next quarter century these will be of greater importance. The solidarity of the Western Hemisphere and the opportunity for each republic to work out its own destiny under favorable and helpful conditions is the end sought. Without highway improvement of magnificent proportions these conditions are impossible. Mutual sympathy and helpfulness is the spirit of Pan Americanism. It is the finer statesmanship.[3]
Shortly after this, the Bureau appointed a technical advisor to the American Delegation at a Conference on Automobile Circulation held in Paris, France.
In October 1930 the Sixth International Road Congress was held in Washington, D.C., with the Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads serving as Secretary-General of the American Organizing Commission. Engineers from 64 countries attended. The Congress consisted of general discussions and reports of road problems of mutual interest to all engineers.
At about this same time, in line with the policy expressed by Chief MacDonald, the Bureau became actively involved in the design and construction of the Inter-American Highway. But with the increased load of national recovery programs in the mid-1930’s, very little attention was given to other overseas operations or exchanges.
In 1938, Chief MacDonald presented a paper at the 24th Annual Meeting of the AASHO titled “Contrasting United States and European Practice in Road Development.” He pointed out significant developments on the European scene, such as the German autobahn, and emphasized the benefits to be gained by the study and application of events and programs undertaken by other political entities. He stressed that “This is not an advocacy that we should or should not be governed by or adopt the policies and methods of other countries; rather that we should intelligently appraise the results of the cycles of time through which the older countries have gone as an invaluable experience from which we can profit sans cost.”[4]
In 1938, E. W. James, who was deeply involved in the Inter-American Highway, was detailed to Cuba to provide assistance to Cuban engineers in reconstruction of the central highway. By 1939 other requests from Latin-American countries for technical assistance began to come to the Bureau. Under provisions of Public Law No. 545 of the 75th Congress and Public Law No. 63 of the 76th Congress, the Bureau sent engineers to Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador for short-term specialized assistance. On May 25, 1939, the Export-Import Bank of Washington officially requested the Secretary of Agriculture to arrange for the assignment of engineers from the Bureau to assist the Bank in connection with the extension of credits for public road construction in Latin America.
Economic Development Becomes the Guiding Force
With the advent of World War II, PRA engineers became involved in urgent projects in Panama, on the Inter-American Highway, and on the Alaska Highway as part of the defense effort. In addition to these high priority projects, Public Roads engineers in 1943 were detailed to highway projects in Bolivia, Haiti, and Santo Domingo. By the end of the war, these projects had either been completed or were phased down to a peacetime schedule.
However, a new priority on overseas operations had emerged. The United States took on the responsibility to assist in the recovery of our friends and allies from the devastation and economic ruin resulting from the war. Two major programs were soon to be initiated under separate legislation by Congress. The first of these was the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the war-damaged highway system of the Philippines. The second was the development of a highway organization in Turkey capable of the construction and maintenance of an expanding road system to be undertaken as a part of a Mutual Security Program. From 1946 to 1950 these two programs drew heavily upon the manpower and technical backup skill of Public Roads. Over 100 engineers and technicians were sent overseas to work and train local engineers and equipment personnel.
The effect of the U.S. highway operations in the Philippines was probably most clearly and sincerely expressed in a letter written to the Bureau in 1952 by
520
- ↑ Bureau of Public Roads, The Bureau of Public Roads and Its Exhibit (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D.O., 1922) pp. 5, 6.
- ↑ H. H. Rice Appointed Chairman of U.S. Delegation to Pan-American Road Congress at Buenos Aires, Good Roads, Vol. 68, No. 7, Aug. 1925, pp. 196, 197.
- ↑ T. MacDonald, Our International Relations as Shown by the Pan-American Road Congress at Buenos Aires, Address delivered at 11th Annual Meeting, American Association of State Highway Officials, Detroit, Mich., Nov. 19, 1925, Papers, 1924–25, p. 11.
- ↑ T. MacDonald, Contrasting United States and European Practices in Road Development, Address delivered at 24th Annual Meeting, American Association of State Highway Officials, Dallas, Tex., Dec. 5, 1938, Papers, 1937–39, pp. 3, 4.
