WEBVTT - Was Eisenhower Really Responsible For Our Interstate Highways?

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<v Speaker 1>This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,

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<v Speaker 1>the show where America is the star and the American people.

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<v Speaker 1>Although President Eisenhower's name is forever etched upon our interstate

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<v Speaker 1>highway system, Charles Zugg wanted to know if this was true.

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<v Speaker 1>Zug is an assistant professor of Constitutional democracy and political

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<v Speaker 1>science at the University of Missouri. Is a Jack Miller

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<v Speaker 1>Center Fellow. He's also the author of Dwight D. Eisenhower

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<v Speaker 1>and the Federal Highway Act. Let's take a listen.

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<v Speaker 2>When you're driving down a highway in the United States,

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<v Speaker 2>there's a good chance you'll see a blue sign with

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<v Speaker 2>five white stars in a circle that reads Eisenhower Interstate System.

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<v Speaker 2>These signs, which communicate the official name of the US

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<v Speaker 2>Federal highway network, reflect the nearly universally held belief that,

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<v Speaker 2>in nineteen fifty six, President Dwight D. Eisenhower built the Interstates,

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<v Speaker 2>That it was Eisenhower who, through transformative leadership, convinced Congress

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<v Speaker 2>and the rest of the American political system that the

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<v Speaker 2>country's largest ever infrastructure project was both popular and necessary.

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<v Speaker 2>That story is incorrect, or put more modestly, it bears

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<v Speaker 2>only a pale resemblance to the truth. Saying that Eisenhower

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<v Speaker 2>is responsible for the Interstates is like saying a quarterback

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<v Speaker 2>who got benched in the first quarter before scoring any

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<v Speaker 2>points is responsible for his team winning the game under

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<v Speaker 2>the leadership of a different quarterback three hours later. Did

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<v Speaker 2>the first QB play some role in shaping the final outcome,

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<v Speaker 2>of course, but was he decisive or even necessary? That's

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<v Speaker 2>much harder to say.

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<v Speaker 1>So.

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<v Speaker 2>Yet, the Interstates did get built, and Eisenhower has, over

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<v Speaker 2>the decades, gotten the lion's share of the credit. So

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<v Speaker 2>what's going on here? For many Americans, the federal government

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<v Speaker 2>is more of an abstraction than a concrete reality. Most

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<v Speaker 2>of us know who the president and vice president are,

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<v Speaker 2>and maybe some other nationally prominent leaders, such as the

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<v Speaker 2>House Speaker or the Attorney General. We might even know

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<v Speaker 2>of our members of Congress or our state senators, But

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<v Speaker 2>most of the stuff that actually makes up the American state,

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<v Speaker 2>all the agencies and departments and bureaus, are too distant

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<v Speaker 2>from us to matter all that much. This is an

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<v Speaker 2>odd thing because the federal government is immense. In twenty

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<v Speaker 2>twenty two, it employed two point eight seven million workers,

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<v Speaker 2>nearly two percent of the entire US workforce. Its annual

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<v Speaker 2>budget is around six trillion dollars, an incomprehensible amount for

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<v Speaker 2>a populace whose median income is around seventy four thousand

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<v Speaker 2>dollars a year. For all this, how often, is an

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<v Speaker 2>ordinary and likely to encounter the goliath that is the

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<v Speaker 2>US federal government directly. For Americans not serving in the

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<v Speaker 2>armed services, there are two routine points of contact. The

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<v Speaker 2>first is the postal service, which delivers our mail and

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<v Speaker 2>provides some other services, and which has been around since

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<v Speaker 2>the country's founding at the end of the eighteenth century.

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<v Speaker 2>In fact, establishing post offices and postal routes is one

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<v Speaker 2>of Congress's explicit responsibilities in the Constitution. The second is

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<v Speaker 2>the interstate highway system, and for younger Americans unaccustomed to

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<v Speaker 2>sending and receiving physical letters, driving on a federal highway

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<v Speaker 2>will be by far the most frequent direct encounter they

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<v Speaker 2>will have with the federal government. Unlike the postal service,

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<v Speaker 2>federal highways are not mentioned directly in the Constitution, and

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<v Speaker 2>for most of our country's history, the federal government played

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<v Speaker 2>no direct role in their construction or maintenance. The country

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<v Speaker 2>has always had roads of course, but those roads were

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<v Speaker 2>the responsibility of state and local governments, or, in some

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<v Speaker 2>cases a private contractors hired by those governments. This was

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<v Speaker 2>not such a problem when the country was rural and

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<v Speaker 2>when people primarily consumed goods that they grew and fashioned

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<v Speaker 2>for themselves. But as the country advanced, as people became

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<v Speaker 2>more dependent on buying and selling commodities produced by people

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<v Speaker 2>other than themselves, there arose a need to transport goods, services,

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<v Speaker 2>and the people who used them efficiently from disparate parts

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<v Speaker 2>of the country. The federal government did not keep pace

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<v Speaker 2>with these developments. In the decades following the Civil War

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<v Speaker 2>and leading into the twentieth century, families and businesses struggled

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<v Speaker 2>to keep up with the demands of a growing industrial economy,

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<v Speaker 2>in a large part because they simply could not buy

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<v Speaker 2>and sell goods and transport themselves efficiently. And with the

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<v Speaker 2>rise of personal automobiles in the early nineteen hundreds, access

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<v Speaker 2>to well built and properly maintained roads became more urgent

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<v Speaker 2>than ever. What was the hold up a lot of stuff,

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<v Speaker 2>but the chief impediment was tradition, or what political scientists

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<v Speaker 2>call path dependence. Since the country's founding the federal government

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<v Speaker 2>had played no role whatsoever in road building, which meant

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<v Speaker 2>that responsibility had fallen to subordinate governments. But in order

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<v Speaker 2>to be effective, road building requires not only money and labor,

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<v Speaker 2>but planning and coordination. Someone needs to plan roots that

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<v Speaker 2>will help not just a few special groups, but the

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<v Speaker 2>largest number of community members possible. In convincing the states

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<v Speaker 2>to relinquish control of that power proved very difficult. As

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<v Speaker 2>a consequence, the federal government played no meaningful role in

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<v Speaker 2>highway building during the first half of the twentieth century.

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<v Speaker 2>The peripheral role it did play was in the form

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<v Speaker 2>of matching funds. If a state highway authority built roads,

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<v Speaker 2>the federal government would match whatever expenditures the state incurred, thereby,

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<v Speaker 2>in theory, at least incentivizing more construction. The problem was

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<v Speaker 2>the Feds put essentially no conditions on these maps funds,

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<v Speaker 2>with the result that there was no planning on routes.

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<v Speaker 2>In some cases, a highway that should have linked major

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<v Speaker 2>cities in bordering states simply ended at one state's border

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<v Speaker 2>because the two states had failed to agree upon the route.

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<v Speaker 2>Worse still, states that could have benefited the most from

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<v Speaker 2>highway construction tended also to be the poorest and consequently

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<v Speaker 2>the least likely to receive significant matching funds. Finally, two

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<v Speaker 2>World Wars, which diverted domestic resources and manpower to the

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<v Speaker 2>battlefields of Europe and Asia, did little to incentivize road

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<v Speaker 2>building on a national scale.

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<v Speaker 1>And you've been listening to Charles Zugg tell the story,

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<v Speaker 1>the true story, the real story of how our interstate

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<v Speaker 1>highway system came to be.

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<v Speaker 3>And what a mess. Right up until the nineteen fifties.

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<v Speaker 1>You'd had all that money deployed, all that capital deployed

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<v Speaker 1>to fight two World Wars, and this whole idea of

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<v Speaker 1>matching grants.

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<v Speaker 3>The various states couldn't get together and.

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<v Speaker 1>Figure out what to do or where to put roads

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<v Speaker 1>and how to connect them best for the American people.

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<v Speaker 1>And then there was that problem of the poor states,

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<v Speaker 1>the ones that probably needed roads the most, having no

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<v Speaker 1>funds to match. When we come back the problem of

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<v Speaker 1>connecting the states, connecting our highway system together, the story

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<v Speaker 1>of how the interstate highway system ours came to be

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<v Speaker 1>continues here on Our American Stories. Leehabib here the host

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<v Speaker 1>of our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're

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<v Speaker 1>Go to Alamerican Stories dot com and give. And we're

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<v Speaker 1>back with our American stories and with Charles Zugg, who's

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<v Speaker 1>the author of Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Federal Highway Act.

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<v Speaker 1>He's telling the story of our a federal highway system

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<v Speaker 1>came to be the real story.

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<v Speaker 3>Let's return to Charles.

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<v Speaker 2>Entered Dwight Eisenhower, who in nineteen fifty two was the

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<v Speaker 2>first Republican to be elected president in twenty years. Born

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<v Speaker 2>in Texas and raised in Abilene, Kansas, Ike, as he

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<v Speaker 2>was popularly called, spent his entire career in the United

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<v Speaker 2>States Army, rising from West Point cadet to Supreme Allied

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<v Speaker 2>Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second

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<v Speaker 2>World War. Apart from a brief stint as president of

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<v Speaker 2>Columbia University, Ike had never held a civilian post before

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<v Speaker 2>being sworn in as president in January nineteen fifty three.

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<v Speaker 2>He was not even particularly close with the Republican Party.

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<v Speaker 2>Both parties had attempted to recruit him for president. In fact,

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<v Speaker 2>what seems to have attracted Eisenhower to the GOP had

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<v Speaker 2>less to do with policy and political philosophy and more

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<v Speaker 2>to do with the fact that most of his private

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<v Speaker 2>sector friends all happen to be Republican businessmen. All of

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<v Speaker 2>this will become relevant in a moment. How did Eisenhower

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<v Speaker 2>come to be identified with interstate highway expansion? The relevant

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<v Speaker 2>mythology tells us that Ike became fixated on highway building

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<v Speaker 2>while serving as general in occupied Germany after World War II.

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<v Speaker 2>Having witnessed the German highway system called the Auto Bonden, Ike,

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<v Speaker 2>we are told, decided that such an infrastructure program was

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<v Speaker 2>both possible and necessary in the United States. There is

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<v Speaker 2>precious little to support this just so story in the

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<v Speaker 2>relevant archival material. Written statements supporting it appear nowhere in

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<v Speaker 2>Eisenhower's papers or correspondents. The smoking gun would seem to

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<v Speaker 2>be aligned from Eisenhower's own memoirs, written years after his presidency,

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<v Speaker 2>and likely romanticized in order to give coherence to the

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<v Speaker 2>otherwise convoluted story of highway expansion. Besides this, there is

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<v Speaker 2>no good reason to believe Ike was particularly concerned with highways,

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<v Speaker 2>any more concerned than activist presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt,

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<v Speaker 2>and Harry Truman, all of whom had at some point

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<v Speaker 2>advocated for dramatic road building projects during their presidencies. What

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<v Speaker 2>made Eisenhower distinct was not his interest, but rather his

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<v Speaker 2>strategy for pursuing a policy innovation that had been popular

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<v Speaker 2>and recognized as necessary for a very long time. Shortly

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<v Speaker 2>after his election in nineteen fifty two, Eisenhower asked a

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<v Speaker 2>Wall Street venture capitalist named Walker Buckner to design a

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<v Speaker 2>financing scheme to fund federal highway expansion. Ike's reasoning was straightforward.

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<v Speaker 2>During the nineteen fifty two campaign, Eisenhower had vowed to

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<v Speaker 2>reduce spending and to work towards balancing the federal budget,

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<v Speaker 2>which had expanded greatly during the New Deal in the

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<v Speaker 2>Second World War. That foreclosed deficit spending as an option

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<v Speaker 2>for financing highway construction. On the other hand, Eisenhower had

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<v Speaker 2>assured prominent Republicans that he would also avoid raising taxes

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<v Speaker 2>and also seek to lower taxes where possible, another priority

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<v Speaker 2>of the postwar GOP establishment. These twin constraints left Ike

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<v Speaker 2>with few options for pursuing what would need to be

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<v Speaker 2>a massively expensive, yet politically popular highway building program. The

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<v Speaker 2>plan Buckner came up with, which Eisenhower circulated within his administration,

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<v Speaker 2>proposed borrowing funds without actually counting those funds as part

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<v Speaker 2>of the federal deficit. It would be like convincing another

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<v Speaker 2>person to take out a car loan for an automobile

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<v Speaker 2>that you would actually use. That person would be obligated

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<v Speaker 2>to pay back the debt, while you u would derive

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<v Speaker 2>the benefits of the new car. This plan went through

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<v Speaker 2>several different iterations within the Eisenhower White House before stalling

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<v Speaker 2>out in nineteen fifty four. Iike's advisors appreciated the need

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<v Speaker 2>to avoid deficit spending while also keeping taxes low, but

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<v Speaker 2>as political professionals, they also had a hard time wrapping

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<v Speaker 2>their brains around a scheme that would raise money for

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<v Speaker 2>the government while keeping that money off of the government's

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<v Speaker 2>balance sheets. Things came to a head in the summer

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<v Speaker 2>of nineteen fifty four, when, after having his Vice President,

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<v Speaker 2>Richard Nixon announced a major new highway program which did

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<v Speaker 2>not in fact exist. Eisenhower authorized the creation of two

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<v Speaker 2>distinct committees within his administration to study the issue and

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<v Speaker 2>actually come up with a plan. One committee, called the

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<v Speaker 2>President's Advisory Committee, would actually write a plan, while a second,

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<v Speaker 2>called the Interagency Committee, would give expert advice. The first

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<v Speaker 2>committee was made up of private sector business officials, all

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<v Speaker 2>save one Republican millionaires. The second consisted in government officials

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<v Speaker 2>with authority and expertise that connected them to highways. These

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<v Speaker 2>two committees hated each other, sometimes actively working to undermine

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<v Speaker 2>the other's mission. Matters were not helped when in nineteen

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<v Speaker 2>fifty four, the Democrats recaptured both chambers of the Congress,

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<v Speaker 2>making any plan authored by the Republican Millionaires Club that

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<v Speaker 2>was the Advisory Committee unlikely to receive a warm reception

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<v Speaker 2>by the legislature. When the Advisory Committee ended up endorsing

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<v Speaker 2>a plan more or less the same as Buckner's original

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<v Speaker 2>from nineteen fifty two, the Interagency Committee raised hell. So

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<v Speaker 2>did the rest of the federal government when, after failing

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<v Speaker 2>multiple times to meet a self imposed deadline, the administration

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<v Speaker 2>finally sent the Advisory Committee's plan to Congress, it met

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<v Speaker 2>with incredulity Senate Finance Chair Harry Byrd, whose committee would

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<v Speaker 2>control the fate of any highway funding scheme. Lambasted the

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<v Speaker 2>plan as illegal and got Ike's own Comptroller General, the

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<v Speaker 2>chief accountant of the federal government, to publicly testify against

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<v Speaker 2>the Eisenhower plan before a Finance committee meeting. When the

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<v Speaker 2>House and Senate both voted down the administration plan in

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<v Speaker 2>the spring of nineteen fifty five, followed by the House

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<v Speaker 2>voting down a hastily written democratic alternative shortly thereafter, no

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<v Speaker 2>one should have been surprised. Finally, when it seemed like

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<v Speaker 2>things couldn't get much worse for the President's agenda, poor

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<v Speaker 2>Ike suffered a heart attack while vacationing in Colorado. Needing

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<v Speaker 2>to recuperate, the president delegated most significant responsibilities to his

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<v Speaker 2>cabinet under the leadership of Vice President Nixon. Counterintuitively, it

0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:02.359
<v Speaker 2>was under these inauspicious circums stances, with the president's sidelined

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<v Speaker 2>by health problems and the administration's highway plan up in flames,

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<v Speaker 2>that a few determined members of the Washington establishment decided

0:15:11.280 --> 0:15:16.360
<v Speaker 2>to seize the moment. Two members of Eisenhower's Cabinet had

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<v Speaker 2>also been members of the Marginalized Interagency Committee. Treasury Secretary

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<v Speaker 2>George Humphrey and Commerce Secretary Sinclair Weeks decided that highway

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<v Speaker 2>expansion was worth the hard choices that Eisenhower had been

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<v Speaker 2>unwilling to make. Working behind the scenes with key members

0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:40.200
<v Speaker 2>of Congress, including al Gore's father, Tennessee Senator Albert GORESR,

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<v Speaker 2>Weeks and Humphrey hashed out a bill that significantly raised

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<v Speaker 2>taxes to pay for highway expansion, but only those that

0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:54.000
<v Speaker 2>highway users would pay, such as taxes on gasoline, diesel,

0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:59.040
<v Speaker 2>and truck tire components. In the end, the feature that

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<v Speaker 2>made the bill most attractive was that highway user taxes

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<v Speaker 2>would in turn be segregated from other tax revenues into

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<v Speaker 2>a special account modeled after Social Security, known as the

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<v Speaker 2>Highway Trust Fund. That fund would supply building and maintenance

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<v Speaker 2>money for the interstates based on estimated user revenue from

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<v Speaker 2>the following year. Appreciative of the program's fairness and transparency,

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<v Speaker 2>Congress passed it with overwhelming bipartisan majorities in the summer

0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:31.920
<v Speaker 2>of nineteen fifty six.

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<v Speaker 1>And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling

0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:39.160
<v Speaker 1>by our own Greg Hengler, and a special thanks to

0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:40.640
<v Speaker 1>Charles zugg And.

0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:42.600
<v Speaker 3>He is the author of Dwight D.

0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.800
<v Speaker 1>Eisenhower and the Federal Highway Act, and he's also a

0:16:45.840 --> 0:16:47.600
<v Speaker 1>fellow at the Jack Miller Center.

0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:48.960
<v Speaker 3>The Jack Miller Center is.

0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:52.400
<v Speaker 1>A nationwide network of scholars and teachers dedicated to educating

0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:57.160
<v Speaker 1>the next generation about America's founding principles and history. To

0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:01.400
<v Speaker 1>learn more, visit Jack Miller Center. And we've done a

0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:05.320
<v Speaker 1>whole lot of storytelling with this great organization.

0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:06.119
<v Speaker 3>And what a story this was.

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<v Speaker 1>I gets all the credit, but in the end, it

0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.000
<v Speaker 1>was these players behind the scenes, the Commerce and Treasury

0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:17.280
<v Speaker 1>Secretary picking up the remains of well a doomed plan

0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.080
<v Speaker 1>from the beginning, and what they came up with was

0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.960
<v Speaker 1>something brilliant. The user tax, that is, if you use

0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:28.720
<v Speaker 1>the highways, you pay for the highways gasoline taxes, tire taxes,

0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:31.880
<v Speaker 1>and a variety of others that go into a highway

0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:36.000
<v Speaker 1>trust fund for that use. And as often as the

0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.040
<v Speaker 1>case here on this show, we love to get at

0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:42.000
<v Speaker 1>the real history, not the mythological history that we learn

0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:45.800
<v Speaker 1>sometimes in our textbooks. The story of how the Federal

0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:50.199
<v Speaker 1>Highway system came to be the real story. Here on

0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:52.080
<v Speaker 1>our American stories,