World War II era

This edition of Celebrating 75 Years of Better Roads features items from the World War II era, a time when money for roads was scarce and uncertainty plentiful. Yet the need for mobilization and the anticipation of the end to the war when the country would boom made for a dilemma for government agencies and planners of the time.

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January 1942 — Less than 30 days after the United States
enters World War II

When the January 1942 issue of Better Roads was published, the United States had just entered the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor less than a month earlier. Imagine the world then without CNN, the Internet and networks of instant communications!

From the editorial “Local Government in Wartime”

 In his first editorial comment following the beginning of U.S. involvement in the war, in the January 1942 issue, Better Roads Editor C.M. Nelson wrote:

 “In the new world we are getting adjusted to many readers of this magazine must be asking themselves questions…’ How will local governments come out of the war? Will they be stronger or weaker’? ‘Will citizens find their local governments more essential or less essential to the processes of American democracy’?”

“In these days, like individuals, they (local governments) must toughen themselves to meet the shocks.”

Girding for War. Planning for Peace.

The feature article in January 1942 was previewed this way:

“While girding for war, America is planning for peace. A post-war planning agency with which road officials will have close relations is Public Works Reserve.” The head of this agency was A.D. Morrell, who outlined the agency’s “aims and proposed procedures” in the January 1942 issue.

Morrell wrote, “In a sense the establishment of the Public Works Reserve is a recognition of our need to prepare for peace. As an agency interested in public work, the Public Works Reserve has two express purposes. One is to secure from all state and local governmental agencies a listing of work that they consider necessary to the public good for the next 5 or 6 years. The second purpose is to assist these governmental agencies in the development and maintenance of a long-range program for such work.”

Planning for the times

In a February 1942 editorial on highway priorities for the U.S. during wartime, Editor Nelson wrote…

“The new master plan for highways for the war period will be worked out section by section, and month by month. Major uncertainties will remain. But highway planning for the war will never get started until we are satisfied that we know for certain what work cannot under any circumstances be curtailed, what can be reduced or delayed, and what can be forgotten for the time being.” 

Road builders face the war

In a report from the annual American Road Builders Association (A.R.B.A.) in February 1942, Better Roads reports that the leading road builder’s group was told by government officials that “only the most urgent road construction is possible…” yet, “serviceable highways are a vital war necessity.”

The A.R.B.A. members were told, “many roads are breaking up under the increased tonnages resulting form the speeding-up of war industry."

Wartime restrictions on motor-vehicle use

“Because of war regulations, it appears that for a long-time to come the number of new cars and other motor equipment will be extremely limited. This means diminishing traffic and dwindling tax returns for highway users”, which “will result in loss of income derived by the states from sales and highway-user levies.”

What about the roads?

In an editorial titled “What about the Roads” appearing in the June 1942 issue 6 months after the U.S. entered the war, Better Roads opined:

“At what level can the operations of highway departments be carried on without risking irreparable damage to the roads and to the vehicles using them in performing essential tasks? We are pretty well convinced that the vehicles and the tires we have aren’t going to last forever. What about the roads?”

Motor traffic and war industry: Facing the rubber shortage

As the war effort was now in high gear in June 1942 shortages of rubber, gasoline and other products needed to build and maintain roads were evident. In a transportation survey conducted by the state of West Virginia, it was reported that…

“Nearly 65% of all employees now travel to and from work in private automobiles on which 48 % of the tires will be worn out in the next 6 months.”

Those Post-war plans

Two and a half years after Pearl Harbor, road builders looked with optimism to the end of the war, as reported in the June 1943 issue...

“The prevailing tone of the planning sessions of the American Roads Builders Association held in Chicago last month was one of unity and accord. The road builders aren’t in total agreement on the desirable size of the post war highway program, but they are agreed on where the decimal point should be. It will be a whopping big program, they believe, and road leaders in congress appear to think so too.”

A wartime shop safety check-list

In an article about shop safety during wartime appearing in the July 1943 issues, editors provide a list of “rules” for shop safety …

 “The war compels a special vigilance. War news, possibly striking close to home, is certain to distract workers’ attention from what they are doing. These rules will aid safety education of new workers in the highway shop, and in reminding more experienced men that the chances of being laid up as the outcome of an accident are as good as ever.”

January 1944 issue—the glitch in post-war planning

“Failure of highway organizations to develop plans for projects that will be all ready to go at the end of the war isn’t always an indication of indifference or pure procrastination of caution amid uncertainties, including uncertainty about what the federal government is going to do. Often the only reason why preparation of plans is far behind schedule is that the technical manpower needed for the work simply isn’t available.”

Attitude of Survival

In an article on the condition of U.S. road maintenance during the war period, 

M.B. Hodges, Maintenance Engineer, Texas Highway Department wrote in the January 1944 issue, “As we enter the year 1944, we look forward with some optimism—and yet there are no real grounds for such an outlook. Conditions could not be much worse than they have been, and they should be much better. Maintenance demands go on in war years as in peace years, regardless of wartime strains on basic resources. We are going to have to work and work as we never have in years gone by.”

Preparing for the influx of veterans to return home —
from the March 1945 issue

“We have made ready for our veterans’ homecoming. The boys who come back from the war will not be the same boys who went away. Tact and patience on the part of fellow-employees will help smooth their way.”

“Warren County Mich. is prepared to fit its returning servicemen into civilian life through the means of a liberal, sympathetic veteran policy. Men who have neuro psychiatric difficulties need special attention.”

On the manpower shortage

From the April 1944 issue…weeks before V-E Day

“How are we going to get post-war projects into the blueprint stage? What will we use for engineers and draftsmen? The shortage of technical manpower has raised these perplexing questions for highway departments in every part of the country.”

The Post-War Era is Here

In an editorial title “The Post-war Era is Here”, Editor C.M. Nelson penned the following editorial in the September 1945 issue just a few weeks after V-J Day:

“We are living in the post-war era. Are we ready for it? If peace finds the nation unprepared, it isn’t because we haven’t been warned. We shall soon have a chance to find out how much more security there is in forthright plans than in illusions of an automatic and assured transition to a normal and comfortable peacetime world. The end of the war brings new responsibilities and the opportunity to carry on with unfinished highway business.”

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