American Road Congress. The Third and Fourth American Road Congresses followed in 1913 and 1914.
A number of State highway commissioners and chief engineers assumed very active roles in the American Highway Association, but most of the State men felt a need for an organization more specifically tailored to their needs. Such an organization, with membership restricted to the chief officials of the State highway departments and their staffs, was proposed by Virginia’s Commissioner of Highways, George P. Coleman, in January 1914. Page endorsed the idea, although he had hoped the State officials would organize within the framework of the American Highway Association, and in March 1914 he wrote to Mr. Coleman:
It has become increasingly apparent to me during the past few years that some medium should be provided for bringing the heads of the various State Highway Departments and of this office into closer touch, for the consideration of questions of mutual interest. Some sort of organization is, to my mind, highly desirable, but I think the best results can only be obtained by limiting the membership strictly to official heads of departments and their immediate staff, thus making the organization strictly official and enabling full and frank consideration of questions, particularly those of a technical character untrammeled by commercialism or popular prejudices.[1]
With Page’s blessing, the formation of the new body was assured, and in December 1914 the American Association of State Highway Officials was organized “for the purpose of providing mutual cooperation and assistance to the State highway departments and the several States and the Federal Government, as well as for the discussion of legislative, economic and technical subjects pertaining to the administration of such departments.”[2]
One of the first acts of the newly formed association was to instruct the executive committee to prepare, for the consideration of Congress, a bill authorizing Federal aid to highways.
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