THE MCGURK WAY

[Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] this is the story of four men named Dan mcer it is also the story of Transportation in America one chapter of which opens here beside a new modern [Music] Highway well I guess you all know why we're here we wanted to invite everyone but young Dan wouldn't hear to it he said he just wanted you guys The Men Who helped him do it well you know the mcgerks they usually get their own way well maybe they've earned it this country sure wasn't what it is today before the mcgerks took a hand when the first murk came over that would be Old Dan he's thinking 1776 just in time to fight the revolution that wasn't literally true of course he was only a year old at the time but all the mcgerks were fighting men they fought the Wilderness other folks and when there was no one else to fight they'd fight each [Music] other oh Thunder R get up come [Music] on come on get out get out get get up there come on oh wait a minute oh this is plum silly what's Plum silly I'm going back to the canal there you just walk along a toe path and the horses pull it easy yeah but where does it get you you can only go where the canal goes no it don't look like you're going much any place stuck here in the mud oh blasted here take these rains and I'll lift it out oh I'll lift it out but just the same you can't stop progress your roads just ain't good enough no more all right then and we'll make them better come on get up there get up there get out of there come on get out get up come on like Old Dan said they made their roads better they tried corduroy and plank roads they spread gravel and some they surfaced with a covering named for the Scotchman who invented it McAdam but Dan Jr went back to his canal for maybe 30 years these man-made waterways were the main channels of Commerce within their territories then about the time hard surfaced roads had begun seriously to challenge the canals a new form of transportation arose to threaten them both and now the third mcer wanted to be a part of it why shouldn't the lad go to work on a railroad if he wants to now you keep out of this he don't want to be half horse and half alligator all his life can I say something no I tell you railroads are a nature running over farm animals killing people well no more than getting drowned but trains go farther and faster and look at all the country they're opening up west of the alagan oh don't you see Paul I want to be part of it might as well let him go he'll go anywhere they're going to ruin the canals and no son of mine all fiddles scks you remember what you told me once you can't can't stop progress you said and you was right there's nothing about a canal that's bigger than people no more than there is about a a railroad or a pike whatever will do the most good for the most people that's it so don't go tearing down the rail roads just make the canals better these were the first three Dan mcgerks and they are very much in the mind of the fourth Dan mcer as he sits here today on the carry all and so before the unveiling we're going to call on him for a speech one of the greatest guys at you or I or anybody will ever know and even though he's around 60 years old he still is and always will be young Dan mcer thank you boys that makes me feel good thank you commissioner thank you for coming all of you now there's only one thing that'll make this any better and that's if my great granddaddy could only be here he was quite a character Old Dan was a was a stogy man he drove the Wilderness Road and when his son left to go on the canal the old man had a fit and when his son my dad left the canal to work on the railroads I tell you Granddad would have cut him off with a shilling if he'd had had the Shilling we mcgrs just seem to be Transportation men one way or another first a Turnpike man second a canal man third a Railroader and me I seem to be a a throwback to the first one a road Builder each to the age he lives in I guess the year I was born a man named Winton made his first automobile when I was 19 a wagon maker by the name of froff made his first truck trailer it's easy enough to see what the automobile means to us we all have one it touches us directly on the other hand trucks and trailers mean a lot more to us really but because they don't touch most of us so directly we're up to forget that they bring us part of every material thing we have including the automobile that goes to make up our way of life like the railroads it's the freight that keeps most of them going not the passenger business now the line my dad worked on 91 cents out of every dollar they took in came from Freight only 9 cents came from passengers that's how important the movement of material is to everybody that's why trucks and trailers are so important they give to materials for us what the auto gives to us personally more flexible more convenient and usually more economical transportation and that's why the same as it's important to all the people that railroads carry freight trains it's important to all the people that highways carry trucks so the next time you have to wait for a freight train don't cuss the freight train it's working for you the same when you're slowed up behind a truck don't cuss the truck just ask yourself what it's doing there it isn't there just for the fun of it nobody goes for a ride in a truck and a trailer just for the fun of it there's work to be done that's why the truck is on the road and the the work it's doing is far more important to you than a few minutes delay another thing as a road Builder it always gripes me when anybody says the trucks are ruining our roads now that's a fine bunch of Malak you tell them young danam I do every chance I get I ask them what the heck I ask them what they think the answer is take the trucks off the highways well that's what they're half thinking only they'd feel foolish saying it besides some of our worst roads trucks never get on so they're hardly to blame for them well make the trucks pay for the damage they do that sounds like a safe answer the only trouble with it is they already do they pay their share of Road Weare and a lot more the chances are they're paying part of the share of the fell that's doing the griping of course the real answer is to build better roads that's not for the sake of the trucks that's for the sake of every man woman and child that lives under a roof eats food and wears clothes build better roads now let's take a look at the roads we've got just take a look at that one right over there I know it's hard for most people to realize that roads wear out whether they're used or not and I i' like to present every person interested with a slab of pavement just enough to show them and I'd inscribe on that pavement what makes it wear out there are five things soil weather construction maintenance and last traffic H take them one at a time soil few people stop to think that the places we need the roads the most the soil may be the least able to support them mountain and desert lands usually provide a solid footing but few people live such places traffic is not heavy as it is in the arable regions but the lighter soils don't make the best subgrade for highways they have to be properly prepared then there's the weather whatever the weather you know your r roads are right out in it winter is a road killer but so is summer rain snow sleep they're all hard on roads Frost widens the cracks and chips the pavement and the the drought of summer heat melts joint sealer heaves concrete wrinkles asphalt and and breaks up surfaces and construction at least we know as road builders how poor design bad materials shortcuts and the everpresent human error will shorten the life of Highways no matter what the traffic is and then neglect an imperfect maintenance proper maintenance should be both preventative medicine and cure treatment too seldom do our roads get enough of either one all this before we get to traffic of course traffic has its effect but if the road is properly built and properly maintained for the type of traffic it is to carry it'll last indefinitely by properly built I mean subgrade properly prepared any bad subsoil conditions corrected a good base laid and the right surface over it that that road will do all right naturally weight makes a difference but we mustn't lose sight of the fact that it's not gross weight but axle load weight that counts now you take that automobile the gross weight is divided among four tires whereas this big commodious truck trailer while it carries considerable more weight distributes that weight among 14 tires and in many cases as many as 18 tires dividing up the load on the pavement that much more as our various state laws permit the hauling of heavier loads it's based on the use of more tires as the fell says if the tires can take it the road can that is if it's built the way we have a right to expect our roads to be built today and we have have a right to expect roads like that because we've already paid for them in the last 25 years motorists and truckers have paid in hundreds of millions of dollars for road building and maintenance that hasn't been spent on the roads well what happened to the money a lot of it is still there in reserve but a lot of it has been diverted to other uses which I don't think ought to be if the money that we are already paying for better roads were spent on the roads we wouldn't have any additional taxes and we'd have the roads that's why I take a dim view of some of these politicians that come out and say well give us higher taxes and we'll fix up the roads well there's two things that I want to know from them just what do you propose to do for the roads before we give you a blank check and what's the matter with a million that we've paid in that you haven't used yet I say let's quit using the roads for a political football we need the roads for our way of life and we need the trucks it's not a question of motor trucks versus any other form of transportation it's trucks and all other forms of transportation railroads and waterways can only run certain places Airlines can land only certain [Music] places to get the freight to them or from them to the people we have to have roads we have to have trucks there are 25,000 communities in this country that have no other Freight connection for the rest of the world I don't mean only for them I mean every place take even Chicago it's got 40 some railroads 30 some Freight Airlines it has lake river and Canal Transportation but if no truck moved in Chicago for one week even for 3 Days the city would be paralyzed to site one simple example here is a familiar site not only in Chicago but on street corners and Crossroads all over our land the reason you can drive ly up to any one of them is a tank truck like this oil and gasoline is shipped to Chicago different ways including railroads and barges but you never saw a freight train stop at this corner you never saw a barge float up Hallstead Street you bet not and think what it would cost if either of them did who could afford the gasoline it's the same with everything we have today somewhere along the line from raw material to manufacturer to us everything we buy is handled by truck and many things we wouldn't have at all including Automobiles and the roads they run on if it weren't for trucks we need highways and trucks more today than ever before for National Defense now you know what a few bombs could do to a railroad but trucks regardless of bombs can always always find other routes to get through I tell you the time has come when we've got to get a new conception of our roads and trucking we build our first hard roads to to get the farmer out of the mud we built better roads for The Wider use of automobiles and now it's time to build them still better for the wider use of trucks now now where do we get the money to build roads out of tax money and where do we get the tax money out of Industry suppose you lived in the state of Washington Lumber's your big industry there better roads to handle Lumber better and cheaper will benefit everybody in the state the same goes for the sections where the big thing is steel or cement or petroleum or any other great industry whatever helps industry helps everybody build the roads for trucks instead of just for automobiles the automobiles will benefit even more like more bypasses around cities and turnout Lanes on Hills to let motorists pass more arterian and highways with heavier load carrying capacity per wheel on the highway we need old highways widened and new highways built every year 25,000 M of new cars are added to the highways we already have to say nothing of the new trucks and trailers we need traffic experts to figure out greater Highway capacity and Engineers must devote more study to soil conditions on which they have to build now let's stop sniping at the industry that is putting up 10 times its share of the money that is making our better roads possible let's stop shooting at Santa Claus and above all let's work toward more uniform regulations of trucks in the different states or else adopt some FAIR Plan of reciprocity between the states I know this is going to be hard to believe but listen to this now here is a truck trailer registered in New York it conforms to all length width height size and weight regulations of the Interstate Commerce [Music] Commission it has paid all its taxes and fees to operate in the state including the ICC permit to operate in any state but because it's run will take it part of the time into other states it has paid license fees to each each of those states too now let's take a a hypothetical example now suppose you live in Iowa and suppose the shoes you're wearing are made in New York the Iowa wholesaler who supplies your shoe Merchant sends his order to New York a truck trailer load now if you were in New York and wanted to drive your car home to Iowa all you'd need to comply with all laws on route would be your driver's license and automobile plates but just look what happens to the truck that's bringing your shoes New York says the truck and trailer with load can have a gross weight up to 61,500 lb let's assume that the trucker thinks that that's all there is to it and is ready to start off oh oh wait a minute now what's this those are the trade barriers that come up the moment you want something brought to you from another state by truck anyway your truck starts as far as the first state line New Jersey now they have a law that the gross weight can't be over £60,000 so we have to drop ,500 lb before we go any further now we can go again as far as the next state line that is Pennsylvania more trouble Pennsylvania says that the gross weight can only be 45,000 lb on top of that we have to change the lights on our truck in spite of the ICC regulation but these things we do and we're off again surely this time we're on our way uh-oh another state line don't tell me don't tell me let me guess you're overweight again huh no by Jingo we could put back £12,000 lb that is we could if we had a second truck following along picking up what we've had to drop so far but when we get to Indiana we lose 500 of the pounds we gained in Ohio we're back down to 56,500 maybe we'll do better in Illinois Ah that's better back up to 59,000 but you notice to start from New York with a load that is legal all the way to leave more than a fourth of our gross weight behind or or use four trucks to do the work of three think of the waste of rubber gasoline and equipment at a time when we need to conserve now we we can go again no wait a minute before we can go anywhere in Illinois we have to pay a a mileage fee of [Music] $245 now we can go ahead well here we are at your state of Iowa of course we aren't in yet we've got to buy a a compensation tag here for $250 more [Music] and drop off another 580 lb well we finally made it we brought you your shoes still cheaper than any other way but think how much less they could have cost you if the trucks were permitted to operate with the efficiency that they're capable of and you think that was a tough run it's one of the simplest altogether there are more than 300 different restrictions at the different state lines in Tennessee it's an inspection fee despite ICC certification West Virginia requires an insurance card on the vehicle although the ICC regulates this Arizona charges you a gasoline tax for the gas you already have in your tank when you enter the state but you can have a vehicle 65 ft long whereas in Kentucky it can only be half that length in Minnesota you've got to stop your truck wherever you are come 12:00 Saturday night and let it sit there till midnight Sunday night and so on now not all of these are expensive in money some have little more than nuisance value but they are expensive in time and they do make bottlenecks in our leading form of transportation because trucks haul three times as much as all other systems put together fortunately a lot of state legislators are looking at these facts and are working to correct the situation and I don't know about you but I'm getting a little tired of these guys that can't see further in their nose complaining about the trucks on the road I'd rather meet a truck any day than a lot of automobile drivers you know what a truck driver is going to do the next time you come up behind one notice how he's rolling along straight as a string well on his side of the road even on the curves then watch the next motorist you'll see plenty of them weaving back and forth over that Center Line driving in both lanes at once especially on the curves now watch this truck [Music] driver he's signaling us that the road ahead is clear so we can pass how many automobile drivers do that for you it all comes back to the two things I said we need the roads and we need the trucks we need better roads to catch up to the trucks we already have we need roads built to the needs of Industry we need to eliminate bottlenecks and we want to be sure that the money collected for roads is spent on roads well I'm not discouraged you know why asz my granddaddy said it a long time ago you can't stop PR or you can slow it up a little now and then but when enough people get the straight of it things begin to move and in this case they move by Highway thank you boys for coming out here thank you young Dan mcar and now for the unveiling at Young Dan's request we kept the sign simple but well here it [Applause] is from now on this great Highway will be known as mcer way looks to me like it's also the American way you can't stop progress a