Thomas Harris MacDonald regarded road building as something more than a mere livelihood; it was a calling of higher moral purpose. "Next to the education of the child," he wrote, road building ranked as "the greatest public responsibility." It contributed to the common good and did more to increase the "possibilities of enjoyment and happiness of life than any other public undertaking." Good roads could improve the living standards of all, but especially rural Americans. For decades agrarian life had been on the decline as young men and women on farms, unable to tolerate their isolation, abandoned their parents' land and succumbed to work in the city. It was only a matter of time before those living in cities would outnumber those living on farms. Surely, MacDonald and others believed naively, roads connecting the country with the city could reverse this decline. Not only would he would pull farmers out of the mud, but through good roads he would connect those farms with the county seat, the state capital, and ultimately with other states and cities. Greater mobility would make rural life more attractive and help keep Iowa's sons and daughters on the farm.

Automobiles were beginning to appear in the state, and they, too, needed good roads if they were to travel beyond the limits of large cities. Isolated no longer, rural life would prosper. MacDonald's high ideals were sorely tested: The men building roads in Iowa in 1904 were both fraudulent and ignorant. Throughout each of the state's 99 counties, private companies--often with the knowledge of county officials--conspired to rig their construction bids so that each would be guaranteed a portion of the contracts. While their collusion was merely unethical, their construction was dangerously incompetent: wooden bridges insufficient to carry an automobile or a horse and wagon; bridge decking without room for expansion and contraction; wooden culverts without any reinforcement. Within a few months of completion, the structures invariably collapsed or broke apart and county officials and construction companies repeated the process. Shortly after his appointment, MacDonald challenged the simpatico relationship bridge contractors and cement producers enjoyed with county officials. Traveling the state on horseback and by train, he set up demonstration projects that taught county officials how to build culverts with concrete and bridges with steel, as well as the principles of road maintenance. He checked construction projects personally; often he uncovered serious flaws, and sometimes fraud. Many farmers and local officials did not know quite what to make of this formal and dispassionate young man who brought efficient management, scientific detachment, and an unassailable integrity to what they regarded as simply an easy and benign way to spread a little extra money about the state. But word spread quietly and quickly: unlike others concerned with road building, MacDonald could not be bought. He exposed bid rigging in Clinton and Polk counties. County officials went to jail and companies had to reimburse counties for shoddy work.