38 STATE BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



to them and voted to adopt it as a township system ; and that last but not 

 least-talked-about-system called the statute labor system, which won't 

 work without help and the better the help the better it works. 



I lately was privileged to speak to a small audience in a big hall in 

 Chicago and after a multi-millionaire had spoken who made light of the 

 work done by the farmers of the country in building and improving the 

 public highways, I said "the farmers of Michigan have built a road one 

 hundred thousand miles long and worth one hundred million dollars," 

 then I turned to the vice presidents of that meeting who all lived in cities 

 and asked them "^if they had done as much," and got no answer. 



Then I told them that I was reminded of a Mr. Brown who had three 

 sons, the first he named John Farmer Brown, the second James City 

 Brown and the third Thomas Corporation Brown. In their home there 

 was but one table and at that table John, James and Tom sat and ate 

 their fill, but after dinner they all went out to work to provide further 

 food for all to eat and enjoy. And the road is like Farmer Brown's 

 table. It is not for John Farmer Lumber Wagon Brown all alone, nor for 

 James City Pleasure Carriage Brown to monopolize, neither is it ex- 

 pressly for Thomas Corporation Automobile Brown, but for John, for 

 James and for Tom and, if ever the roads of this country are made as 

 good as they are in the Old Countries, John, James and Tom will have to 

 contribute something to the fund that makes them so. At the present 

 time, and for all time in the past in Michigan, the farm property alone 

 has paid the whole bill of building and improving the highways, that is 

 five-thirteenths of the State's assessed valuation, and the five-thirteenths 

 in villages and cities and the three-thirteenths in corporations has gone 

 Scott free and used the roads whenever they liked. 



If George Washington stood in this room I would as quick assault him 

 as I would attack the statute labor system of this State, which has 

 produced one hundred thousand miles of road and worth one hundred 

 million dollars. However, it is my opinion if George Washington should 

 conje back to-day that he would need some up-to-date education in order 

 to be able to keep up with the times and be as eflScient as a man with 

 his will and purpose was wont to be, and so the statute labor system 

 needs some up-to-date education and some up-to-date additions to it, and 

 after a while our additions to it may change into quite another system 

 and not cause a ripple. I noticed that, when the Grand Trunk road built 

 their new bridge at Niagara, they did not tear down the old bridge 

 and then build a new one, but instead they built their new bridge into 

 their old bridge and you could not tell when the old bridge ceased to 

 be and the new bridge came into existence and so should the present road 

 system be changed so slowly and carefully that no shock will be given 

 and nobody be disturbed, for should we blot out the present system and 

 undertake to replace it with another, no matter how good the new one 

 was, it would fail before it got started and the ultimate end would be 

 that we should go back to the old and it would be a long time before we 

 would make any more attempts. 



To throw away this system before we have another would remind me 

 of a man who because there was a bolt gone in his mowing machine that 

 perhaps would cost him fifty cents to provide, he would throAV the ma- 

 chine into the fence corner and stop having until he could send to the fac- 

 tory and get a new one that would cost him forty-five dollars. 



