10 



THE STATE REVIEW. 



Michigan Good Roads Association. 



Next Annual Meeting Of The Good Roads Association At Jackson, January 9 and 10, 1907. 



Officers: President, W. W. Todd, Jackson; Vice-President, H. W. Davis, Lapeer; Secretary, R. J. Davison, Flint; Treasurer, D. F. Ross, Ypsi- 

 lanti. Executive and Legislative Committee: B. Griffin, Saginaw; H. W. Grix, Wayne; R. H. rletcher, Bay; G. W. Gaudy, Washtenaw ; E. D. 

 Black, Genesee. 



Use Convicts on Roads. 



In an address at Mobile, Ala., John Craft, of 

 that city, said : 



"I have studied for some time the problem of 

 working convicts on our public roads, and they 

 have proved to be the most economical road 

 builders to be had. The convict has long passed 

 the experimental stage for road-making. 



"Judge Eave, of Georgia, who has twenty years' 

 experience in working convicts as road builders, 

 says: They are the best and cheapest road build- 

 ers. While working convicts not a single overt 

 act was committed or a single child, woman or 

 man molested or one dollar's worth of property 

 depredated on.' 



"Mechlenburg county, North Carolina, has the 

 finest macadamized roads ,and it is being done 

 with convict labor. It costs an average of 25 cents 

 a day to guard, feed and care for the convict 

 labor when it is managed on business principles. 



"As for the convict himself, statistics show that 

 90 per cent of those who arc worked in the open 

 air, properly fed and guarded, return to their 

 families and cease to be a charge or a menace to 

 the state, while of those who are kept in prison 

 or are worked in mines, sawmills or similar places, 

 85 per cent become hardened criminals. 



"Nor do I think it right to put the honest 

 wage worker in competition with the convict labor. 

 or the manufacturing industry in competition with 

 the one who hires cheap convict labor. 



"Indiana has more than 17,000 miles of good 

 gravel roads. I remember when Indiana was con- 

 sidered one of the illiterate states in the union. 

 Today she is prosperous, and her people are no 

 longer ignorant, but the state is dotted with the 

 finest schools and colleges. 



"Massachusetts spends more money than any 

 other state on her public roads. New, York has 

 just voted to issue $50,000,000 for her roads, to be 

 spent in the next ten years. New Jersey has fine 

 roads, which have been of great benefit, and are 

 the best investment the state has. Missouri is 

 agitating a bond issue of $25.000,000 for her public 

 roads. The province of Ontario, Canada, has 

 60,000 miles of good roads." 



Kalkaska's Roads. 



State Inspector Rogers, of Lansing, has inspect- 

 ed the new Excelsior one-mile turnpike which has 

 been completed by Kalkaska county. This piece 

 of road passed inspection with a good many points 

 to spare. This makes three miles of macadamized 

 stone road completed during; the present \var. 



The premium for the Excelsior road will be 

 $750, making a total premium from the state for 

 roads built in Kalkaska county according to speci- 

 fications during 1000, $2,750. The Excelsior road 

 therefore was practically built with the premiums 

 from the state. It cost the county $2,824.74, which 

 is onlv $74.74 more than the awards. 



Kalkaska county now boasts of 35 miles of as 

 good roads as anyone would care to drive over. 

 They are located as follows : Rapid City, two 

 miles ; River, five miles, from Kalkaska. two 

 miles north ; five miles east ; 12 miles south to 

 Boardman and one mile beyond, three miles on 

 the Imler turnpike and five miles to Island Lake. 



Two miles of road south of Rapid City will be 

 improved with gravel during 1007. 



Antrim countv. although having not yet adopte-d 

 the countv road svstem. has a piece of road that 

 lias passed inspection, upon which it is understood 

 it will receive an award of $500 from the state 



Enthusiast on Good Roads. 



Henry Ford, the automobile manufacturer of 

 Detroit, has been appointed a county road com- 

 missioner of Wayne county, in his home county 

 for Ford was born on a farm there, which he still 



tills as assiduously as he builds automobiles in the 

 big city nearby Ford is very popular. He has 

 been a diligent worker in the good roads cause 

 and a staunch supporter of State Highway Com- 

 missioner Earle's plans for the improvement of 

 Michigan highways. Being an automobile manu- 

 facturer his interest in good roads is two fold 

 and he has the support of automobile owners. 

 Much of the unreasoning prejudice of the rural 

 communities has been allayed by the personal in- 

 tercourse of Ford with his neighbors, and at the 

 same time he has done much to secure greater 

 consideration for the farmer in the use of the 

 roads by motorists. Ford believes and preaches 

 that, with the advent of good roads, the farmer 

 will profit by the development of the motor car to 

 a greater extent than any other citizen. The mo- 

 tor truck and motor tractor, vehicles designed for 

 the more expeditious transportation of garden 

 truck and farm produce to the market will comr 

 into general use. and this will mark the beginning 

 of an epoch of enhanced values ii. such products. 



$100,000 For Good Roads. 



A good beginning has been made in establish- 

 ing the county roads system in Alger county. The 

 "Town Line Road" is practically completed, and 

 it is up to the specifications demanded b'- the state. 

 Work has begun on the Munising-Chatham road, 

 the building of which will be a great factor in the 

 development both of Munising and of the "farm 

 ing country." 



The county engineer has also begun surveying 

 another county road. This one is and will run in 

 Limestone township, and will run from the Rock 

 River road through to the Marquctte road, where 

 it will connect with the road system of that 

 county. 



Because the agricultural development of Algci 

 county depends so largely on the building of good 

 roads and on rhe success of the county road sys- 

 tem it is exceeding gratifying to note that th" 

 county road commissioners have made such ex- 

 cellent progress in that direction. 



Alger county voted a bond issue of $100,000 last 

 spring for the purpose of building good roads. 



Good Roads in Jackson. 



The precedent established by Henrietta town- 

 ship in Jackson county in good road building, will. 

 it is believed, revolutionize all that in yeavs past 

 has pertained to the betterment of highways. Hen 

 rietta's one mile of good road is completed, and is 

 such a success that farmers in that section who 

 were the most opposed to the project, viewing it 

 from a financial standpoint, are now as boastful 

 over the benefits it affords as those who favored 

 the idea at the outset. 



Says one farmer. "It used to take me twenty- 

 live minutes to cover that mile with a heavy load. 

 The road ws uneven and awful sandy, in fact, 

 passage over it was a dread to every farmer whose 

 wagon was heavih' loaded. The horses would tug 

 at it. making the hames of the harness fairly crack 

 at every step, but now the minute we strike that 

 piece of new road we just perk out the whip and 

 the teams, without much effort, break into a fast 

 trot, and. say, darned if it isn't really enjoyable,'' 

 continued the farmer, his enthusiasm increasing 

 the more he talked about it. "The horses appre- 

 ciate it as much if not more than we do. I drive 

 to Jackson now on an average of three times a 

 week to bring my produce to market, and other 

 farmers are doiner the same. And say. do you 

 know that those horses of mine think about thai 

 good piece of road ahead before they get within a 

 mile of it. Well, they do; I've watched them and 

 I know it. When they get about so near to it 

 'hey begin tossing their heads and walking faster, 

 : ust as if thev could scarcely wait till they get to 

 it, and the minute they strike that pavement, why, 



say, they wrinr their tails and prance like colts 

 and act as if there was no load behind them at 

 all. It's expensive, and cost about $3,300 com- 

 pleted, but I wouldn't be surprised if they built 

 more after a while." 



Farmers from a distance come to inspect Hen- 

 rietta's mile of good road built to comply with 

 the state law and taking advantage of an appro- 

 priation of the state. 



State Highway Commissioner Earle is loud in 

 his praise of the new road. Every detail, he says, 

 was carefully looked after, and he compliments 

 Highway Commissioner Leek for the handsome 

 manner in which the road was built. 



Marquette's Initial Road. 



The road between Marquette and Xegaunee is 

 the first to become a county road in Marquette 

 county under the new law. The county road 

 commissioners decided that they would confine 

 their efforts this year to the rebuilding of one mile 

 of the old road from the top of Morgan hill in 

 .111 i-a-trrly direction. The work included the con- 

 struction of a bridge over the Little Carp river, 

 the specifications calling for a steel and reinforced 

 concrete structure. Because of topographical con- 

 ditions this first mile, chosen by the commis- 

 sioners for the initial year's work, was one which, 

 demanded an unusual amount of labor and time, 

 and was quite expensive. The remainder of the 

 road will be more easily made. The roadbed so 

 far as it has been finished is magnificent, and is as 

 hard and solid as a pavement. One can hear the 

 clatter of a horse's hoofs on it a long ways off, and 

 the sound is not muffled by clouds of soft dust 

 as is the case on some very good county roads in 

 other parts of the state. There is no doubt that 

 when the work is finished the road will be a model 

 in every .respect. The entire road will be com- 

 pleted next year. 



Demands Good Roads. 



It is announced that the government will look 

 more carefully to the enforcement of its rule re- 

 garding the roads over which rural free delivery is 

 established. The present requirement i> : "Roads 

 traversed shall be kept in good condition and un- 

 obstructed bv gates; there must be no unbridged 

 creeks or streams not fordable at any season of 

 the year." In many cases the residents along pro- 

 posed routes have made improvements that enable 

 them to obtain rural delivery service, but some- 

 times the efforts to keep up the roads arc relaxed. 

 But the government has decided that unless the 

 roads traveled by the carriers are properly main- 

 tained the service will be withdrawn. The post- 

 office department now calls on the carriers for re- 

 ports on the roads, and will stop the service where 

 the highways in question are bad. 



Wherever a route is discontinued the inhabitants 

 themselves will be to blame for it, for if alive 

 to their own interests and their duty to the public 

 they would give their roads vigorous and con- 

 stant attention. The idea that a route once au- 

 thorized is necessarily permanent is a mistake. A 

 neighborhood that loses its rural delivery must 

 itself bear the discredit for so unpleasant and 

 humiliating an event. 



Good Roads For Delta. 



The board of Delta county road commissioners 

 has asked the board of supervisors to pass reso- 

 lutions favoring a bond issue of $25,000 for build- 

 ing roads, and to arrange for submitting the prop- 

 osition to the voters at the annual spring election 

 IH-M April. If the proposition is submitted and 

 carried, the road commissioners intend to carry 

 out extensive improvements throughout the coun- 

 ty. It is the intention to construct two miles of 

 macadam road in each of the following townships 



