10 



THE STATE REVIEW. 



Michigan Good Roads Association. 



Next Annual Meeting of the Good Roads Association at Jackson, March 6 and 7, 1907. 



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



B. Griffin, Saginaw : If. W. Grix, Wayne; R. H. Fletcher, Bay; G. \Y. Gaudy, \Yashtenaw; E. D. 



lanti. Executive and Legislative Committee : 

 Black, Genesee. 



Good Roads Convention. 



It was found necessary at the eleventh hour 

 to postpone the convention of the Michigan 

 Good Roads Association which was scheduled 

 to be held at Jackson January 9 and 10. The 

 new date of the convention has been fixed for 

 \Yednesday and Thursday, March G and 7, at 

 Jackson, and it will be a rouser. Jackson will 

 entertain the delegates in royal fashion. A 

 splendid lot of speakers will be in attendance. 

 Among those who will be invited are President 

 McDonald, of the American Roadmakers As- 

 sociation; Congressman Charles E. Townsend, 

 Gov. Fred M. Warner, Hal H. Smith, secretary 

 of the Michigan Manufacturers' Association, 

 and many others. 



President W. W. Tedd, of the association, 

 and Horatio Earle, state highway commis- 

 sioner, will attend the annual convention of 

 the American Roadmakers' Association, to be 

 held at Pittsburg in February, and expect to 

 corral several fine speakers for the Michigan 

 convention. 



Alger's Good Roads. 



Albert W. Hall, former city engineer of 

 Flint, and now in charge of the extensive 

 road-building that is being done in Alger 

 ccunty, where the Cleveland Clift's Iron Co. 

 has immense holdings, speaking concerning 

 the project with which he is identified, staled 

 that '.he county of Alger has bonded for $100,- 

 000 for ihe purpose of building good roads, 

 of course stands about three-fourths of the ex- 

 pense of constructing the roads. The new 

 roads are built of macadam. The natural stone 



'The road costs between $3.000 and $4,000 

 nor m.le," he said, '"but the Cleveland Cliffs 

 iron Co. owns a great deal of propel ty there 

 and pays about 75 per cent of the taxes and 

 for use in macadam roads is available right 

 on the ground, so the county is not at any 

 great expense for material. Already a road 

 two miles long has been built out of Grand 

 Marais and another, four miles in length, from 

 Grand Marais to Hallston, is being con- 

 structed. 



"These roads are built right through the 

 virgin forest. It is practically the same 

 proposition as confronts the railroad builder 

 when he attempts to lay rails through the 

 woods, as we have to cut down trees, stump 

 the line of the road, figure on the cuts, etc. It 

 is quite a remarkable project in more ways 

 than one. 



"All the work that is being done in Alger 

 county is under the state reward law, the 

 county receiving from $1,000 to $1,200 for each 

 mile of road constructed, according to the 

 .standard maintained on material and method 

 of construction. 



"The fact that other counties in the state 

 of Michigan have not adopted this same sys- 

 tem is due largely to the fact that in Wayne 

 ((unity, where the state reward law was to be 

 given a try-out the people of Detroit, who 

 pay 75 per cent of the taxes, are seeking to 

 test the validity of the lav. All the roads that 

 would be built under that syste,m in Wayne 

 could be outside the cit /, and the Detroit 

 residents objected to paying for road im- 

 provements in those parts of the county not 

 within the city limits." , 



Commissioner Earle's Report. 



The report of State Highway Commissioner 

 Earle, which will soon come from the printer, 

 will be an interesting and valuable volume. 

 It will show that this newest department of 

 the state government, though about the small- 



est is among the liveliest in the bunch, and 

 quite the liveliest of its class among all the 

 states that have highway departments. It 

 will show that in about 17 months, with a 

 total of $98,000 to work with $90,000 direct 

 appropriation and $8,000 license fees under the 

 automobile law the department has secured 

 the completion of 93 miles of stone and ma- 

 cadam road, all accepted and the rewards 

 paid. , 



If we compare this record with the result of 

 the first two years in other states that are 

 experimenting with state-aid roads, we shall 

 see that our state shows up well. Massachus- 

 etts, invested SIS. OHO. and produced no road. 

 Xew York put in $100.000, and shows five 

 miles of road. Xew Jersey for $280.000 con- 

 structed .'!7 miles; and Connecticut for $300,- 

 000 shows :!."> miles. 



The why of the greatly superior result in 

 Michigan, the commissioner modestly says. 

 is not in Horatio S. Earle, but in the law 

 which the Michigan legislature enacted. The 

 state, under our law, dues not build roads, nor 

 have any responsibility for their cost or econ- 

 omy of construction. That is entirely in the 

 control of the localities as well as the type of 

 road they shall chose to have; but when the 

 road is completed, and approved by the com- 

 missioner as up to specifications, then the 

 state pays a stipulated reward for a specified 

 grade of road. Saginaw county under Com- 

 missioner Kerns beat all the counties of the 

 state in road building. 



The highway department is doing much in 

 the way of popular instruction in the science 

 of road building, developing theories and 

 methods, locating and testing minerals, in- 

 specting and designing machinery and appli- 

 ances, and generally bringing to the public 

 knowledge the elements and principles need- 

 ful for the most effective promotion of the 

 purpose of its creation, the general perma- 

 nent improvement of the rural highways of 

 the state. 



Good Road Notes. 



Rep. N. W. Burdick. of Antrim county, is 

 considering an amendment to the state high- 

 way law to permit townships to expend more 

 in improving their roads than is now the case 

 when they are restricted to a tax levy of one- 

 half of one per cent on the asssesscd valua- 

 tion of the township, Mr. Burdick would so 

 amend the law as to make it possible in spe- 

 cial cases, after a referendum vote, to raise 

 another half of one per cent, or one dollar 

 on a thousand. 



Prosecuting Attorney Brown, of Grand 

 Rapids, on behalf of the people, has been 

 quo warranto proceedings in the Kent circuit 

 court against the Bridge Street & Allen- 

 dlae Gravel Road Co. to make them show 

 cause why their organization should not be 

 dissolved and their charter revoked. This 

 road was organi/ed in 1SNT. It is claimed that 

 the company has not lived up to its franchise. 



county will undoubtedly adopt the 

 county road system at the spring election. 

 The system is badly needed in that county. 



(')wing to the fact that a road near the lake 

 shore in Macomb county became almost im- 

 passable the rural mail carrier on that route 

 received orders to omit that road from his 

 list. This action will be taken every time 

 the roads become impassible. If the people 

 of Macomb or any other county expect to be 



acommodated with daily mail delivery they 

 must fix up their roads. 



The good roads movement is growing all 

 over the country. It seems to have devel- 

 oped just sufficiently to let the people who 

 use them most know what a good thing good 

 roads really are, and how vastly they add to 

 the sum of human happiness and prosperity. 

 The interest shown in the movement in tin 

 recent one day institute in Huron county in- 

 dicates that the farmers are almost unit in 

 taking hold of the matter. Now we shall 

 look for "something doing." 



A. M. Todd, the peppermint king of Kala- 

 mazoo, has made application to the state 

 highway department for permission to build 

 eight miles of gravel road in Pine Grove 

 township, Van Burcn county, ft" the experi- 

 ment proves successful he will likely build 

 more roads in Allegan and Kalamazoo coun- 

 ties, where he has interests. Todd will re- 

 ceive the Usual state award for building the- 

 roads, but there will be no cost on the town- 

 ship, that being borne by himself. 



The Manistce County Good Roads institute 

 adopted resolutions declaring that the State- 

 Aid Law passed by the last legislature of 

 Michigan has accomplished great good with 

 small means by aiding and encouraging the 

 construction of improved roads in the slate. 

 anl the next legislature is hereby earnestly 

 requested to continue the good work by ask- 

 ing as large an appropriation for this purpose 1 

 as the financial condition of the state will 

 permit. 



Road building in Calumet next spring prom- 

 ises to take on an impetus even greater than. 

 that of last year. The township authorities 

 are planning on extensive work and by the 

 time that it will have been entirely completed 

 it is believed that there will be as line a sys- 

 tem of streets and roads in that district as- 

 could lie found anywhere. , 



Xot only will there be considerable road' 

 building in Calumet township and other por- 

 tions of Houghton county, but also in Ke- 

 weenaw county. 



The county road commissioners of Mason 

 county built three miles of stone road and 

 made many hundreds of small repairs in the 

 stone roads as well as in the clay sand roads 

 and sand clap roads. They spent the sum of 

 $17.100 iii gross, \\hich includes machinery 

 bought, repairs, salary and the expense of 

 the work. Of this sum the state, under the 

 provision of the new good roads law. has 

 paid back $3.000 as reward for compliance- 

 with the provisions of that law. 



GOVERNMENT PLATE PRINTING. 



The main building of the Bureau of Engrav- 

 ing and Printing was designed in 1S78, and dur- 

 ing the fiscal year ending June 30 of that year 

 there were finished and delivered a total of 13,- 

 o'.is.7.-,o sheets of securities and stamps. Its con- 

 struction was authorized by the act of June 20,. 

 1878, and it was completed in March, l<so. \Yit.h- 

 in one year of the occupancy of this building the 

 work of the Bureau had doubled, and during the- 

 fiscal year ending June 30, 1881, there were fin- 

 ished and delivered 26,017,661 sheets of securi- 

 nil stamps. The work continued to increase- 

 until in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1900, there 

 were finished and delivered 116,909,423 sheets of" 

 stamps and securities, an amount nine times that 

 delivered in 1878, more than four times that de 



