MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



old lure has returned, and there are always will- 

 ing but misguided hands to mix the mortar and 

 lu-avc (lie stones. These builders have forgotten 

 that it was not until the people scattered to the 

 waste places of the earth that progress began. 



One man by nature is lazy and dissolute; his 

 brother is sober and industrious ; and not all 

 the nostrums of all the half-baked reformers on 

 three continents can bring these two together on 

 .a common level. So it has been for 10,000 years ; 

 so it probably will be until the end of time. 



The lure of municipal socialism places un- 

 skilled men in technical positions; it attempts' to 

 make popularity pass as legal tender for brains. 

 Those on the inside soon discover that the sys- 

 tem is bound to prove a failure, and they hasten 

 that end by making what they can out of the 

 bursts, and the taxpayers make up the deficit. 



The flattest, perhaps, of all the recent economic 

 panaceas is that prescribed a few weeks ago by 

 the Independent, which editorially and in a con- 

 tributed article seriously proposed to absolutely 

 abolish poverty by public ownership and a system 

 muses. Like all the doctrinaires, the Inde- 

 pendent did not even mention human nature in 

 all. its ratiocinations did not pause for a mo- 

 ment to consider that God has made one man ac- 

 tive and another slothful, one man careful and 

 ;nu>ther negligent; one man frugal and another 

 prodigal ; one. man a lover of gain and another 

 indifferent to money. The socialistic quacks in- 

 variably leave the largest factor out of the equa- 

 tion. They have to. Los Angeles Times. 



THE DECLINE OF MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 



The most important verdict rendered by any 

 community in the last half century was that 

 given on .March 2 by the voters of the city 

 of London. For fully that length of time the 

 causes have been operating which led to the 

 control of the city of London during the pasi 

 two decades by a political party whose policy 

 was the control of every important public 

 utility by the people themselves, to the exclu- 

 sion of private and individual capital. The 

 people of London have had a fair experience 

 with the various ventures. So far as the fairei 

 critics of the enterprise report there have been 

 no serious cases of corruption or of bad man- 

 agement involved in the experiences which the 

 greatest center of population in the world has 

 enjoyed along these lines. On the contrary 

 a common honesty has been observed, and a 

 high degree of intelligence brought to the 

 management of the undertakings. Yet a mark- 

 ed registration of public disapproval has oc- 

 curred, growing out of causes ordinarily con- 

 sidered quite foreign to the subject. Indeed, 

 as the British and Scotch examples of and ar- 

 guments for municipal undertakings were the 

 real bases of the propaganda for such enter- 

 prises on this side of the water, it is not at al\ 

 unlikely now that the London experiences and 

 decision may be alike productive of good. 



London, more than any other city, because 

 it is greater than any other city, went at mu- 

 nicipal ownership by wholesale. After nearly 

 20 years of familiarity with it her voters vote 

 it down today because they find a number of 

 disadvantages growing out of it that did not 

 figure in the premises when the undertakings 

 were first advised. These disadvantages in- 

 clude, the building up of an immense body of 

 public servants into a dangerous bureaucracy. 

 London has today upwards of 70,000 persons 

 employed by the city. It has been shown thai 

 by consolidating their strength these public 

 servants are really a balance of power, and 

 can have all to do with the levying of rates 

 and the embarkation of the city upon new un- 

 dertakings involving large capital and main- 

 tenance charges. This power has been exer- 

 cised to the point where the credit of the city 

 of London became depreciated until at this 

 time no better than 87 per cent of their par 

 value can be procured for her securities. 



Apart from this grave danger to the liber- 

 ties and the credit of the city, there came an- 

 other quite readily apparent to the working 

 class. That was, that whilst a great body of 

 workers had it in their power to organize a 

 bureaucracy, still, so far as the expropriated 



lines of public service were concerned, the la- 

 borer had no choice of masters. It was either 

 the city or nothing, and, as for him who was 

 not in the employment of the city, it was a 

 case of all the municipal employes being com- 

 bined to make it difficult for him to get into 

 such public employ. This discovery naturally 

 alienated the laboring class not in the public 

 employ from the system which was originally 

 advocated as their salvation. 



As a last resolution of the question the ef- 

 fect of government wages upon the general 

 wage schedule has been bad. Government has 

 ben required to provide the ideal labor condi- 

 tions of high wages and short hours. The re- 

 sult has been a demand upon private employers 

 to meet the same conditions. Where the de- 

 mand was refused it meant strikes. Where it 

 was acceded to, it meant increased costs and 

 eventual loss of markets by being forced out 

 of competition. 



The real results of socialistic adventures are 

 finally becoming understood in London. Let 

 us hope that the lesson will not be lost on 

 i America. 



The board of Royalton township will ex- 

 pend this year the money that was voted a 

 year ago for road purposes to improve the 

 highways and make the roads of Royalton the 

 best in Berrien county. Last year the high- 

 way commissioner was in no hurry to spend 

 the money because he didn't think that the 

 bids offered were favorable. In the near future 

 he will again advertise for bids for macadam 

 pavement. 



Good Road Notes. 



Three Oaks township, Berrien county, has 

 voted a heavy tax for good roads. A stone 

 road will be built out of Three Oaks. 



The board of supervisors of H-oughton 

 county has taken up the question of county 

 aid for goods roads in different townships. 

 Chassell is one of the townships which needs 

 assistance in the maintenance of roads. The 

 supervisor of that township says: "Good roads 

 in Chassell would be of more benefit to 

 Hpughton county than a good, big copper 

 mine, because of the immense agricultural dis- 

 trict which they would serve and whose in- 

 terests they would advance." 



Franklin township has 75 miles of road and 

 only $4,000 a year with which to maintain 

 them. If funds of the county can be legally 

 devoted to aid the townships in maintaing 

 roads, the supervisors will make a liberal ap- 

 propriation. 



The Marquette-Negaunee road in Marquette 

 county will be completed this year. 



Supervisor Daigneau of Benton Harbor, 

 Berrien county, advocates the oiling of roads, 

 both macadam and dirt. He will endeavor to 

 have the system adopted in Berrien county. 



Last year the Lapeer road, from Court street 

 in Flint to the city limits, was graveled, and 

 is now one of the very best drives anywhere 

 in or around Flint. The intention is to con- 

 tinue the work of road-making from the city 

 limits to Howard avenue, then macadamize 

 Howard avenue to Thread lake, and then turn 

 up a fine boulevard, meandering- around the 

 shore line, back to Lippincott boulevard. 



Ithaca totwnship, Gratiot county, will ex- 

 pend this year the sum of $2,500 for good 

 roads. Bids will be asked for the construc- 

 tion of the roads. 



Calumet township, Houghton county, au- 

 thorities have decided to do some extensive 

 road building during the coming summer, and 

 that by the time the season comes to a close 

 there will be at least four miles of new road 

 constructed to open a territory which hereto- 

 fore has been held back simply for lack of suit- 

 able means of reaching this district. 



Alpena countys' three road commissioners 

 have each been allowed $3,600 for work on 

 roads in their respective districts. In addi- 

 tion the supervisors have allowed $2,000 for 

 the completion of the Hubbard Lake road into 

 Alpena and $500 for a cement driveway over 

 the South Branch bridge. A petition was be- 

 fore the board to have five miles of road from 

 the Xeirgath corners through what is known 

 as the Godfrey swamp in Long Rapids town- 

 ship placed under the jurisdiction of the county 

 commissioners instead of the township. 



comply with the requirements, first to get 

 (lartlelcl township. Clare county, will spend 



SI.. 'nil on its roads this year. 



South Arm township, Charlevoix county, 

 will build a mile of state reward road this 

 year. 



People living south of Flint are agitating 

 the question of building a mile of good road, 

 beginning on the Flint side of the road that 

 leads down to Leach lake and extending 

 north for a mile. This would mean that the 

 well-known "Figure 8" hill would be robbed of 

 all its terrors and would really be almost a 

 boulevard. 



POWER FROM ELECTRIC EELS. 



Prof. D. Esperando, head of the Government 

 College at Caracas, Venezuela, had a hundred av- 

 erage sized electric eels captured and copper wire 

 encircled around their necks just below the ears 

 and then connected them with a motor, the eels 

 remaining in the river near the shore. 



Their violent flopping and contortions proved 

 a most uncertain sort of electric current, so he 

 procured another hundred and put them into a 

 zinc bath which he had in his house and connected 

 it with the motor and found that they produced 

 about 20 horsepower. With this he ran a mill 

 and lighted up his house and grounds. The pow- 

 er from each eel sufficed to produce 45 candle in- 

 candescent lights. 



Prof de Esperando also has found that a motor 

 car can be run for twenty-four hours with 100 

 eels in <a tank 3 feet long and iyi feet square and 

 weighing complete less than 200 pounds. 



It is claimed that the largest ocean steamers 

 afloat can be run with 200,000 eels, producing 40,- 

 000 horsepower and contained in a tank not larg- 

 er than 10x10x15. This plant, of course, will 

 have to be duplicated so that when the energy in 

 one is exhausted it can be hoisted from the hold 

 to the deck so that the light from the sun can in- 

 fuse new energy into it while the power is fur- 

 nished by the relay plant. 



Brockway township, St. Clair county, has 

 voted down the township road system. A 

 small vote was cast and the result probably 

 does not reflect the sentiment of the township 

 as a whole. The good roads movement is 

 here to stay. 



I Can Sell Your Real Estate or Business 



NO MATTER WHERE LOCATED 



Properties and Business of all kinds sold 

 quickly for cash in all parts of the United 

 States. Don't wait. Write today describing 

 what you have to sell and give cash price on 

 same. 



If You Want to Buy 



any kind of Business or Real Estate anywhere, 

 at any price, write me your requirements. I 

 can save you time and money. 

 DAVID P. TAFF, 



The Land Man, 



415 Kansas Avenue, 



TOPEKA, KANSAS. J 



