MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



THE flOTORIST 



AND GOOD ROADS 



Mr. Editor: You ask, "What has he done, 

 and what should he do for good roads?" 



I answer for Michigan. He has practic- 

 ally done nothing but toot both his tooters 

 the one on his automobile and the one on 

 his face. Of course, eternal tooting does some 

 good, for people get so everlastingly tired of 

 it, that sooner of later they are bound to 

 remedy the difficulty so the noise will stop. 



A few reckless automobile drivers can do 

 as much to arouse antagonism for the good 

 roads cause as the many motorists who handle 

 their machines carefully can counteract their 

 best efforts. The motorist should use extraor- 

 dinary, perhaps needless, caution for a time 

 until the farmer and the farmer's horses grow 

 accustomed to the automobile; but the way 

 some cars are handled, the farmer can't be 

 blamed much for the hostile feeling he en- 

 tertains for all. I know whereof I speak, for 

 a couple of hair-brained individuals in a test- 

 ing car tried to kill me off a short time ago 

 while I was inspecting a piece of state re- 

 ward road. There were a few minutes imme- 

 diately following this experience when I my- 

 self felt like consigning the whole lot of them 

 to the bottomless pit. 



The taxpayers of Michigan last year paid 

 for building and improving highways, out- 

 side of city streets, $4,030,57.81, and there 

 was more space in the public press devoted 

 to lauding one automobile club which raised 

 $1,000 by private subscription to gravel a short 

 piece of road than was given to the expendi- 

 ture of these $4,000,000 raised through the 

 ordinary channels in the ordinary way. 



An example of what they the motorists 

 will do can be easily given. About a year 

 ago I started a campaign to place the county 

 of Wayne under the county road system, and 

 asked the motorists of Detroit to help me. 

 This is the county in which Detroit is lo- 

 cated. They assured me they would stand by 

 me, and one advised me to spend at least 

 $4,000 for printing and other expenses, so there 

 might be no question of carrying the propo- 

 sition. He told me he was confident the mo- 

 torists would gladly stand the expense. How- 

 ever, by putting in a great deal of time and 

 personal effort, the actual expenditures were 

 kept down to $330.05. The enthusiastic good 

 roads motorists responded with contributions 

 to the extent of $115, others gave something, 

 leaving me only $190.05 out of pocket on the 

 Wayne county campaign. Those who con- 

 tributed were the Packard Motor Company, 

 $50;; the Cadillac Motor Company, $25; the 

 Ford Motor Company, $25. and the Northern 

 Manufacturing Company, $15. 



However, the county road system was 

 adopted by an overwhelming majority, and 

 $87,125 was raised by the board of supervisors 

 to be expended next year by the county board 

 of road commissioners, of which Henry M. 

 Ford, of the Ford Motor Company, is a 

 member. 



What should the motorist do? First, either 

 respect the rights and feelings of others or 

 keep off the roads altogether; second, either 

 "put up or shut up." Either organize and 

 do something, or stop telling \vhat wonders 

 he has accomplished and is about to perform. 



I know how $10,000 could be expended for 

 the good roads cause in Michigan in a way 

 that would bring about results such as would 

 merit five times this expenditure if need be; 

 but I don't believe the motorists would con- 

 tribute ten thousand cents if they were begged 

 to do so, and I'm not going begging to find 

 out if I am mistaken in my judgment. I 

 shall go along doing what I can each year 

 to help, and occasionally shall have the pleas- 

 ure of reading how much the motorists have 

 done toward improving the roads of Michi- 

 gan, when, if the facts were looked up, it 

 would be found that for every mile the mo- 

 torists had improved, the "horseists" and "cow- 



ists" had built 10,000 miles and said not a 

 word about it didn't even get their pictures 

 in the paper. 



The automobilist is putting up a great hue 

 and cry for long stretches of macadam and 

 gravel road, but if these are ever secured it 

 vvill be through their own efforts or by hypno- 

 tizing the farmers, for the interest of the 

 farmer lies only in having good roads to 

 market. What does he care about a long 

 cross-state road? It is of no advantage to 

 him, excepting that portion of it leading into 

 his marketing town. The shorter haul, the 

 more profit in his product, and so he isn't 

 going to build any through roads from the 

 east side of the state to the west, nor from 

 the south to the north not unless, as I said 

 before, the motorist can put him under a 

 spell, and I don't believe he can. So the 

 automobile owner and the manufacturer will 

 have to get together and plan to build those 

 through roads that will enable them to travel 

 with ease and comfort from one town to 

 another and take long rides across country. 

 There is no question in my mind that eventu- 

 ally they will do this; but they apparently 

 haven't wakened up yet to the necessity of 

 bestirring themselves on their own account. 

 They have grown so accustomed to having 

 the farmer look after the roads that it hasn't 

 occurred to them that they should help. 



But when they do get really started, there'll 

 be no "speed limit" on what they'll accom- 

 plish. Horatio S. Earle, State Highway 

 Commissioner of Michigan, in Motor Way. 



NEW PLAN FOR GOOD ROADS. 



That a bill to improve the roads and high- 

 ways in this country will be introduced in 

 congress at the fall session, is the belief of 

 promoters of the project generally through- 

 out the United States. 



Edward C. Hinman, of Battle Creek, manu- 

 facturer and banker, who has been for sev- 

 eral years an ardent supporter of the good 

 roads movement, has evolved a plan which, 

 it is said, will be the basis of the new bill. 

 His idea is taken, in part, from the bill which 

 Congressman Walter P. Brownlow, of Ten- 

 nessee, introduced into congress about six 

 years ago, and which was defeated by the 

 house. 



The Brownlow bill provided that the United 

 States should pay one-half of the expenses 

 of the road improvements all over the coun- 

 try, and that the county in which the im- 

 provements were made should stand the 

 other half. It was thought that this arrange- 

 ment would equalize the cost in such a way 

 as to bring half of the expense upon the 

 general public and the other half upon the 

 residents of the county who would receive 

 the direct benefit of the improvement. 



Relative to the failure of this measure, 

 Mr. Hinman said: "The general sentiment 

 among the congressmen was that the ex- 

 pense would be too great a drain upon uic 

 United States treasury, and, inasmuch as the 

 residents of the locality where the Improve- 

 ments were made were directly benefited, 

 congress advised that the greater share of the 

 expense be borne by them." 



Of his new plan, Mr. Hinman says: "I 

 have tried to avoid the objectionable points 

 of the old bill, and have arranged the division 

 of expense as follows: The United States to 

 pay one-quarter of the expense, the state to 

 pay one-quarter, the county to pay another 

 quarter, and the township where the improve- 

 ments are to be made to pay the remaining 

 quarter. 



"In this way the government would be 

 obliged to pay only 25 per cent of the total 

 expense, a share which it seems to me would 

 mark the benefit of the whole nation." 



The arguments advanced in favor of the 

 new bill are, that six years ago very few 

 rural mail routes were established, while at 

 the present time they cover nearly every 

 section of the United States; that the num- 

 ber of automobiles traveling the country roads 



ROAD BUILDERS WANTED. 



Many different localities throughout Michi- 

 gan are writing the State Highway Depart- 

 ment, asking for names and addresses of con- 

 tractors and practical road builders who can 

 and will enter into a contract, or will take 

 charge of and superintend the building of 

 state roads. All persons who desire to make 

 contracts, or wish to be employed as super- 

 intendents, should send their names and ad- 

 dresses to the State Highway Department, 

 Lansing, Mich. 



has increased almost 1,000 per cent in six 

 years. 



The supporters of the movement state that 

 the United States is notorious as the place of 

 the poorest country roads in the world, and 

 that the time to change this reputation has 

 come. 



Another argument advanced in favor of the 

 improvement is the fact that the country, 

 in time of war, would be handicapped severely 

 by the poor roads in moving its army. 



Some of the roads, it is said, would be 

 practically useless for the transportation of 

 artillery and wagon trains overland. While 

 the modern methods of transportation, in part, 

 do away with this means of travel, still there 

 would be occasions when it would be almost 

 necessary to use the public roads as routes 

 for the line of march. 



With these arguments and existing condi- 

 tions brought to bear, Mr. Hinman feels con- 

 fident that some favorable action will be taken 

 by congress at the next session, and, although 

 it may not be for several years, he believes 

 that those who have occasion to use the coun- 

 try roads of the United States will find con- 

 ditions far superior to any that have hereto- 

 fore existed. 



Mr. Hinman has made some very close 

 estimates on the expense to the government, 

 and, using Michigan as a basis, he believes 

 that the total government appropriation 

 necessary to cover the entire country would 

 not exceed $25,000,000, the expenditure of 

 which would, of course, be extended over a 

 number of years. 



ROAD NOTES. 



The house committee on appropriations 

 cut State Highway Commissioner Earle's good 

 road funds for Michigan from $280,000 to 

 $200,000. The commissioner was not caught 

 napping, however. He did some hustling, told 

 the members that under the circumstances he 

 would not be able to redeem his promise to 

 them in distributing the state reward fund, 

 so in committee of the whole the jumped the 

 amount up to $250,001. 



