MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



Official Organ of The Michigan Road M*k*n Auociabon and Michigan Foiwl/y A*xutK 

 SUITE 1406 MAJESTIC BUILDING DETROIT. MICHIGAN 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 

 THE STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING CO., 



SUBSCRIPTION! ONE DOLLAR A YEAH, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



(From the Michigan Investor.) 

 PROFESSOR LANE SHOULD BE GRATIFIED. 



The application of Prof. Lane, the state geol- 

 ogist of Michigan, to the legislature for an ap- 

 propriation for the purpose of measuring stream 

 flow in this state, that the geological survey may 

 be able to take advantage of the federal govern- 

 ment's appropriation for the same purpose, should 

 receive the serious and favorable consideration of 

 the legislature. The amount asked for is very 

 small, being only $3.100, that being the sum which 

 the federal government will contribute, provided 

 it is duplicated by the state. This would give 

 $6,200 to Prof. Lane for each of the coming two 

 years for making observations upon stream flow 

 and topographical surveys of portions of the state 

 not now mapped. 



The commercial importance of this information 

 is too lightly valued in Michigan. Both the lower 

 and upper peninsulas of Michigan are traversed 

 by considerable rivers which draw from large 

 drainage basins and have considerable fall. These 

 items constitute the makings of water power and 

 every water power that is developed in this state 

 is the equivalent of an inexhaustible coal mine, 

 proportioned in value to the amount of power 

 which the water fall produces. 



There must be some hundreds of thousands of 

 available horse power capable of production from 

 the harnessing of the rivers of this state and the 

 only incentive toward the promotion of such en- 

 terprises that can be given by the state is an 

 accurate survey of the fall in the rivers and of 

 the amount of water which passes through them. 



Heretofore it has required a great deal of ex- 

 penditure as an initial cost in determining the 

 power values of Michigan rivers, which expendi- 

 ture has fallen largely upon private individuals 

 and the results of which, naturally, were made 

 the property of the persons who paid for them. 

 For instance, the great development upon the 

 Huron river is the result of upwards of ten 

 thousand dollars of expenditure made by pri- 

 vate enterprises for the purpose of determining 

 the stream flow, the fall, the drainage area, the 

 precipitation or evaporation and the run off of its 

 valley. Very naturally, this information, having 

 been paid for by private individuals, became their 

 property and was used in the development of 

 water powers without competition. 



In the same way, large sums of money have 

 been spent upon the Manistee and Muskegon, up- 

 on the Kalamazoo and St. Joseph, and upon the 

 Rifle and Au Sable, and flowage rights obtained 

 along the margins of those rivers upon the basis 

 of their value as agricultural lands and with no 

 reference whatever to their value as constituent 

 elements of water power systems. Were such 

 information gathered together by the state and 

 made available to the entire public il is not un- 

 likely that the property owners who have sold 

 their flowage rights would have had the benefit 

 of competition for the same and it is equally not 

 unlikely that many streams, the power values of 

 which are unknown, would by this time be occu- 

 pying the attention of investors in and promoters 

 of such enterprises. 



Every water power that is developed in the 

 State of Michigan makes the people who are 



within the range of the delivery of its product 

 that much more independent of the coal fields 

 outside the state. We are not fully awake in 

 Michigan yet to the advantage of "white coal," 

 as the Italians call falling water, as a means for 

 the production of power. By the time that the 

 people of the state become thoroughly awake to 

 it, at the rate that the larger streams are being 

 taken up, the larger bodies of water power will 

 have been absorbed by private enterprises without 

 competition, whereas, were the information along 

 the lines which we have indicated and generally 

 diffused, many such enterprises might have been 

 by this time in process of development which 

 would serve admirably for the development of our 

 smaller cities and villages by furnishing to seek- 

 ers for locations the assurance of cheap and per- 

 manent power. 



The request which Prof. Lane is going to make 

 of the legislature is an exceedingly modest one 

 and would not represent the smallest fraction in 

 the total tax levy of the state. At the same 

 time it would be very pioductive of valuable in- 

 formation, for the reason that Prof. Lane has 

 shown heretofore that the small sums entrusted 

 to him for these purposes can be made, by in- 

 telligent direction and the co-operation of a great 

 number of volunteer helpers, to become produc- 

 tive of a vast fund of exceedingly useful infor- 

 mation. The members of the legislature should 

 not hesitate to grant him the money that he wants. 



HOW MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 



WORKS ABROAD 



In no country in Europe can one examine the 

 relative efficiency and economy of State managed 

 and privately managed public services to greater 

 advantage than in Germany. The bureaucracy 

 there is more numerous and its attitude toward 

 the general public is more autocratic than else- 

 where among civilized people except in Russia. 



In Berlin, great dissatisfaction is felt with two 

 chief branches- of public service, the Metropolitan 

 railroad, or Stadtbahn, and the telephone sys- 

 tem. The two illustrate a condition of things 

 which can be paralleled in almost any part of the 

 empire, just as what is to be said of private en- 

 terprise is applicable in the same way. 



The Metropolitan is an object of derision. It 

 carries one, indeed, between five stations for 15 

 pfennigs (four pfennigs equal one cent), but it 

 takes four times as long as a similar trip in 

 New York does. 



No doubt the traveler is amused at seeing his 

 train dispatched to the stentorian command "Off !" 

 by a stiff backed personage in captain's uniform, 

 and there is a great deal of concern, not to say 

 curiosity, displayed about his ticket and behavior 

 generally from the moment he enters the station 

 until he is enclosed in a carriage which is usu- 

 ally warm when it should be cool and cold when 

 it should be warm. But he has disagreeable sen- 

 sations also. 



Once he enters a railroad station, one might 

 say any public place in Germany, he becomes "das 

 Publicum," in other words, the servant and chat- 

 tel of the authorities. 



In Germany the official is everything and the 

 public nothing. Nor is the public always badly 

 treated, indeed, if it is a good child, it be- 

 haves itself exactly in accordance with the nu- 

 merous notices displayed in every public office. 

 The authorities in Germany often remind one of 

 the little girl who, when she was good, was very 

 very good, but when she was bad was horrid. 



Were the Metropolitan in the hands of a pri- 

 vate company the service would be more rapid, 

 the public better treated and the line be more 

 frequently used, not as now avoided when pos- 

 sible. When the line was built by Dirckson a 

 quarter of a century ago it was regarded as a 

 masterpiece of technical achievement. So, per- 

 haps it was, but from the beginning of its career 

 it was bound, as municipal services commonly are, 

 to deteriorate. 



Influential incompetence was put at its head, i* 

 was overloaded with personnel, an army of book- 

 keepers with stacks of forms was brought into 

 action, the bureaucratic spirit of contempt for or 

 indifference to the rights of the public began tc 

 pervade the entire institution, and inefficiency be- 



gan almost with the undertaking's birth. In such 

 cases managers are chosen for their personal re- 

 lations in high, that is to say official, quarters, 

 rather than for their skill and experience, while 

 the staff is recruited, not because of intelligence, 

 alertness and technical fitness, but because of the 

 information the candidates possess in history, 

 Latin, literature and other academic subjects. 



Under such a system Edison himself would 

 have a poor chance of employment or promotion. 

 The consequence has been that after twenty-five 

 years working in Berlin the number of passen- 

 gers, instead of rising yearly to correspond with 

 the enormous increase in the population, has re- 

 mained stationary or decreased. The public pre- 

 fers the private company's street cars (Strassen- 

 bahn) or the carriages of the privately owned 

 elevated and underground railroad (Hochbahn), 

 for they thus get quick transport at a moderate 

 fare, at the same time avoiding overfilled car- 

 riages, unexpected delays and domineering super- 

 vision. 



For the Hochbahn franchise the Siemens & 

 Halske Company pays a rent of about Z l / 2 per 

 cent, on a yearly income exceeding 6,000,000' 

 marks ($12,200,000), but a minimum of $4,000 an- 

 nually. It is a small but quick and comfortable 

 railway, taking one a distance, at present, of four 

 miles for three cents. Since its establishment 

 four or five years ago not a single accident on it 

 of any gravity has been recorded. 



The Berlin telephone system has never been 

 thoroughly efficient and today may be said to be 

 one of the worst in the world. An organic change 

 in the manner of putting the called in connection 

 with the caller was recently introduced, and ever 

 since the papers have teemed with complaints, 

 condemnatory resolutions drawn up by public 

 bodies and literature of the same sort. 



If the change seemed likely to result in an im- 

 provement one might have patience, but for sev- 

 eral months it has been in operation and the ser- 

 vice instead of growing better is daily growing 

 worse. Such an evil would have been avoided 

 by a private company, which would have made 

 sure that it would satisfy its clients before ven- 

 turing to disorganize commercial and social in- 

 tercourse and unnecessarily irritate the commu- 

 nity. The authorities do not appear to have con- 

 sulted the public in any fashion. They simply 

 said, let it be done, and it was done. Now they 

 stand committed and the public is helpless and in 

 more than one sense voiceless. 



Probably waterworks ought everywhere to be 

 in municipal hands, but however that may be; the 

 municipal water supply of Berlin is excellent and 

 unquestionably well managed; though the price, 

 15 pfennigs (about four cents) a cubic metre, is 

 comparatively high. The water is not taken to 

 the same extent as formerly from the rivers Spree 

 and Havel, but comes from wells in the bed of an 

 ancient glacier which runs under the heart of 

 the city and being of sandy structure practically 

 filters the water before it reaches the surface. 



Dr. Eggert, one of the directors of the works, 

 is not in favor of water supply by the agency of 

 private enterprise. He thinks private companies 

 work at the cost of good quality, are unwilling to 

 spend money on technical processes that are es- 

 sential to the production of an absolutely pure 

 supply and do not control waste as does a mu- 

 nicipal system, since it is not to their interest to 

 inform the consumer when he is guilty in this re- 

 spect. 



So much for state and municipally owned fran- 

 chises. We now come to the larger private com- 

 panies. 



That Berlin is the best lighted city in the world, 

 such at least is her boast, is due in the first place 

 to private enterprise. Since 1849, there has been 

 a municipal gas plant in existence supplying half 

 the city's wants, but its forerunner and model, 

 the Imperial Continental Gas Company, is entitled 

 to the credit of having shown the way and by 

 its exemplary management kept its municipal rival 

 up to the mark. 



The history of the Continental is an interest- 

 ing one. The company, originally English, is 

 nearly a hundred years old, and during that time 

 has given light to most of the chief towns on the 

 continent of Europe. It still has plants in Aus- 

 tria, Spain, France, Belgium and Italy. 



