MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



FIVE MILES OF GOOD ROADS. 



E. L. Burdick has been awarded a contract 

 by Chassell township to build two miles of 

 road on the Otter lake highway, Ontonogan 

 county, making three miles out of the five 

 necessary to be repaired already contracted 

 for. The remaining two miles are in such 

 a condition that it was deemed policy by the 

 township officials not to let it out by contract, 

 but to undertake the task by day labor. A crew 

 of men in charge of a competent road builder 

 has been sent out to undertake the task of 

 repairing this portion of the road, and when 

 Mr. Burdick, and Charles Airkenen, who has 

 the contract for the one mile of highway, 

 complete their jobs, there will be fairly good 

 road from Chassell to the farming district 

 in the southern part of Portage township. 



goes. In addition to the cash road tax and 

 much volunteer labor of men and teams, $175 

 has been contributed from private individuals. 



SAGINAW'S ROAD MOVEMENT. 



A proposal has been made to submit a pro- 

 position to bond Saginaw county for the com- 

 pletion of improved highways as connecting 

 links between Saginaw city pavements and the 

 good roads system that is being developed 

 throughout the county. The plans prepared 

 include the building of trunk roads radiating 

 from Saginaw in every direction to the county 

 line. These number eight or nine, and will 

 extend in the direction of Midland, St. Louis, 

 Bay City, Chesaning. Flushing. Montrose, 

 Flint, Vassar and possibly Bay City from the 

 east side of the river. Every section of the 

 county, broadly speaking, is reached by these 

 proposed main highways. As a complement 

 of this system will be the many miles of im- 

 proved roads that are being constructed in 

 the various townships. 



The county road commissioners of the 

 county of Cheboygan have contracted for the 

 construction of a section of County Road No. 

 1, otherwise known as the Beaugrand road, 

 j which is to commence two miles west of 

 ' Cheboygan and continue a distance of three- 

 quarters of a mile west. 



A year from now there will be an automo- 

 bile road from Munising to Munising Junc- 

 tion, a distance of four and one-half miles. 

 The contract was let to George Coates, of 

 Munising, for grading this new Alger county 

 road. The contract price is thirty cents per 

 cubic yard, and there will be approximately 

 40,000 cubic yards in the job. When com- 

 pleted this road will pass through a beauti- 

 ful and picturesque section. It will start in 

 the city of Munising at the bridge which spans 

 tthe Anna river on the Wetmore road. It 

 will pass the C. C. I. fish hatchery, running 

 along the banks of the Anna river, one of 

 the most beautiful streams in the upper penin- 

 sula, and reach the South Shore road just a 

 little south of the station. 



MAKING A BIG FILL. 



The Northern Construction Company is 

 about to begin work on the big fill south of 

 the Thompson farm, between Lansing and 

 Mason, for the Lansing-Jackson line. The 

 fill is about 1.500 feet long, and is the result 

 of a branch of the hog's back, which is any- 

 where from fifteen to twenty feet high near 

 this point. 



The contract for the steel rails for the road 

 has been let to the United States Steel Com- 

 pany of Chicago. Arrangements are being 

 made to begin the track laying at the Mason 

 end. 



MICHIGAN ROAD NOTES. 

 Copper country business men have con- 

 tributed liberally toward the building of a 

 good road from Lake Linden to Rice lake. 

 Work will begin on the road early next 

 spring. 



Caro's new stone road has been accepted 

 by the state highway commissioner. The mile 

 of road cost $4,628. The business men of 

 Caro are enthusiastic over the results of their 

 first attempt in aiding the building of good 

 roads in the vicinity of that village, and will 

 contribute liberally toward good roads lead- 

 ing out from Caro in every direction. 



The stone crusher purchased by the village 

 1 of Reading is in operation, and that muni- 

 cipality proposes to have the finest macadam- 

 ized streets of any village of its size in 

 Michigan. 



St. Charles, Saginaw county, has lost a lot 

 of farmer trade this fall because of bad roads 

 leading into that village. Farmers drew their 

 loads of produce and grain to smaller villages 

 because of better roads leading into them. 

 The value of good roads has thus been brought 

 to the attention of the business men of St. 

 Charles, and there will be a good road move- 

 ment inaugurated. 



The farmers east of Jackson have begun the 

 improvement of the Territorial road, begin- 

 ning operations at the city limits and working 

 east. They will proceed as far as their money 



The sink hole on the state road north of 

 Davison, Genesee county, which caused so 

 much trouble last year, is now in a terrible 

 condition and the road entirely impassable. 

 A rod of the road suddenly sank out of sight. 

 Work on filling the cavity was begun at 

 once. A temporary bridge was constructed, 

 and good progress was apparently being made 

 toward filling the hole. Next morning the 

 whole thing, bridge and all, had disappeared 

 to regions below, leaving several feet of water 

 over the place where the road was, the bank 

 on the west side havins: tipped entirely over. 



RAILROADS AT DISADVANTAGE. 



It is the business of a railway to produce and 

 sell transportation. The more of this commodity 

 it can produce and sell, the greater will be its 

 prosperity. Every intelligently managed railway, 

 therefore, is constantly striving to increase its 

 services to the public, for it is only by so doing 

 that its revenues can be increased. Within the 

 past few years railway operating expenses, rep- 

 resenting the cost of the production of transpor- 

 tation, which is the only commodity the railway 

 has to sell, have increased enormously. Prac- 

 tically everything that a railway must buy for 

 use in construction and operation has greatly ad- 

 vanced in price, and the wages of labor of all 

 kinds have increased very largely. When the 

 cost of manufacture of any commodity increases, 

 and when there is. at the same time, an active de- 

 mand for all of that commodity that can be pro- 

 Hticed. the manufacturer advances his price, and 

 the retailer must advance it to tho consumer. In 

 other words, if the production and sale of trans- 

 portation could be carried on subject to the op- 

 eration of the law of supply and demand, as 

 completely as cin the manufacture of cotton 

 goods, or of clothing, present conditions are such 

 as would justify a very material advance in the 

 selling price of transportation. But the price has 

 rot advanced. On the contrary, notwithstanding 

 the great increase in the cost of railway opera- 

 tion and the urgent necessity for the expansion 

 and improvement of railway facilities, the ten- 

 dency has been downward, and it is proposed in 

 some of the states to put in force legislation ar- 

 bitrarily reducing still further the price at which 

 transportation can be sold, and imposing penal- 

 ties for failure to perform services beyond the 

 ability of the roads. 



There can be but one result of the enforcement 

 of this policy by the states. It must inevitably 

 tend to cripple the roads and retard improve- 

 ments of service, even if it does not make im- 

 no?=iMe the maintenance of the present standard 

 of service. 



Every farmer, every manufacturer, every mer- 

 chant, every banker, every landlord, every pro- 

 fessional man, and every commercial traveler is 



personally and vitally interested in preserving and 

 increasing the prosperity of the railways. Each 

 individual in each of these classes is, for two rea- 

 sons, interested in railway prosperity. There is 

 no person of any class who is not interested, 

 either directly or indirectly, in efficient transpor- 

 tation. Even if he is not a frequent traveler or 

 a large shipper, his business is dependent on the 

 prosperity of those who are. Each one in each 

 of these classes is also interested in the railways 

 being able to maintain a high rate of expendi- 

 ture. Reduction of earning power and destruc- 

 tion of credit can have but one effect upon these 

 expenditures. It will certainly prevent their be- 

 ing increased as rapidly as will be necessary if 

 the transportation needs are to be met, and, if 

 carried far, it must result in their being sealed 

 down. 



Every increase in railway wages, such as has 

 taken place in the past year, every increase in 

 the number of railway employes, and every in- 

 crease in expenditures for maintenance and bet- 

 terment's, increases the purchasing power of the 

 great army of those directly and indirectly in- 

 terested in railway expenditures and every reduc- 

 tion decreases their purchasing power and their 

 consumption of farm products. Full dinner pails 

 and plenty of them mean full pocketbooks for 

 the farmers. In the same way, they mean full 

 tills for the merchants, full order-books for the 

 commercial traveler, and greater prosperity for 

 all. Any reduction in these expenditures would! 

 injure each farmer and each merchant far more 

 than he would be benefited by any possible reduc- 

 tion in transportation charges. 



What merchant, selling to railways or railway 

 employes, or to those who in turn sell to railways- 

 or railway employes, would accept any possible 

 reduction in his freight charges if made at the 

 expense of a material decrease in his sales? What 

 farmer or manufacturer would be benefited by a. 

 decrease in rates when that means a limit upon 

 his facilities to market and a consequent limit 

 upon the amount he can produce and sell? 



I think that if each one will look at this sub- 

 ject without prejudice, and will study it from 

 every side, he will find that his own interests 

 not those of the man across the street but hi& 

 own individual interests, are absolutely identical 

 with those of the railways, and that any legisla- 

 tion going further than is sufficient to protect him 

 from discrimination and unreasonable rates, is 

 sure to react upon him by crippling the ability of 

 the railways to improve their service and to 

 maintain their expenditures. W. W. Finley, 

 President Southern Railwav. 



BIG WOOD-CHOPPING CAMP. 



One of the biggest wood-chopping camps in 

 Upper Michigan is being estabnsned north ot 

 Shingleton, Alger county, by the Superior Iron 

 & Chemical Co., control of which rests with 

 Berry Bros., varnish manufacturers, of Detroit, 

 who operating through various subsidiary con- 

 cerns are the largest makers of charcoal iron in 

 the United States. A group of buildings for the 

 use of the single employes is in course of erec- 

 tion, and will be followed shortly by the con- 

 struction of quarters for the married men and 

 their families. A school and a postoffice will be 

 established. Several hundred men, most of them 

 foreigners, will be employed. The wood will 

 be shipped to Marquette for use in making char- 

 coal in the kilns to be operated in connection 

 with the Chocolay furnace, which as soon as put 

 in condition will resume operations after many 

 vears of idleness. 



Property owners at Escanaba have induced 

 the common council of that city to rescind 

 its order to cut down a large oak tree which 

 stands in Fourth street. The tree is a land- 

 mark and an ornament to the section of the 

 city in which it stands. There was much 

 indignation when the aldermen proposed to 

 cut down the old monarch of the one-time 

 forest. 



