MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



11 



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. 



OUR GOOD ROADS. 



Delta county is planning to build a macadam 

 road from Escanaba north to the Marquette 

 county line, and one southward to connect 

 with the improved highway of Menominee 

 county. 



We are glad to learn this, and hope the 

 work will be vigorously pushed, says Ishpem- 

 ing Iron Ore. The county may be bonded 

 ; -upply the money necessary to carry on 

 the improvement. 



Marquette county has been improving its 

 highway leading southward to Escanaba, and 

 mother line under way to connect \\ith 

 Dickinson county. 



\Ye are also to push work eastward towards 

 Munising, connecting with improved roads in 

 Alger county. The Cleveland Cliffs Company 

 is pushing a fine road from Munising west- 

 ward, grading eighteen miles of it this year. 



We are hoping that the copper country 

 will decide upon some plan whereby it can 

 get a passable road through Baraga county, 

 it being conceded that Baraga is too poor to 

 build a highway alone. A road to the copper 

 country, or from the copper country, would 

 he a line thing. It would be much traveled 

 and enjoyed. The copper country people 

 .should make a start under some fair plan. It 

 would be money splendidly invested. 



\Ye do not know of anything in the way 

 iif a lasting monument that men of money 

 could present that would be accepted with 

 greater pleasure than a few miles of good 

 road, and this would be particularly true of 

 the men who have won their fortunes in the 

 minerals of these copper and iron districts. 

 It would be better than libraries or paintings. 



LARGEST CLAY WORKING 



MACHINE PLANT IN U. S. 



The new structures of H. Brewer & Com- 

 pany, at Tecumseh, Mich., are probably the 

 largest in the United States, devoted exclu- 

 sively to the manufacture of clay working 

 machinery. The company is one of the very 

 oldest manufacturing establishments in Michi- 

 gan, and not only reflects credit on Tecumseh, 

 "The Biggest Little Town on Earth," but on 

 the entire southern portion of the State. The 

 history of this concern dates back a half cen- 

 tury, to 184*. when the parent company, then 

 known as the Tecumseh Foundry and Steam 

 Engine Works, came into existence. 



In 1851 Horace Brewer bought a half inter- 

 est in this growing enterprise, and ten years 

 later became its sole owner. In 1867 his son, 

 Albert Brewer, became a partner, the business 

 being thus successfully conducted by father 

 and son until 1881, when the elder Brewer died, 

 leaving the conduct of the firm almost solely 

 in charge of Albert Brewer, who proved him- 

 self unusually efficient until his death in 1898, 

 since which time the Brewer family have con- 

 tinued to guide the destinies of the business 

 through the medium of an able corps of office 

 and factory administrators. 



In 1900 the concern was incorporated for 

 $100,000, under the laws of this state, and with 

 the incorporation came the infusion of new 

 blood which so asserted itself that by 1907 a 

 larger and better equipped manufacturing insti- 

 tution became a positive necessity. The capi- 

 tal stock was therefore increased to a quarter 



of a million of dollars, and despite serious 

 depression in other lines of business, the issue 

 was quickly absorbed locally, and the new 

 factory immediately constructed, a factory 

 which is, in every sense, "up to the minute" in 

 manufacturing efficiency. The main building is 

 three hundred and twenty-two feet by ninety 

 feet, and contains commodious offices, pattern 

 shop, stock room and machine shop. The ma- 

 chine shop is particularly rich in modern equip- 

 ment, amongst which is the largest planer in 

 Michigan. The foundry is one hundred by 

 sixty feet and equipped with every modern 

 labor saving device, while adjacent thereto is 

 the pattern storage house, fifty by sixty feet, 

 and the material storage house, one hundred 

 by twenty feet. When worked to full capacity 

 the new establishment will provide employ- 

 ment for more than two hundred men, while 

 at present time upwards of a hundred are on 

 the pay roll. 



Every form of high-grade clay working ma- 

 chine allied to the brick and tile industries are 

 made in these shops and are sold on that best 

 of all guarantees, the "money back if you want 

 it" plan. The continued success of the Brewer 

 business has largely been due to a strict adher- 

 ence to this Brewer "square deal" policy, a 

 policy which has been consistently advocated 

 ever since the inception of the firm, and which 

 today is emphasized by the present officials of 

 the company. These officials are: P. W. A. 

 Fitzsimmons. president; Horace R. Brewer, 

 vice president; John D. Shull, secretary and 

 treasurer; Charles Burridge, sales manager; 

 Davis Brown, superintendent. 



STIRS UP HORNETS' NEST 



Representative J. J. Whelan has stirred up 

 quite a hornet's nest with the bill he intro- 

 | duced in the Michigan legislature which seeks 

 to abolish the state highway commission. 

 Papers in all sections of Michigan are attack- 

 ing the bill as being a step backward, arid 

 at a time when the good roads movement is 

 gathering tremendous force. 



The following expression from the Saginaw 

 X'ews is typical of the view taken in other 

 sections. The News says: 



"Representative Whelan, of Shiawassee 

 j county, who has introduced in the house a 

 bill to abolish the state highway commission 

 and the office of state highway commissioner, 

 has, we think, a mistaken conception of the 

 work done by this department of the state. 

 In the first place, under the present plan 

 of the state aid to county road building, state 

 supervision of highways is a necessity. If not 

 done by specifically created officials, the duties 

 would have to be exercised by some other 

 administrative department of the state. If "for 

 no other reason than a conitnuance of the 

 state aid system of road building, the state 

 highway commissionership should be pre- 

 served. This has proven the most valuable 

 and most practical method of improving Michi- 

 gan highways that has ever been devised, and 

 it would be a stupendous blunder to interfere 

 with or place a handicap upon its efficiency. 



"There is, we maintain, no branch of the 

 state government today which deals more di- 

 rectly with the welfare and advancement of 

 the farmers' interests than the highway de- 

 partment. And what is of value and advant- 



Best Road Material 



OUR HOBBY. 



Crushed Granite and Gravel 



SCREENED TO SUIT. 



WRITE US. 



THE HENRY MERCIAN CO., 



43-44 Peninsular Bank Building, 

 Phone Main 6251 DETROIT. 



age to the farmer is of equal value and ad- 

 vantage to the town and city where he trades. 

 Without going into the exact nature of the 

 duties of the state highway department or 

 the work it has performed, we believe that 

 its educational influence alone is worth many 

 times the cost of its maintenance. The high- 

 way department has worked indefatigably to 

 induce the various counties to improve their 

 roads. State Commissioner Earle has trav- 

 eled up and down the state in continuous pro- 

 cession ever since he has been in office, ex- 

 horting the people to build macadam roads. 

 Earle has been the butt of a good deal of 

 political sarcasm, but as a good roads prose- 

 lyter he is hard to beat. He has got a big 

 portion of the state worked up over good 

 roads, and if he and his department have done 

 nothing else whatever, Michigan and its 

 people are amply repaid by their services in 

 promoting the cause of good roads alone. 



"Far better abolish some of the numerous 

 and superfluous wardens, useless boards and 

 other soft berths for politicians than the state 

 highway commissioner. Let us retain this 

 office at least so long as we can find an in- 

 cumbent who will agitate good roads and in- 

 duce the people to build them." 



In an interview State Highway Commis- 

 sioner Earle says: "Talk that the farmers do 

 not want state aid in the building of roads 

 is all tommyrot. The state aid amendment 

 to the constitution was adopted by a majority 

 vote of 143,242, carrying in every county. 



"I have no criticism to make of Representa- 

 tive Whelan or any other representative or 

 senator for their course, but the facts are that 

 Michigan gets more out of its state reward 

 than any other state. With $360,000 appro- 

 priated Michigan has 326 miles of state reward 

 road and $50,000 in the fund. New Jersey 

 has appropriated $2,238,000 and has 1380 miles 

 of state road; Connecticut has appropriated 

 $4,500,000, and has 600 miles of state road; 

 Pennsylvania has appropriated $7,500,000 and 

 ha.- 7:2.-> miles of state aid road, and New York 

 has appropriated $14,223,000 and has 1.700 

 miles of state aid road. 



"This shows that Michigan has about ten 

 times as much state road for tha money appro- 

 priated as has any other state. In those 

 states, however, from one-half to 87 per cent 

 of the total cost is paid from the state treasury, 

 while Michigan has paid less than 2,"> per cent 

 The farmers pay about 6-17 of the tax and 

 other property pays 11-17." 



$50,000 FOR ROADS IN MASON. 



At the spring session of the board of super- 

 visors of Mason county a petition will be 

 submitted by Drain Commissioner Tobey and 

 Marshall Costello to bond the county for 

 $50,000 for constructing new roads. The 

 county has now about forty miles of state 

 approved stone roads, and the plan proposed 

 is to construct twenty-seven more to complete 

 two continuous stone highways east, west and 

 south to the limits of the county. 



The highway commissioners of Kalamazoo 

 county have drafted a petition asking Gover- 

 nor Warner to reappoint H. S. Earle state 

 highway commissioner. 



