1C HIGAN 



DETROIT, MICH., DECEMBER, 1910. 



Michigan State Good Roads Association 



P. T. COLGROVE, Hastings, President. N. P. HULL, Diamondale, Vice-President. 



THOMAS SATTLER, Jackson, Secretary and Treasurer. 



ROADS YESTERDAY, 



TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW 



(Paper Read by Horatio S. Earle, of Detroit, 

 before the American Good Roads Associa- 

 tion.) 



The road that was good enough for the 

 . laden with the farmer and his grain bag 

 with the grist in one end and a stone in the 

 other, has gone with yesterday, for yesterday's 

 farmers. yester<!a>'- s well as highways 



and low ways, are gone forever, pushed off 

 the earth by the hustle and bustle of to-day. 



Ye-terday the road past his farm belonged 

 t-> the farmer, in his estimation, at any rate, or 

 t" the locality: but to-day it belongs to the 

 tv <~>r state and to-morrow will belong to 

 the I'nitcd States, with an invitation to the 

 world to use it. It is good enough so that 

 should the world use it. it will not weir out, 

 and we shall not be ashamed of it, for it is 

 going to be as smooth, as dry and as good as 

 other road in the world. 

 -rerdav's road was poor because vester- 

 people were poor. They had a wilder- 

 ;o penetrate. t the stumps and roots to ob- 

 literate, the turf of millions of years to plow 

 arr' cultivate. how could they make roads? 



There was no time to build good roads, 

 fVere was no mcney to pay for good roads; 

 there was no commerce requiring good roads, 

 10 good roads were built. 



Statute labor was in those days patriotic la- 

 md it was a contribution to the people 

 who lived yesterday. It was as patriotic as 

 the labor in the army or navy and the man 

 \\-hrp contributed it should be commended in- 

 stead of condemned. They built as good roads 

 as they needed, and it would be foolish for 

 any generation to build better roads than are 

 reouired at the time of building, for no man 

 know? what to-morrow has in store for us. 

 Perhaps hi::hwavs and railways will pass out 

 of u~e and the right-of-ways will be tilled and 

 the produce carried to markets in combination 

 air and water boats. However this will not 

 happen to-day, so it is up to us to do as well 

 for this generation as yesterday's people did . 

 frr themselves. 



To-day we have enormous cities to feed, 

 villages everywhere growing into cities; gar- 

 'len truck must be raised in the vicinity, must 

 be hurried to market while it is yet fresh 



To-day's demand is for roads that will per- 

 mit a four-ton load to be hauled 20 tr.iles to 

 town before breakfast. Mi'k must be brought 

 50 to 100 miles. Railroads cannot be built 

 past every, farm, but good roads can be built 



where traffic is not sufficient to demand rail- 

 roads and is enough to warrant good roads. 



To-day demands transporting machines dif- 

 ferent from the horse laden with stone and 

 grist. Motor trucks are none too swift and 

 none too powerful. So to-day demands "mo- 

 tor-no-dam" roads, roads built good enough so 

 the automobile will do no damage to them. 



The water bond macadam road of yesterday, 

 where there is an immense automobile traffic. 

 is as much out of harmony with to-day's de- 

 mand as day-before-yesterday's two-ruts and 

 a right-of-way, were insufficient to meet the 

 demands of yesterday. 



But let us not rush headlong, let us make 

 haste slowly, move conservatively, build only 

 the kind of roads needed. Take into consider- 

 ation that the citizen traveling in an automo- 

 bile or hauling with a motor truck has as 

 good a right to be served with a road for his 

 machine to-day as had the man on horseback 

 three hundred years ago. and that the yester- 

 day road won't answer the purpose. 



To-day demands more miles of well graded 

 and properly drained common earth roads 

 than of any other kind. 



To-day demands thousands of miles of well- 

 built gravel roads. 



To-day demands more miles of common wa- 

 ter bond macadam road than has ever been 

 built and more than will be built. 



Away with the idea that common macadam 

 is not a good road. For common horse- 

 drawn vehicle traffic it was and is the road 

 to build. 



To-day demands more, however. The half- 

 million automobiles and motor trucks demand 

 t'iat where they are used to a great extent. 

 the surface of the road shall be so hard, so 

 smooth and so welded together with cement, 

 bitrmen in some form, or something as good 

 or better, that the automobile wheels will not 

 pull the road to pieces or suck out the binder 

 thnt holds the aggregate together. , 



To-dav demands, then, that near cities all 

 principal roads shall be "motor-no-dam" roads: 

 <n addition to this, that all cities of the United 

 States of America shall be linked together bv 

 a great inter-state trunk line "motor-no-dam" 

 road system. 



Tomorrow's demand is not upon us. but will 

 rest on tomorrow's people and with it and 

 them we can rest asmred all will be well if 

 we do our duty to-day. 



T am proud to say my county has taken steps 

 to satisfy to-day's demand. N'ovember 8th, 

 1010. by a vote of 25.000 for. to 17.000 against. 

 we voted to issue two million dollars worth 

 of bonds and to use the proceeds to build a 

 (Continued on page S) 



PROGRESS OF ROAD 



BUILDING IN MICHIGAN. 



(Paper read before the American Good Roads 

 Association by Frank F. Rogers, Deputy 

 State Highway Commissioner of Michigan.) 



Michigan has 58.015 square miles o_f terri- 

 tory divided into 83 counties, which, in turn. 

 are subdivided into 1.226 organized townships, 

 the latter being the units of rural government 

 The 70,000 miles of public wagon roads which 

 serve our state are all under township control, 

 except certain roads in counties which volun- 

 tarily vote to adopt the county road system. 

 and come under the direct supervision of a 

 township highway commissioner subject to 

 such directory control by the township board 

 as the statutes from time to time have pro- 

 vided. One highway commissioner is elected 

 annually in each township for a one-year term. 



In counties that have adopted the county 

 road system, thirty-four in all, such roads as 

 the county road commissioners see fit to adopt 

 are constituted as county roads and maiv- 

 tained and improved with county funds, but 

 all other roads in such counties remain as 

 township roads and are maintained and im- 

 proved with township funds by the township 

 highway commissioners. It should be noted, 

 however, that the county road commissioners 

 have power to take over roads at any time and 

 it has been found the best policy for the 

 county commissioners to take over no roads 

 faster than there are county road funds avail- 

 able for their immediate improvement. This 

 prevents the expenditure of county money for 

 the maintenance of dirt roads, which usually 

 can be kept in repair for less money by the 

 several townships, and saves all the county 

 road funds for permanent work. 



Even though the county road commissioners 

 take over but a few miles of road annually, 

 they should begin with a well planned system, 

 embracing all the leading thoroughfares of the 

 county, which in the board's judgment, should 

 be improved eventually at county expense, as- 

 sisted by state bonuses, and no roads should 

 be taken over and made county roads that are 

 not parts of this general plan. 



Any county working under the county road 

 system, or any township, whether the count\ 

 road system has been adopted or not. can 

 make application for and receive state reward, 

 when the road in question has been improved 

 in conformity with the state's specifications 

 and accepted by the State Highway Depart- 

 ment. 



The Michigan law provides for state reward, 



