MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



National Congress 



of Road Builders. 



The seventh annual convention of the 

 American Road Builders' Association, held at 

 Indianapolis, Ind., December 6, 7, 8 and 9, was 

 a great success. The sessions opened promptly 

 on the morning of the first day with a good 

 audience. 



Gov. Thcmas R. Marshall, on behalf of the 

 State of Indiana, and Mayor Samuel L. Shank, 

 en behalf of the city, welcomed the delegates. 



Neither of the two officials were ready to 

 commit themselves to the state aid plan; al- 

 though the governor said he hoped the roads 

 of the state would be made so good in a few 

 years that men with jaundice or with cross- 

 eyes would be unable to rind fault with them, 

 which sounded to the delegates considerably 

 like sarcasm. 



Hen. Logan Waller Page, director of United 

 States office of public roads, sent his regrets, 

 saying that he was detained by the congres- 

 sional committee attending to his appropria- 

 tion. Mr. Pennypacker, Mr. Page's assistant, 

 read a paper prepared by Mr. Page on "Re- 

 lation of the City to Its Adjacent Country 

 Highways." Addresses were made and papers 

 read by the following: A. N. Johnson, State 

 Engineer of Illinois; F. J. Robinson, Deputy 

 Minister of Public Works, Province of Sas- 

 katchewan, Canada: Joseph W. Hunter. State 

 Highway Commissioner of Pennsylvania, and 

 Horatio S. Ear e, former State Highway Com 

 missioner of Michigan. Tuesday evening a 

 banquet was given in the -Marion County 

 Club rooms to the speakers, which \va< a fine 

 affair. 



Wednesd;iv the following took part: Sam- 

 uel Hill. President W-ishinetm State G o '. 

 Foads Association; Samuel II. Lea, state en- 

 gineer of South Dakota; Charles P. Light, 

 state Hghwav c' mmissioncr of West Vir- 

 ginia; James C. Wanders, state highway com- 

 missioner rf Ohio; T. R. Atkinson. r ';'te en- 

 gineer c f Xrrth Dakota, and Harold Parker, 

 chairman Massachusetts state highway ccM 

 mission. 



Wednesday evening a banquet was piven 

 the delegates in Mural Temple. A. A. O. N. 

 M. S., and was presided over by former 

 Mayor Charles - A. Bookwalter, and was an 

 i.c-c-isirp si'ch rs the delegates will remember 

 with p'uisrre for a lifetime. 



Thursday. thr;e who took part were: W. 

 S. Gearrart state highway engineer of Kan- 

 sas: Paul D. Sargent, state highway c"m- 

 missirrer of Maine; Hon. James H. Mac- 

 Donald, president American Road Builders' 

 Association: T. Hugh Boorman of New York 

 City; A. N. Johnson, C. A. Kenyon, Samuel 

 Hill and Frank F. Rogers, deputy state high- 

 way ci mmissioners of Michigan. 



Thursday afternoon was taken up answer- 

 ing cir.estii us. Harold Parker held the fort 

 and did it well. 



Friday was Indiana day and many local 

 men spoke for state aid, a state highway de- 

 partment, the doing away with the old ante- 

 quated statute labor law, and the passing of 

 resolutions memorializing the legislature to 

 do what might be necessary to place Indiana 

 amnng the states in the front rank in the 

 road building line. 



The last speech made was by Michigan's 

 old good roads war horse, Good Roads Earle, 

 who had spoken several times before during 

 the convention by special demand. 



It was the best and greatest road conven- 

 tion ever held in the world. The sentiment of 

 greatest impcrt was, that roads of cmse- 

 quence should be built so as to be practically 

 indestructible, and the general opinion wa = 

 that this can be best done by some kind of 

 a bituminous binder for the upper course of 

 the road. 



Some delegates favored a rock asphalt bin- 

 der, others a binder artificially made of sand 

 and asphalt oil, but the fact would not down 



THE 



PORT HURON 



GENERAL 



PURPOSE 



ROLLER 





PORT HURON ENGINE & THRESHER CO., 



"WRITE US" 



FOR 

 CATALOGUE 



PORT HURON, MICH. 



ASK 

 THE 

 USER 



that asphalt in some form was the hist cure 

 for ruts, dust and wear. While one delegate 

 advocated making good roads out of oil and 

 sand, he admitted when questioned that such 

 a road would only stand pleasure driving, 

 and that such a road would cost about k.0 

 cents a running foot, or considerably more 

 than a thousand dollars per mile costing 

 more than many of the gravel roads of Michi- 

 gan per mile. 



Of course amateur road builders and vision- 

 ary men are likely to be caught on a penny- 

 wise pound foolish policy, the same as they 

 did with the King drag. This class think 

 good roads can be sung into place, bin the/ 

 cannot, it takes brains applied and monev in 

 hand to build roads that will stand modern 

 traffic, and the properly built macadam, bended 

 and capped with a lasting binder, either rat- 

 ural rock ground up or made artificially. was 

 believed generally in the convention to be 

 the best and cheapest road. 



.JEW NATIONAL ROADS ASSOCIATION 



American Association for High. way 1m- 

 ;>p>venient. a national organi/aticn for the 

 nirthcrance of the good reads movement, lias 

 been ori'arixed by men of national impi stance 

 and permanent headquarter.* will be e-tal>- 

 lishcd in Washington. 



The offici rs are Logan Walter Pa:'.e. I'irec- 

 ;r of the United States P.ureau of Public 

 Roads, president: \Y. C, lirown. pre.-iduit of 

 the Xe\v V,.rk Ceniral Railway, vice-president: 

 VIcClung, treasurer ci the Time.'! States, 

 treasurer, and J. R. Pennypacker. secretary. 



The hoard of directors include Louis Hill. 

 the Western railroad man. chainnan; James 

 Aid Yea. president of the I'cniisj, '.vania Rail- 

 road; H. W. Finley. president of the South 

 em Railway: P.. F. Yoakutn, of the Rock Isl- 

 and System; L. W. Page and A. G. Spalding. 



