8 



MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MICHIGAN 



ROADS AND FORESTS 



Official Paper of The Michigan Road Makers Association and 

 Michigan Forestry Association.. 



70 Lamed Street West, Detroit, Michigan. 



Entered as Second-class Matter April 27. 1907. at the Pbst Office at De- 

 troit, Mickican. under the Act of Conjress of Marck !, 1879. 



Frank K. Carter : Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 



THE STATE: REVIEW PUBLISHING co.. 



SUBSCRIPTION i ONE DOLLAR A YEAR, 

 PAYABLH IN ADVANCE. 



HIGHWAY COMMISSIONERS' REPORT. 



The state highway commission has issued a 

 report which gives a history of the depart- 

 ment's work from Dec. 31, 1908, to July 1, 

 19JO, as well as the annual report from July 

 I, 1909 to June 30. 1910. Succeeding reports 

 will cover the same fiscal year. 



According to the 1910 report, state reward 

 was paid on approximately 187 miles of road, 

 about equally divided between stone, macad- 

 am and gravel. During the same length of 

 time the department received applications for 

 reward for 292 miles of road. From the or- 

 ganization of the department to the beginning 

 of the last fiscal year, 341.09 miles of state 

 reward road were built, $254,126 paid and a 

 total of $261,136.75 reward money was still 

 pending. Last year 204,378 miles were con- 

 structed and $137,327 paid in rewards. Meri- 

 dian was the only township in Ingham county 

 building state reward roads last year. The 

 township expended $2,079.23 for 1,100 miles 

 and received a reward of $580 from the state. 

 One of the principal features of the report 

 which is filled with interesting tables, is the 

 table which shows just exactly what each 

 township did in state reward road construction 

 last season, as well as the money expended 

 and received. Since the state reward law be- 

 came effective', Ingham county has built 5,160 

 miles of state reward roads and received $3,580 

 from the state. Lansing township received 

 $2,500 in reward money. 



A number of interesting articles written by 

 Deputy Commissioner Rogerts, a nation good 

 roads authority, appear in the report and' the 

 good roads laws and department requirements 

 are explained by articles, diagrams, maps and 

 cuts. Highway Commissioner Ely contributed 

 several .of these articles. The report contains 

 dozens of photos of good roads in different 

 stages of construction. 



The heavy work of preparing the report 

 was performed by Chief Clerk Randall and 

 road experts who have inspected the report, 

 declare it is by far the most valuable publica- 

 tion the department has given out. 



department of the Mothers' congress. Mrs. 

 De Garmo outlines the general scope of ac- 

 tivities in her field as follows: 



"We have three plans for the education of 

 the farming class, so that the members will 

 not want to go to the city. One is a Mothers' 

 congress day at every state fair. We have 

 one in Louisiana, and the principal talks of 

 the day are on ideas of bettering roads. Then 

 there is the cadet system. 



"Louisiana now has an excellent one. The 

 cadets are organized exactly like the army, 

 with a state highway commissioner as general. 

 The smallest division is a platoon. These 

 boys have uniforms, a thing which sets them 

 up and teaches them the value of tidy dress. 

 They patrol the roads in their section. Where 

 repairs are needed they do the work. 



"The organization was made by army offi- 

 cers, and the department of agriculture is now 

 considering a national organization. Several 

 southern states have cadets. The third plan 

 of education is a Mothers' Congress Arbor 

 day. On this day the children are taught how 

 the trees should be spaced and how far back 

 from the roads they should be set. 



"These facts as well as household economies 

 are printed in the government bulletins of the 

 department of agriculture, which we distrib- 

 ute by the thousand. We offer the additional 

 incentive that trees will be planted first where 

 the roads are built for permanent purposes. 

 We try to construct a model road at the 

 state fairs, where the mothers have a day, and 

 at one end we build a model home, constructed 

 by children, while at the other end is a school. 

 For the construction of roads we ask the 

 county courts in Louisiana to sentence pris- 

 oners in jail cases to the roads. 



The good roads movement is spreading rap- 

 idly. There is probably not a state in the 

 union today in which the question is not being 

 agitated. No one of intelligence will refer 

 now to the question as a mere community 

 fad. The people are awakening to the fact 

 that good roads mean increased value to farms, 

 improved market facilities, and a closer bond 

 of unity between city and country." 



GOOD ROADS CADETS. 



Were Solomon alive today he might be dis- 

 posed 19 revise his claim that there is nothing 

 new under the sun. The versatility of the 

 American mind is keenly illustrated in the 

 way that even the women of the country have 

 taken up the subject of good roads and are 

 agitating ways and means for highway im- 

 provement. One of the most interesting is 

 the "Good Roads Cadet" plan evolved by Mrs. 

 Frank De Garmo, chairman of the good roads 



CHEAP BUT LASTING ROADWAY. 



Supt. of Public Wcrks Wm. Ferris of Lan- 

 sing, constructed last summer four blocks 

 of road on East Shiawassee street, after a plan 

 all his own. Those who were skeptical at the 

 time the road was building, now declare it to 

 be one of the most lasting as well as the 

 cheapest read that the city has ever had con- 

 structed. Experts, who have examined it, de- 

 clare that it will last a half century with little 

 or no repair although the heaviest trucking 

 in the city is done over it. 



The cost of construction of the four blocks 

 of road was but $2.659.32 and the only place 

 where mcney was spent outside of Lansing 

 was for the tar that was used in its make-up. 

 The stone, oils and labor were secured in 

 Lansing and the money was kept in circula- 

 tion there. 



The road was built as an experiment. For- 

 merly it had been an experiment for which 

 the city paid dearly. The old road bed was 

 leveled', 1,100 tons of crushed stone placed 

 upon it and about 6,400 galli.ns of oil and pitch 

 used to cement the different layers of various 



sized stones. Four blocks of it were- built. 

 Superintendent Ferris did not have to pur- 

 cha-c curbing as that was already in and but 

 very little cost was experienced in making, 

 proper drainage as that had been cared for. 

 These items reduced tl f constructirn 



to some extent. 



Had the superintendent bought curbing and 

 provided for the drainage on the four blocks 

 of road that he built, the cost would have 

 been increased perhaps $2,000 which would have 

 made the cost cf four blocks of road $4,fi.")!).:;:j 

 instead of $2,659.32. Kven at that the 

 cf building the four blocks of Shiau,' 

 street road would have been but $600 more 

 than < ne block cf brick paved road on Cedar 

 street. 



SAYS CONVICT SYSTEM 



NO GOOD IN MICHIGAN 



E. C. Anthony, a member of the Hoard of 

 Control of Mnrquette prison, who made tin 

 trip of inspection with Gcv. Warner and oihei 

 .Michigan men to western pris.n-. i-* not en 

 thusiastic mi the question (f employing con- 

 vict labor i.n roads. Speakiii". of the prison 

 ;.t Canyon City. Cole., he says: 



"In the prison proper the only work carried 

 < n. with the exception of the wi.rk done in 

 the state shops run in connection with tin- 

 institution, such as tailc.r and cobbler shops, 

 is breaking of stone. At cue end of the prison 

 enclosure is a precipitous n.cky bluff, patrolled 

 by guards. Four hundred men i.r more are 

 employed breaking rock. Their work is a 

 joke, and seuns to be arranged 

 principally with the idea of keeping them busy. 

 Tl'e convicts sit about the yard, each with a 

 moderate si/eel hammer in hand. Before them, 

 or on their knees, are small fragments of rock, 

 in 'in which they chip off pieces with their 

 hammers. One small si/ed rock crusher would 

 turn ( .ut more crushed rock in a day than this 

 small army of convicts working in this prime- 

 val manner. The rock is sold for concrete 

 vvcrk, and nets but a small return to the insti- 

 tution. 



"The distinctive feature of the prison is the 

 employment of the convicts on the roadway 

 on the 'honor system'. Forty miles of road of 

 the fifty-mile stretch between Canyon City 

 and Colorado City have been built, and a camp 

 of seventy-convicts is now working on this 

 highway. This gang of seventy men is work- 

 ing entirely without guards, and under direc- 

 tion of a superintendent of highways. There 

 are no stockades about the camp and the only 

 semblance of prison authority is a guard 

 mounted at night by a man with a sawed-off 

 gun. There were only five escapes from the 

 road gang during the past summer. 



"One thing that makes it feasible to main- 

 tain these camps without the whole working 

 force taking wing is that fact that by virtue of 

 a special law every member of the roadwork- 

 ing gangs is allowed ten days' good time a 

 month for sticking to the job, over and above 

 the usual good time provided for by the 

 prison rules. The country in which the work 

 is being carried on is inhospitable. We met 

 only one man on our trip eleven miles up to 

 the divide, and in the fifty miles between Can- 

 yon City and Colorado City we didn't meet 

 more than five or six. It is a most uninviting 

 country for a convict to try to escape into. A 

 convict who succeeded in making a getaway. 

 would have a hard time of it, and his capture 

 is almost certain. I" don't regard the system as 

 feasible for this state. It wouldn't stand trans- 

 planting to the populous states of the middle 

 west and east. The percentage of convicts 

 who could be employed without constant 

 guarding, with good chances to make a get 

 away, would be so small as to make the experi- 

 ment not worth while." 



