THE STATE REVIEW 



25 



Next Annual Meeting Of The Good Roads Association At Jackson, January 9 and 10, 190? 



Officers: President, W. W. Todd. Jackson, Vice-President, H. W. Davis, Lapeer, Secretary, R. J. Davison, Flint, Treasurer, D. F. 

 Ross, Ypsilanti. Executive and Legislative Committee: B. Griffin, Saginaw, H. W. Grix, Wayne, R. H. Fletcher, Bay, G. W. 

 Gaudy, Washtenshaw, E. D. Black, Genesee 



Good Roads News and Comment 



DETROIT. In the pursuit of his investi- 

 gations as to the advisability and prac- 

 ticability of employing convict labor in the 

 preparation of material for public highways 

 State Highway Commissioner Earle will 

 leave today for Lemont, 111., where a large 

 stone-crushing plant is in operation. His 

 information-seeking itinerary also will in- 

 clude Joliet, 111., where convict labor is to 

 operate another large plant. From Joliet 

 Commissisoner Earle will journey to Hough- 

 ton, Mich., accompanied by an expert me- 

 chanical engineer of Chicago, 111., and a Free 

 Press staff photographer, whose services 

 have been enlisted in the good roads cause. 



Engineers from the College of Mines will 

 join him in his researches in Houghton and 

 vicinity, and the Isle Royaie, m Lake 

 Superior. Mr. Earle will also investigate the 

 convict labor system at Marquette. 



There is said to be enough trap-rock ma- 

 terial at Isle Royaie to macadamize all the 

 public highways of Michigan, and undevel- 

 oped quarries are numerous in the vicinity 

 of the Marquette prison. 



The commissioner's investigations are in 

 pursuance of instructions from the last legis- 

 alture, which authorized him to learn the 

 cost of installing a trap quarry in the Lake 

 Superior district, and also the cost of a 

 prison that would accommodate 1,000 con- 

 victs, and other financial details. 



CALUMET, Mich., June 9. State Commis- 

 sioner of Highways Earle has concluded his 

 examination of the rock piles at the old 

 Cliff, Phoenix and Huron mines in Kewee- 

 naw county. He says the rock is ideal for 

 roadmaking and he will recommend to the 

 next session of the legislature that a branch 

 prison be established in that section. He 

 says the rock can be broken and crushed at 

 little expense, and by building a railroad 

 from the Cliff location to Eagle river it 

 could be landed there and shipped to lower 

 Michigan ports by boat at little expense. As 

 there is strong objection to using convict 

 labor in the state for the manufacture of 

 articles which enter into competition with 

 union labor, it is believed the project will 

 receive hearty indorsement. 



DETROIT. Details of the plan of High- 

 way Commissioner Horatio Earle to fur- 

 nish crushed rock for the state roads and 

 at the same time end the strife between 

 convict and union labor by removing part 

 of the .Tackscn prison to Green Stone cliffs, 

 Keweenaw county, have been announced 

 liy the commissioner. 



Mr. Earle will recommend to the next 

 legislature that a branch prison be built at 

 the place known as Green Stone cliffs on the 

 Eagle river, Keweenaw county, which is a 

 short distance from Eagle River village, 

 where the river empties into Lake Superior. 

 Those cliffs are three miles long and from 



f/0 to 103 feet higher than the road that 

 passes along their base. They contain all 

 of 100,000,000 cubic yards of trap rock. The 

 cliffs have an area of 8,000 acres and are 

 owned by the Tamarack Mining company, 

 and Mr. Earle has the assurance of General 

 Manager N. W. Haire that there will be no 

 trouble in making suitable arrangements. 



The commissioner says that the cell 

 blocks and other fittings a.t Jackson prison 

 could be moved to Eagle river, and the 

 property at Jackson sold for more than 

 enough to pay for rebuilding at the Kewee- 

 naw county place. 



Railroad and steamship companies have 

 been asked for special rates and Earle new 

 figures that he can furnish the rock for the 

 state roads at $1.35 delivered to any part 

 of the Lower Peninsula, instead of $1.40, 

 the price now paid. 



His figures are as follows: Cost of quar- 

 rying and crushing, 25 cents per cubic yard; 

 cost of moving from quarry to Lake Super- 

 ior, 10 cents; transportation to Lake Huron 

 or I/ake Michigan ports, 50 cents per cubic 

 yard; cost of unloading, 10 cents per yard; 

 average cost of hauling by rail to point 

 where it will be used, 40 cents per yard. 



J. D. Hawkes, president of the D. & M., 

 has offered his co-operation in the scheme. 



A Welcome Ready 



State Road Commissioner Earle's sugges- 

 tion that the convicts at Marquette prison 

 be set to work crushing Lake Superior trap 

 rock to furnish good roads material for the 

 state has been received with a great deal of 

 skepticism. Some papers have not even 

 treated it seriously. They declare that it is 

 ridiculously visionary, as the transportation 

 charges from the Upper Peninsula would eat 

 up any saving that might be made through 

 the employment of convict labor. 



Whether this is true depends largely upon 

 the correctness of Mr. Earle's figuring. If 

 he has made his estimates correctly the plan 

 is far from visionary. Yesterday at a good 

 roads celebration in Barry county the com- 

 missioner declared that the crushed stone 

 could be laid down at any lake port for $1.35 

 a cubic yard. If this is true the next legis- 

 lature might well give thorough considera- 

 tion to Mr. Earle's plan. At that price the 

 crushed stone from Lake Superior could be 

 used to advantage not only by the counties 

 contiguous to lake ports, but by many inland 

 counties as well. 



Here in Grand Rapids broken granite, 

 which is simply crushed hardheads, costs in 

 the neighborhood of $3 a yard. Granite chips 

 cost the same. Granite dust costs $2 a yard. 

 The j^ake Superior trap rock is rated as 

 about equal to granite for road building pur- 

 poses. If Grand Rapids could secure the 

 crushed trap rock laid down at Grand Haven 



for $1.35 a yard it could well afford to pay 

 the transportation charges to this city. Even 

 then it would make a large saving. At points 

 on the lakes the saving would be even 

 greater. 



Of course, Mr. Earle's figure is only an 

 approximate estimate. It may be too opti- 

 mistic. If the estimate is reliable, however, 

 the highway commissisoner's scheme may be 

 found well worth following up. Grand Rap- 

 ids Evening Press. 



In Pounds and Dollars 



A horse, it is stated, can pull 6,270 pounds 

 on a level macadamized road, and it takes 

 five horses to pull the same load on an ordi- 

 nary dirt road and ten horses to pull the 

 load in loose sand or mud. 



New York state moves 12,000,000 tons of 

 farm products over country roads every year. 

 The failure of the state to provide good 

 roads has caused a shrinkage in farm values 

 during the past ten years of $70,000,000 and 

 New York has fallen to the third rank in 

 the union. 



Massachusetts has shown an increase of 

 $35,000,000 in farm values during the past 

 ten years, and it is attributed mainly to good 

 roads. 



The farmers of Vermont are asking 

 $500,000 for goou roads this year. 



An Illinois farmer says the state has been 

 improving its roads through the farmers 

 themselves for the past sixty years. Judging 

 from their present condition it is hard to 

 imagine what they must have been sixty 

 years ago. 



New York will establish a state plant to 

 be operated by convict labor at Sing Sing to 

 crush stone for use in constructing good 

 roads. 



Michigan, after a while, will adopt some 

 practical plan, under state authority, for 

 making permanently good roads, as New 

 York has done. 



They will cost something, but the enhance- 

 ment in value of farm property will make 

 the investment a good one. Jackson Patriot. 



Battle Creek's Interest 



BATTLE CREEK. The interest in the 

 question of good roads shows no sign of 

 abatement. Not only have the farmers on 

 all sides of the city manifested a willingness 

 to lend a helping hand and co-operate with 

 the Business Men's association and the citi- 

 zens generally, but enquiries are being re- 

 ceived from near by cities, asking for par- 

 ticulars and reading matter. 



The Detroit Free Press in its issue of Sun- 

 day last devoted a full page to the question 

 of good roads, and stated that Battle Creek 

 was the first city in the country to organize 

 its citizens for the purpose of improving the 



Continued on page 31 



