12 



THE STATE REVIEW. 



County Road System League Department. 



Leading Public Highways Should be Built 

 at the Expense of the State and County ; Then 

 the Cost and Benefits Will Be Impartially 

 Distributed. 



Equity Demands that Such Legislation 

 Shall Be Enacted as Will Give to Each 

 County not Now Under the County Road 

 System, the Privilege of Voting on the Ques- 

 tion. 



Wayne County Roads. 



State Highway Commissioner Earle Talks on 



the Question. 



At the Wayne county good roads meeting 

 held this month, State Highway Commis- 

 sioner Earle was one of the principal speak- 

 ers. He furnished the accompanying map of 

 the roads of Greenfield township, Wayne 

 county, which shows that at the present time 

 the taxpayers of that township have to keep 

 in repair 79J4 miles of road. Seven and one- 

 quarter miles are kept in repair by the toll 

 road companies on Woodward and Grand 

 River avenues. These franchises expire in 

 February, 1908, and if not renewed, Green- 

 field township will have all the roads to care 

 for, unless the county helps. Mr. Earle said 

 in part: 



It has been repeatedly stated by opponents 

 of good roads in Wayne county that if the 

 county road system goes into operation, De- 

 troit taxpayers will have to pay 82 per cent 

 of the cost of building roads in the county. 

 This is not true, and onlys shows the length 

 to which some people will go in their efforts 

 to defeat a good purpose to which they are 

 opposed. The county road commissioners 

 will undoubtedly never build more than 7}4 

 miles of road in Greenfield township, which 

 will be the toll roads on Woodward avenue 

 and Grand River avenue (illustrated on the 

 n.ap by four lines), 2 miles on Woodward 

 avenue uid 5'4 miles on Grand River. On 

 this amount of road, it is true that Detroit 

 would pay 82 per cent of the cost, but do not 

 lose sight of the fact that the farmers and 

 taxpayers of Greenfield township have to pay 

 100 per cent of the cost of keeping in repair, 

 and improving, the other 79'4 miles of road 

 in that township. There is no justice in com- 

 pelling them to pay the total expense on such 

 roads as Woodward and Grand River ave- 

 nues, where probably not one vehicle in ten 

 that passes over the road belongs to Green- 

 field township, but, on the contrary, the ma- 

 jority of the travel is from outside the county, 

 going into Detroit for the profit of Detroit 

 only, and of no possible benefit to Greenfield 

 township. 



Should the county build the same number 

 of miles of road in each township, the total 

 would be 115 miles, which would leave the 

 people of the townships with 1,258 miles to 

 take care of without any help. 



Earle compares statements made by three 

 Democrats Wm. Jennings Bryan, United 

 States Senator Ashbury Churchwell Latimer 

 and Mayor Wm. B. Thompson. 



From Wm. Jennings Bryan at St. Louis, Mo. 

 in 1903: "The expenditure of money for the 



permanent improvement of the common roads 

 can be defended, first as a matter of justice to 

 the people who live in the country; second, as 

 a matter of advantage to the people who do 

 not live in the country; and, third, on the 

 ground that the welfare of the nation de- 

 mands that the comforts of country life shall, 

 as far as possible, keep pace with the. com- 

 forts of city life. It is a well known fact, or 

 a fast easily ascertained, that the people in the 

 country, while paying their full share of coun- 

 ty, state and federal taxes, receive as a rule 

 only the gen-era! benefits of government, while 

 the people in the cities have, in addition to the 

 protection offered by the government, the ad- 

 vantage arising from the expenditure of pub- 

 lic moneys in their midst. The county seat 

 of a county, as a rule, enjoys the refreshing 

 influence of an expenditure of county money 

 out of proportion to its population. The capi- 

 tal of a state and the cities where the state in- 

 stitutions are located, likewise receive the 

 benefit of an expenditure of public money out 

 of proportion to their population. 



"When we come to consider the distribu- 

 tion of the moneys collected by the federal 

 government, we find that the cities, even in a 

 larger measure, monopolize the incidental 

 benefits that arise from the expenditure of 

 public moneys. An analysis of the expendi- 

 tures of the federal government will show 

 that an exceedingly small proportion of the 

 money raised from all the people gets back 

 to the farmers directly; how much returns in- 

 directly it is impossible to say, but certain it 

 is that the people who live in the cities re- 

 ceive by far the major part of the special 

 benefits that come from the showering of pub- 

 lic money upon the community. 



"The improvement of the country roads can 

 be justified also on the ground that the far- 

 mer, the first and most important of the pro- 

 ducers of wealth, ought to be in a position to 

 hold his crop and market it at the most favor- 

 able opportunity, whereas at present he is 

 virtually under compulsion to sell it as soon 

 as it is matured, because the roads may be- 

 come impassable at any time during the fall, 

 winter or spring. 



"The people of the towns are interested in 

 making it possible for the people in the coun- 

 try to reach their local market or trading 

 place during all times of the year, for, 

 throughout the agricultural portion of the 

 country at least, the villages and the cities 

 rest upon and derive their support from the 

 farms. 



"Sometimes I have heard country mer- 

 chants express dissatisfaction because the peo- 

 ple of the country would buy of the mail 

 order houses. If the merchant wants to keep 



his trade at home, let him make, roads good 

 between his patron and his store. You can- 

 not expect that people who are prevented 

 from going to town will refuse to utilize 

 means of getting their needs supplied." 



United States Senator Ashbury Churchwell 

 Latimer, at Hartford, Conn., in 1904: 



"About one-third of our people, at the pres- 

 ent time, bear the total responsibility and cost 

 of the construction and improvement of the 

 common roads. They are the people who live 

 in the country districts, and who constitute 

 the mud-sill upon which is built the political 

 and industrial development of which we are 

 so justly proud. To them, in a larger degree 

 than to any other class of our people, we are 

 indebted for the magnitude of the position 

 to which we have attained along all lines. 

 Upon them the heavy hand of taxation has 

 fallen relentlessly. They bear the largest por- 

 tion of the burdens of government, consider- 

 ing their means, and receive the minimum of 

 its benefits. 



"The constrtretion and improvement of the 

 common roads of the country, over which the 

 necessaries of life and raw material must pass- 

 to sustain the life and promote the health, 

 comfort and prosperity of the whole people,, 

 is a burden which has rested solely upon the 

 people of the rural districts. This is an un- 

 just and unequal distribution of the burdens 

 and benefits of government, and any proposed! 

 remedy should receive the earnest considera- 

 tion of every patriotic citizen." 



Now note the contrast between the state- 

 ments of these Democratic leaders and the 

 remarks of the mayor of Detroit: 



"The people of Detroit should not be asked 

 to pay for building country roads." Wm. B. 

 Thompson. 



"It is as reasonable to expect the city to 

 build roads throughout the county as it would 

 have been to ask the city to pave Jefferson 

 avenue through Fairview or through Grosse 

 Pointe." Wm. B. Thompson. 



"I insist that the principle of this tax is 

 wrong." Wm. B. Thompson. 



When asked about overruling 39,979 persons 

 who voted for the county road system in 

 Wayne county, he said: 



"How many of them knew what they were 

 voting on?" 



According to the ideas of his democratic 

 peers, Mr. Thompson is "unpatriotic," and ac- 

 cording to the sentiment of the times, and in 

 justice and fairness to the people of the coun- 

 try as well as of the city, he is decidedly out 

 of line, both with the leaders of his own 

 party and with the great men of the nation 



