MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS. 



Great Educational System 



for Road-Making 



Of the important instruction now being 

 given under government supervision for the 

 construction of good highways William E. 

 Curtis writes from Washington to the Chicago 

 Record-Herald: 



There is a new kind of college in Washing- 

 ton down on Fourteenth street between B and 

 C streets, back of the department of agricul- 

 ture and near the bureau of engraving and 

 printing, where our money and postage stamps 

 are made. It is a modest institution, and, like 

 many other things that begin young, is unpre- 

 tentious and of limited dimensions. But, never- 

 theless, it is doing good work, and is turning 

 out a group of graduates every year thor- 

 oughly trained to a profession that is entirely 

 new and almost unique in the United States, 

 although it has existed for centuries of use- 

 fulness in Europe. 



The college I am talking about has never 

 been included in the list of educational institu- 

 tions reported on by the commissioner of edu- 

 cation in his annual publications, but its dip- 

 lomas are recognized by public officials 

 throughout the United States, whereever an 

 attempt is being made to improve the roads 

 and highways. 



Wilson Saw Education Was Needed. 



Soon after Secretary Wilson got the good 

 roads movement thoroughly started he discov- 

 ered that it would be necessary to educate men 

 *o handle it, and that it was of vital import- 

 ance that the money appropriated for the im- 

 provement of roads should be expended in an 

 economical and a scientific manner. He argued 

 that unscientific and defective methods of road 

 building would mean not only a waste in the 

 particular case in point, but that the effect 

 would result in retarding road building there 

 and elsewhere for an indefinite period. There- 

 fore, there was only one conclusion, which was 

 that if the national government undertook to 

 facilitate and encourage the improvement of 

 the highways of this country its first and most 

 important duty was to furnish a supply of 

 competent engineers to instruct and direct 

 local officials in their work. 



The office of public roads has met the 

 situation in an admirable manner, so far as its 

 means will permit, by providing a one-year 

 course of graduate instruction in highway engi- 

 neering. A competitive examination is held 

 every year under the auspices of the civil serv- 

 ice commission at Washington, which is open 

 to graduates of engineering schools or to mem- 

 bers of the senior classes of such schools, and 

 upon a successful passing of the examination 

 the student is tendered a position as civil engi- 

 neer student in the bureau at a salary of $50 per 

 month and field expenses. At the end of one 

 year he is given a certificate stating that he ha"s 

 completed the graduate course. He may, how- 

 ever, be retained in the service and promoted 

 to the position of assistant engineer without 

 further examination. This course is divided 

 into laboratory instruction and practical field 

 work under trained engineers. 



Co-operates With Schools. 



Another phase of the work of the bureau is 

 that of direct co-operation with the various 

 schools and colleges in elaborating and improv- 

 ing their present courses of study in highway 

 engineering, and where such courses are en- 

 tirely lacking, to introduce them. It is prob- 

 ably that next winter a short course of lectures 

 by a representative of the office of public roads 

 will be delivered at Columbia university, at 

 Xew York, and probably some of the other 

 large eastern schools. The office receives nu- 

 merous requests each year to recommend en- 

 gineers for appointmnt to state and county 

 engineering positions. The present state engi- 

 neer for Illinois was formerly highway engi- 

 neer of the office of public roads. 



There is room in this country for several 



thousand road engineers, and there is a great 

 demand for them. One is needed in every 

 county, and the local authorities are gradually 

 becoming convinced that they pay their way 

 not only by showing people how to make bet- 

 ter roads, but by introducing various econo- 

 mies which make the money go further than 

 would be possible in the hands of inexperienced 

 men. Some of the graduates of the school are 

 now receiving salaries of $3,000 and $4,000, so 

 great is the demand for them. The number of 

 students is limited because of the lack of 

 money, and it is hoped that congress will ap- 

 preciate the importance of the college and in- 

 crease its facilities. The present class come 

 mostly from the middle west, and are all grad- 

 uates of schools of engineering. The way to 

 get into the college is to apply to the civil 

 service commission, Washington, D. C., for 

 circulars of instruction. 



Men To Whom Credit Is Due. 



There have been three men at the head of 

 the good roads bureau since it was organized. 

 The man to whom the greatest credit should 

 be given for the enthusiasm, energy and re- 

 sourcefulness which he displayed in success- 

 fully inaugurating the work was General Roy 

 Stone. He was a native of Steuben county, 

 New York, a graduate of Union College, suc- 

 cessively a major, colonel and general of bri- 

 gade in the civil war; brigadier-general in the 

 engineer corps during the Spanish war and the 

 first director of the office of road inquiry. He 

 was educated as an engineer and was connected 

 with a number of important engineering under- 

 takings of his period, among which was the 

 blowing up of Hell-Gate rocks, in East river, 

 and the removing of the bars from the harbor 

 of New York. He died at Mendham, N. J., 

 August 6, 1905, after a brief illness. 



Martin Dodge, successor to General Stone as 

 director of the office of public road inquiries, 

 was born in Geauga County, Ohio, in 1851. He 

 was educated in the public schools and in Hira 

 and Buchtel colleges, Ohio. He afterward 

 studied and practiced law until 30 years of age, 

 when he entered the real estate business. He 

 served three terms in the house of representa- 

 tives of the general assembly of Ohio, was 

 elected to the Ohio senate in 1897 and re- 

 elected in 1899. 



In 1893 he was appointed by Governor Mc- 

 Kinley chairman of the Ohio roads commis- 

 sion, and in 1898 was appointed director of the 

 office of public roads inquiries for a temporary 

 period of six months, to represent the govern- 

 ment at the Omaha exposition. He was re- 

 appointed director on May 1, 1900, and served 

 until June 30, 1905. 



The present incumbent of the office is Logan 

 Walter Page, a citizen of the state of Massa- 

 chusetts. Mr. Page was born in Richmond, 

 Va., in 1870. He was educated at the Virginia 

 Polytechnic Institute and Harvard University. 

 He also studied in the French School of Roads 

 and Bridges, at Paris, and for seven years was 

 connected with the Massachusetts highway 

 commission. In 1900 he was- appointed chief 

 of the road material laboratory in the depart- 

 ment of agriculture at Washington, and re- 

 mained in that position after it was enlarged 

 into the division of tests. In 1905 Mr. Page 

 was appointed assistant director of the office 

 of public roads, and was shortly after made 

 the head of the bureau. Under his administra- 

 tion the work has reached its present complete 

 and thorough organization as to methods, 

 facilities and personnel. 



The Bicycle an Aid. 



Mr. Page tells me that the bicycle has been 

 the most important and influential missionary 

 of all that have been engaged in promoting the 

 good roads movement. The League of Amer- 

 ican Wheelmen has been the most potent or- 

 ganization, he says, and has done an immense 

 amount of good work, not only in educating 

 the people and in stirring up local officials to 

 improve the roads, but in organizing agencies 

 to that end. Everybody, almost, has ridden a 

 bicycle at one time or another within the last 



12 or 15 years, and every bicycle rider realized 

 the advantages of having good roads and did 

 his best to get them. 



The automobile is not such an important 

 ally. On the other hand, the increase in auto- 

 mobile traffic has made the dust problem more 

 serious than ever before. The loss to ma- 

 cadamized roads from the dust material that is 

 ground up and blown away, as well as in loos- 

 ening the surface by the heavy impact of the 

 rubber tires, is a serious menace to their pres- 

 ervation. The automobile is the worst enemy 

 of the macadamized road. A number of meth- 

 ods for protecting their surface so that they 

 shall not be injured by the wheels of automo- 

 biles have been suggested, and many prepara- 

 tions and crude materials have been investi- 

 gated, with a view to preventing or diminish- 

 ing the damage. Experiments are now going 

 on in various sections of the country, which 

 may result in counteracting the damage that is 

 being done. 



Rural Free Delivery an Ally. 



The rural free delivery system has been an 

 important ally and the rural delivery carriers 

 are doing a great deal of good by reporting 

 bad places in the roads to the postoffice de- 

 partment,, which invariably calls upon the good 

 roads office for advice. Under the present ar- 

 rangement, when a rural free delivery route is 

 reported as impassable or in bad repair, the 

 postoffice department notifies the office of pub- 

 lic roads, and the services of an engineer or 

 experienced road-builder are tendered to the 

 local officials for the purpose of directing the 

 work of placing the road in proper condition. 

 The services of these men have been eagerly 

 accepted as a rule, and have resulted in much 

 benefit to the public and to the rural delivery 

 service, because the postoffice department will 

 suspend the delivery of mail upon a route that 

 is condemned by its officials. 



The railroads of the country, Mr. Page says, 

 are giving the department much valuable as- 

 sistance, although under the new rate bill they 

 are prohibited from furnishing free transporta- 

 tion for either men or materials. Formerly all 

 the railroads in the country were very gener- 

 ous in furnishing passes to the engineers and 

 employes and in hauling material and machin- 

 ery. Several of them made up and maintained 

 for several months trains for the use of the 

 engineers who went about instructing people 

 in the science of road-building. The law for- 

 bids all such gratuitous transportation now, 

 but the railway companies appreciate that the 

 work the department of agriculture is doing is 

 of vital importance to their prosperity, and are 

 co-operating in every lawful way. 



GOOD ROADS PROFITABLE. 



Herbert Harley, editor of the Daily News, 

 of Manistee, is a good roads advocate. Mani- 

 stee county adopted the good roads system 

 twelve years ago, he says, and no person 

 has ever been heard in public to say that 

 he regretted the adoption of the system. Un- 

 der it we have literally transformed this county 

 from a wilderness to a settled, civilized coun- 

 try district, with easy communication where- 

 ever most needed. Hills have been graded 

 down, ravines filled, fills banked with sod, and 

 many miles of pike laid. In the past few years 

 we have constructed a great deal of solid 

 gravel road, although this country is quite 

 deficient in good road material. 



The value of the land must have been tre- 

 mendously enhanced by this work. Much of 

 it was before practically inaccessible, and 

 would have so remained to this day but for 

 the county road system. It is certain that 

 the land has more than doubled in value, and 

 this is by all means the most potent reason. 

 The city has gained business, and would be 

 as unwilling as the townships to abandon 

 the plan, although the citj pays more than 

 half the cost. 



Nothing was ever undertaken in this county 

 which benefited Menominee city and county 



