MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



COUNTY ROAD SYSTEM. 



Henry M. Miller, of St. Joseph township, 

 Berrien county, a warm advocate of the county 

 system of good roads, is the author of the 

 following article on the merits of the county 

 road system: 



The good roads system is planned for that 

 county with a central city of public spirited 

 citizens, who, not being able to influence 

 enough votes to secure the adoption of the 

 county road law, can (with a large vote in 

 the city) influence enough votes in a limited 

 territory to procure the adoption of a district 

 system, and which district, as the rural parts 

 of the county become more and more edu- 

 cated to the benefits of good roads, may auto- 

 matically, as it were, extend itself to cover 

 the whole county, or sufficient area to procure 

 a controlling sentiment in the county in favor 

 of good roads, and as experience will teach 

 them the desirability of doing away with a 

 cumbrous board of good roads commissioners, 

 the adoption of the county system will nat- 

 urally follow. 



The people of Benton Harbor and vicinity 

 have lulled themselves to sleep with the pale, 

 melancholy visions of soft repose and dreamed 

 a dream of the beauties of the good roads 

 district system. But I predict that after care- 

 fully studying the provisions of the district 

 law, their beautiful dream will turn into a 

 nightmare, and the pale, melancholy visions 

 will turn into grinning specters that will rattle 

 their skeleton fingers drearily in the ears of 

 experience. The promoters of that system 

 planned to hand you a lemon, but instead 

 they presented you with a "green apple." Now 

 a green apple (the district system) is all right 

 in its place, but its place is on the tree of 

 development, and its principal reason for be- 

 ing is to evolve itself into a "ripe apple" (the 

 county system). 



District System Criticized. 



Now, I want to be a mother to you and 

 to kindly explain to you that green apple is 

 not for your good. I am quite certain that, 

 having swallowed it, you are going to have 

 the colic right away. 



To those who swallowed it reluctantly and 

 with a "grain of salt," by advice is, tickle 

 your throat and throw it up. To the others 

 I will prescribe some paregoric to ease the 

 pain while you are digesting it and getting 

 rid of it in the natural way, and so your 

 stomachs be prepared for the ripe apple. 



In discussing the provisions of the good 

 roads district law, I will first exhibit Section 

 1, showing the theme of the law (Act No. 268, 

 P. A., 1907): 



"Section 1. Any two or more organized 

 townships, or any one or more organized vil- 

 lages, or one or more townships and one or 

 more cities, or any combination of townships, 

 villages or cities lying contiguous in any 

 county, are hereby authorized to form them- 

 selves into a district to be known as a good 

 roads district, and such district shall operate 

 under the provisions of the county road law, 

 except as herein otherwise provided." 



This section provides that districts shall 

 operate under the provisions of the county 

 rad law, except as therein otherwise pro- 

 vided. 



I will say at this point that state reward 

 is not paid to counties by virtue of any pro- 

 visions of the county road law (Act No. 149, 

 P. A., 1895, as amended by Act No. 82, P. A., 

 1897), but by authority of the state reward 

 law (P. A., 1905, Act 146, as amended by Act 

 309, P. A.. 1907). 



Section 9 of the state reward law specifically 

 provides for the payment of state reward to 

 townships and counties, but makes no men- 

 tion of good roads districts. 



Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the district law direct 

 the method of its submission and adoption, 

 which are similar to those of the county law. 



I will next take up Sections 5 and 7 con- 

 secutively, as they are the only sections that 

 have to do with the practical operation of 



the law after its adoption, excepting Section 6, 

 which I will attend to later on. 



"Section 5. In each township, incorporated 

 village and city belonging to such district, 

 shall be elected one good roads commissioner, 

 which commissioners shall constitute a board 

 of good roads commissioners, who will have 

 the same rights, powers, obligations and du- 

 ties in the good roads district as county road 

 commissioners under the county road law. 

 The term of office of such good roads com- 

 missioners shall be two years, and their com- 

 pensation shall be fixed by the board of super- 

 visors. In the first instance, or in case of 

 a vacancy in the office of any good roads 

 commissioner, such office shall be filled by 

 appointment of the township board, village 

 or city council, as the case may be. The 

 county clerk and county treasurer shall offi- 

 ciate the same for the district so formed as 

 is provided by law in case of the adoption of 

 the county road system. 



Commissioners Are Supreme. 



"Section 7. On or before the first day of 

 October of each year, the said board of good 

 roads commissioners shall determine upon the 

 amount of tax which, in their judgment, should 

 be raised for such year in the district, which 

 tax shall not exceed two dollars upon each 

 $1,000 valuation of said district, according to 

 the assessment roll of the last preceding year. 

 At the annual meeting of the board of super- 

 visors, held in October, the county clerk shall 

 lay such determination before the board of 

 supervisors, and the board of supervisors shall 

 pass upon the said determination and decide 

 upon the amount to be raised, which shall 

 not be less than that determined upon by the 

 said board of good roads commissioners, ex- 

 cepting by a two-thirds vote of the members 

 of said board of supervisors. After said board 

 of supervisors shall have decided upon the 

 amount of tax to be raised, the said board of 

 supervisors shall apportion such tax between 

 the several townships, villages and cities of 

 said good roads district according to their 

 valuation. The supervisors or other assessing 

 officers shall levy and apportion the tax so 

 apportioned to their respective townships, vil- 

 lages and cities. The tax so assessed shall be 

 collected and paid to the county treasurer, 

 to be by him kept in a separate account, and 

 to be paid out only upon the order of said 

 board of good roads commissioners, signed 

 by the chairman and countersigned by the 

 clerk. All moneys belonging to said good 

 roads district shall be expended by the good 

 roads commissioners in the said good roads 

 district exclusively for the purposes men- 

 tioned and provided for under the county road 

 law." 



Section 7 provides for the taxation in dis- 

 tricts. The district commissioners have more 

 control in the matter of taxation than the 

 count}' highway commissioners have, as their 

 recommendations as to taxation cannot be re- 

 duced excepting by a two-thirds vote of the 

 board of supervisors. While they are not re- 

 quired to make any recommendations as to 

 expenditures, under the county law (Sec. 20) 

 the board of highway commissioners are re- 

 quired in the recommendation of the board 

 of supervisors to specify and itemize the roads 

 and parts of roads upon which moneys are 

 to be expended, stating the amounts asked for 

 each road, and the board of supervisors may 

 allow or reject in whole or in part any of 

 the items for the sections of roads thus sub- 

 mitted, and it shall not be lawful to expend 

 any moneys upon any other roads. 



Again, any question concerning district mat- 

 ters necessarily referred to the supervisors, 

 would be determined by that body, the large 

 majority of whose membership would be for- 

 eign to the district. 



Dangers of District System. 

 "Section 6. In any county in which a good 

 roads district may be formed it shall be the 

 privilege of any organized township, incorpor- 



ated village or city, lying contiguous to but 

 not already belonging to such good roads dis- 

 trict, to become a part of the same wherever 

 each township, village or city shall so decide 

 by a majority vote of the electors of such 

 township, village or city, voting thereon at 

 a general or special election. Upon petition 

 of ten or more freeholders residing in such 

 township, village or city, it shall be the duty 

 of the township board, village or city council, 

 as the case may be, to provide for the holding 

 of such election, at a date not later than the 

 next general election." 



Now, suppose you have your district adopted, 

 organized and working, building good roads, 

 and St. Joe township should decide that she, 

 as much as Benton township, is entitled to a 

 piece of Benton Harbor's donation for high- 

 way improvements, and should act under Sec- 

 tion 6 and vote herself into your good roads 

 district, the only restriction, you will observe, 

 is that she shall be contiguous. St. Joe town- 

 ship is "terribly contiguous," and, of course, 

 you will want St. Joe towns'nip in your good 

 roads district, as she was the first township 

 to build a mile of macadam road on the east 

 side of the river. And then, again, she was 

 the first township to build another mile on 

 the east side of the river, and has almost ten 

 miles of macadamized road. 



But Benton Harbor might say to St. Joe 

 township, "We dare you to come in. We, 

 with our influence on the west side of the 

 river control this aggregation, and we will 

 fix you. We will tax you and give you noth- 

 ing in return." 



But St. Joe township dares, and says to 

 Benton Harbor, "Wait and see." 



And when St. Joe township is annexed Lin- 

 coln township becomes contiguous, and so on, 

 seriatum ad nauseam, to New Buffalo, and 

 every other township and village in the county 

 might become contiguous and annex them- 

 selves to your good roads district without 

 saying "by your leave," and your system, car- 

 ried to its logical conclusion, would result 

 in a good roads district covering the whole 

 of the county except the two other cities. 



Each village in the district would have an 

 equal representation with the city upon the 

 board of good roads commissioners, and the 

 townships would have the same. There would 

 be twenty from the township, ten from the 

 village and one from the city. In other words, 

 on the board composed of thirty-one members, 

 you would have a single member. 



The territory east of the river, with eight 

 townships, three villages and one city, would 

 have twelve district commissioners, while west 

 of the river the twelve townships and seven 

 villages would have nineteen. 



Under the county plan the board of super- 

 visors, which controls in matters of taxation 

 and expenditure, consists of an equal number 

 from each legislative district, whose line of 

 division is the St. Joseph river. Under the 

 district plan the three cities, if all were in- 

 cluded in the district, would have about 954 

 per cent of the membership of the board in 

 control of expenditures. Under the county 

 plan they would have 37Ji per cent. 



Under the county system the board of 

 supervisors have absolute control of the levy 

 and disbursement of the tax. True, they can- 

 not reduce the tax below one mill excepting 

 by a^ two-thirds vote of "all the members 

 elect," but as to expenditures, they control 

 by a majority vote of the board; and so under 

 the county plan the supervisors from the 

 cities, twelve in number, will lack only five 

 votes of a majority of a full board. 



County System Benefits Cities. 



The cities will certainly have more influence 

 in securing an equitable distribution of the 

 benefits derived from their share of the county 

 highway taxes and in the locations of the good 

 roads than they could possibly have under 

 the district plan with only one member on 

 the district board. If the cities should be for 

 good roads, only one mill, your supervisors 



