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MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



MICHIGAN 



ROADS AND FORESTS 



Official Paper of The Micliinan Road Makers Association and 

 Michigan Forestry Association. 



70 Lamed Street West, Detroit, Michigan. 



Entered as Second-class Matter April 27, ]y(>7, at tlic Post Office at De- 

 troit, Michigan, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. 



Frank E. Carter Editor 



PUBLISHED EVERY MONTH 



BY 



THE; STATE REVIEW PUBLISHING co., 



SUBSCRIPTION: ONE DOI,1,AK A YEAR, 

 PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



GRAND RAPIDS MUST FOOT THE BILL. 



All in vain were the pretests, the angry 

 speeches and even the weeping and wailing of 

 the aldermen of the city of Grand Rapids, last 

 October, when they were discussing the ini- 

 quitous good roads law which had been thrust 

 upon the city "unawares." While Representa- 

 tive Leonard D. Verdier did his best -to help 

 out his agitated constituents he reckoned 

 without Speaker Colin P. Campbell. Thereby 

 hangs the tale. 



The complaint of the aldermen has been 

 that the city is paying for all of the road 

 improvement in the city, while securing no 

 direct benefit. The agitation was broached 

 last fall when Aid. Dykstra wanted the law 

 amended so that the city might secure a por- 

 tion of the funds for the improvement of 

 Alpine avenue. The other aldermen were not 

 very favorably inclined in this direction and 

 instead passed a resolution asking the repre- 

 sentatives in the legislature to have the pres- 

 ent law amended if possible to allow a resub- 

 mission to the people. 



Speaker Campbell announced in advance 

 that he would check this plan, but Mr. Verdier 

 attempted a trick of his own. While the good 

 roads laws were being codified and revised 

 into a single act a little clause was inserted 

 providing the board of supervisors of any 

 county which has adopted or may adopt the 

 provision of the act, upon the presentation 'of 

 a petition signed by 10 per cent of the free- 

 holders, may submit the question of rescinding 

 the vote by which it was adopted. 



It was thought that this little joker would 

 slip by Mr. Campbell, but it did not. An 

 investigation of the law just made shews that 

 the speaker, with the assistance of Horace T. 

 Barnaby and T. H. McNaughton, added a 

 clause of his own. It merely provides that the 

 provisions of "this chapter" shall in no wise 

 operate to repeal Act 268 of the public acts of 

 1907, in so far as districts already organized 

 under it are concerned. 



Grand Rapids is in one of the districts or- 

 ganized under Act 268, and so the rcsubmis- 

 sion clause in the revised law is not applicable 

 here. Mr. Campbell is pleased at his success 

 and remarks that he can see no way in which 

 the city can squirm out of the hole. The 

 county may adopt the county road system and 

 then there will be a chance, but a very slight 

 one, to have it resubmitted at the end of one 

 year. In the meantime the city would have 

 to pay 76 per cent of the good roads tax for 

 the entire county, which would total more 

 than the ss ]H -r cent now paid in the district. 

 And In-side, the city would be paying for 

 roads which most of its residents never ee. 



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A NOTABLE SHIPMENT. 



A most notble shipment left Port Huron 

 recently by the Grand Trunk, Chicago North- 

 western and Union Pacific Railway for Long 

 I'.each, Cal., a city near Los Angeles. The 

 shipment was made by the Port Huron Engine 

 & Thresher Company and consisted of a full 

 train load of thirteen cars of road-making 

 machinery consigned to llcnshaw, Bulkley & 

 Company, machinery dealers of San Erancisco 

 and Los Angeles for the Oil Macadam Paving 

 Company of Long Reach. The machinery 

 consisted of portable and traction engines, 



road rollers, spreading dump wagons, road 

 water sprinklers, and road oil sprinklers. This 

 shipment shows the high position in road 

 making world occupied by the Port Huron 

 machinery. 



Gilmore township, Leclanau county, has 

 awarded contracts for the building of :!,'JOO 

 feet of gravel roads. 



Contracts have been let by the county road 

 commission of Menominee county for the 

 building of two miles of stone-gravel road in 

 Carbondale township; also two miles of gravel 

 road in Stephenson township. 



