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MICHIGAN ROADS AND FORESTS 



IF YOU WANT 



GOOD ROADS 



BUILD 'EM WITH THE 



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AND ROLL 'EM WITH THE 



Port Huron Road Roller 



Write us for Ways to Save Money in Road Building 



Port Huron Engine & Thresher Co., 



ROAD-BUILDING NATIONS 



LEAD THE WORLD 



__ Because the assertion came by cable from 

 France that the percentage of improved roads 

 in the United States was but 7.14 of the total 

 mileage, or that approximately only 150,000 

 miles of the total mileage of 2,150,000 has 

 been in any degree improved, a wave of com- 

 ment was created, and learned editors and 

 students of economics wondered why this na- 

 tion was so far behind the nations of the old 

 world in this most important of all classes 

 of public work. 



When, during the sessions of the interna- 

 tional good roads congress at Paris, Director 

 Logan Waller Page, of the office of public- 

 roads of the United States department of 

 agriculture, quoted those far from encouraging 

 figures, the correspondents immediately seized 

 upon them and sent them rushing under the 

 Atlantic to this side, here to create discussion 

 in various newspapers and magazine sanc- 

 tums, and by millions of readers. 



And there wasn't anything new about it. 

 The officials of the office of public roads in 

 many bulletins, farmers' reports, through the 

 medium of public addresses, and in many other 

 ways, have taken delinquent states and county 

 officials to task on innumerable occasions, be- 

 cause road building in the United States is an 

 incident, rather than a great universal improv- 

 ing function. There are scores of reasons why 

 the United States should lead the world in 

 good roads many of them are economic, 

 while one is sentimental. 



It is especially worthy of note at this time 

 that from the very dawn of civilization the 

 nations which have ruled the world have led 

 all others in road building and road mainte- 

 nance. If the links in this historic chain are 

 to bind the United States to F.gypt, Babylon, 

 Carthage, Rome and France, a few hundred 

 thousand miles of perfect highway must .be 

 laid without delay. 



Of the live nations just mentioned, each has 

 in turn held supremacy both as a world power 

 and as a road builder. In ancient Kgypi is 

 found the first authentic record of a perma- 

 nent road. Slightly to the east of the great 

 pyramid of Cheops at (li/eh has been discov- 

 ered the remains of a stone causeway. It is 

 about one mile in length, and archaeologists 

 believe it to have been a portion of a road 

 built from the Arabian mountains to the site 

 of the great pyramid, its purpose being to 

 make easier the transportation of the material 

 n-ed in rearing that vast tomb. Inasmuch as 



historians date the construction of this pyra- 

 mid to the fourth dynasty, there is reason to 

 believe that this road was in perfect condition 

 four thousand years before Christ was born. 



It has long been believed, principally be- 

 cause of the writings of Herodotus, that King 

 Cheops employed 100,000 men for a period of 

 ten" years on the greatest of the Egyptian 

 roads, the one which led from Memphis to the 

 pyramid, and which has been described as a 

 superb boulevard, flanked on either side with 

 temples, mausoleums, statutes, pergolas and 

 porticos, and having magnificent hard, smooth- 

 surfaced driveway.-. 



With the downfall of Egypt and the rise of 

 Babylon, that city of beauty reigned over by 

 Semiramaris, who caused to be built the won- 

 derful hanging gardens, came another era of 

 road building, for the Babylonians realized that 

 the construction of roads and bridges was ab- 

 solutely essential to a military and commercial 

 supremacy. Splendid roads radiating from the 

 great city were laid at least two thousand 

 years before Christ: reaching to Memphis. 

 Suza. Ecbatana and Sardis. The "great royal 

 road" written of by Herodotus extended from 

 Suza to Sardis, a distance of :>!'.' miles. At 

 intervals of from eighteen to twenty-five miles 

 stations were established at which carriers 

 could be supplied with fresh horses. Inas- 

 much as the distance covered by these car- 

 riages was from 60 to 120 miles a day, the 

 proof is convincing that that ancient road 

 was as good as is any in the United States 

 today. 



After Babylon came Carthage, and the glory 

 of Carthage was between l:,:!l I!. C. and s:i."> 

 B. C. Perfect roads made communication pos- 

 sible between every portion of this great do 

 main, and to a large extent gave her the power 

 to withstand for ten years the onslaughts made 

 by relentless Rome before falling victim to the 

 solemn, savage Roman edict. "Carthage de- 

 lenda est." 



When Carthage had been wiped out. her 

 savage conquerors became her must ardent 

 imitators in road building, and within a lew 

 decades had laid the most remarkable system 

 of roads the world ha- ever known. The 

 despotic -way of Koine over the then known 

 civili/ed world was due as much to this com- 

 prehensive network of stone surfaced highway 

 as to the might of her legions. Ilill- were 

 cut through, ravines filled in and rock moun- 

 tains leveled, both to secure malerial and to 

 avid grade- and circniton- routes. In (lanl 

 alone thirteen thousand miles of such roads 

 were laid. The-e great military thorough 



Port Huron, Mich. 



oj I>OI>II.MN.) 'sdi\- - n ll p 

 Austria and the regions of the Danube. Africa 

 and even Asia were included in this great 

 system. 



So massive was the construction of the 

 Roman roads that the Appian way, built by 

 Appius Claudius, still exists, and eight hun- 

 dred years after it was laid down it was in 

 perfect condition. Xo such roads would be 

 laid today. They are heavy, cumbersome, and, 

 though effective, not at all to be desired. In- 

 fact, it is estimated that under present condi- 

 tions a road such as is the Appian way would 

 cost at least $:>00,000 a mile to build. After 

 the fall of Rome road building became a lost 

 art. in "Merry Kngland" it is true authorities 

 had passed laws that along certain highway.- 

 "hedges in which wicked men might lurk" 

 were ordered cut, but that was about all the 

 consideration given to the roads. 



Louis XIV awakened to road neccssitic.-. 

 and demanded that the roads of France be 

 bettered, and, under the administration of Col- 

 bert, the famous comptroller of France, lif- 

 teen thousand miles of hard roads were con- 

 structed, this movement beginning in 1(>.")1. A 

 most brutal and unjust burden was placed upon 

 the peasantry of France to bring about this 

 improvement, for it was done under the feudal 

 corvee, or forced labor system, the poor people 

 simply driven to the roads and made to work 

 without pay. 



To one of the greatest men of history, the 

 lirst Xapoleon. credit must really go for the 

 present wonderful system of French roads 

 in fact, for the roads of civilization, for to 

 a great extent those of Germany, England and 

 other countries are copied after the French 

 system. It was Napoleon's idea that no nation 

 could lake rank as a great military power with- 

 out roads over which armies could be quickly 

 moved from point to point. With that in 

 view, he built many good roads through the 

 empire, the great one over the Simplon pass, 

 which was begun in 1800 and linisbed in isoi;. 

 being still considered one of the greatest of 

 all feats in road building. It was at this time 

 that Trcsanget came to the fore. Future gen- 

 erations will give credit to Trcsaugel as (In- 

 real originator of the modern rock surfaced 

 highway. Mis first treatise on broken stone 

 road- brought super!) results. In that he set 

 forth the marvelous system which inaincain- 

 in France today. That system involves daily 

 reports by inspector- of every yard of national 

 road throughout the country. This whole sys- 

 tem is under the supervision of an inspector 

 general of bridges and highways, who is re- 

 sponsible for every mile. His army of assist- 



