The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1903-02-27

ing in this state at the present time;
the county system is doing good work
in several counties, and a few towns
have voted to adopt the county system
as a township system in those counties
which have refused to adoptsit as a
county system. In my opinion this is
a most commendable feature in .the
law, which permits of home, rule in
townships and permits them to i'm
prove such roads as the township board
thinks best, and to raise the money to
build them without going in debt, and
/ am confident if the law was so
amended that townships could adopt
this system before the county, system
had been voted down in short time it
would prevail.
STATUTE LABOR SYSTEM.
Gentlemen, if George. washington
stood in this room would just as soon
make an assault upon himjas lwould
assault the statute labor.system which
largely has given to the state of Mich
igan system of hundred thousand
miles of roads, and worth hundred
million dollars and not less than three
billions of dollars in the United States
of America. II ever patriotic work
was done since the human family oc-
cupied this world it was in the pro-
ducing the United States road system,
which in its largeness sinks every 9TH
er system of roads in any country on
earth into insignifcance. To be sure
our roads are not perfect, and are no.
where near as good as they ought to be,
so we are going to work to improve
them. noticed when the Grand
Trunk railroad built the arch bridge at
Niagara that they did not tear down
the old bridge, and no one not an ex-
pert could tell when the old bridge
ceased to be and the new bridge be-
came the structure used, and / am not
in favor of doing away with the statute
labor system, but rather building a
new system into it, and so carefully
that you will not know when the old
system ceases to be, and / am not sure
as we shall ever want it to cease in
some localities. admit that it does
not work as well as it ought to, and l
propose to improve its workings by
certain laws. If you should send TWEEN
ty children to a school house and tell
them to educate themselves without a
text book, and without a teacher, you
would not have any just cause to find
fault with those children if any did not
get good education. But you have
sent your overseers of highways and
highway commissioners to road sys-
TEN that is worth hundred million
dollars without text book of any kind
or description, and without teacher,
and have asked them to teach them
selves and their neighborhood how to
build and improve roads. l advocate
teacher, text book and state aid.
| would have state highway depart
ment with a State Highway Commits
sioner or commission, who would be
subject to the call of any locality in
the state where any great amount of
road or bridge work is to be done, to
give expert advice. would have this
department issue biennial report
each year, and / would have that re.
port contain the things that ought to
be known of how to build and mend
roads; then l would have a state aid
system which would furnish an in
ducement to every township in the
state to build piece of permanen,
road every year, of whatever materia
was the most available.
THE CONNECTICUT AND VERMONT
SYSTEM.
In my estimation the Connection,
and Vermont systems are the ones best
adapted to the conditions that prevail
in the state of Michigan. These
states assist any township in the state
that does its part. But not thing car
be done to be of any great help until
we have change of constitution
which will permit all property in the
state to pay something towards per.
manent highways, instead of as it is al
the present time, five thirteenths OF
the property and that the farm property
alone, being the only property that
pays for the building or improving OF
the public highways. If you, the cleo
tors, of this state, want state aid, then
write to your legislators and tell them
so, for they will gladly do what you
want them to, the bills necessary to
bring about the reform needed have
been introduced in the legislature and
of which you can obtain copy for the
asking. So it is in your hands.
Evening Session.
After a solo by Leslie Fl. Parker, OF
Owosso, Prof. John Craig, of Cornell
University, who spoke during the aft.
ernoon, addressed the round up on
"The Decoration of Home and Puolic
Grounds" The talk was illustrated
by a large number of fine stereopticon