Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1919-04-03
COVELL FOR
GOOD ROADS
Michigan General Tells of Part
They Played Over in
France.
IS BEFORE VOTERS MONDAY
Amendment Offers Opportunity To
Get National Aid for Roads in
Michigan.

1T is step in the right direction
when the United States government
takes a hand in inspiring road build
ing. 1t shows Uncle Sam has pro-
fited by the lessons in France when
good roads saved the nation not once
but many times and paid dividends
in human life beyond the widest
dreams of the men who years ago
led the Fsench people in the move
ment that has given that nation
most remarkabl g system of year
around highways"
This is the unqualified statement
of Brigadier-General Louis {. Gov
ell, the man who led Michigans
fighting brigade of National Guards
men away in 1917 and led them
through the earlier campaigning in
France when the now famous 32nd
Division won a place immortal on
the pages Of American Valor
Gen. Covers words on the need for
good roads comes at the psycholog-
ical moment when the people of the
state are preparing to ratify "a con
sttutional amendment which will set
in motion the machinery for a COM
prehensive system Of main market
highways that will touch every COM
munity in Michigan. vote for this
amendment does not mean a $780,
100000 bond issue. 1t merely opens
the way for the people to use the
States credit, from. time TO time, to
meet Uncle Sans dollar-for dollar
proffer of aid on Michigan and means
that we, Of today may have the roads
and spread the cost, whatever it may
be, over a period Of thirty years or
more.
Gen. Covell has returned to his
home State after being mustered out
of the service at Camp Sherman. q.
And the whole of Michigan has no
more sincere, enthusiastic good roads
booster than the man who led the
63rd Brigade into the hell of machine
gun fire. shrapnel and high explos-
ives. He went through the hottest
kind of fighting during the earlier
part of the participation Of the Unit
ed States in the war. Twice he mar
rowly escaped death. once when a
Boche shell burst among "A group of
German prisoners in a chalk cave al
Tartierres where the general was
sleeping and again when seventeen
high explosive shells of large calibre
literally pepperei his headquarters.
But General Covell doesn't consider
himself IN the light of hero Ex-
cept m singing the praises Of his
men. war is a tritc subject with him.
But he dearly loves 10 talk about
roads and the need for an immediate
betterment Of Michigan's highways.
Without French roads. this war
might have had very different and
much less satisfactory conclusion.
said the general. IF the State would
take hold and build all the highways
1t would be the biggest possible thing
for Michigan. Any plan for building
good roads is absolutely worthless
unless 1t embraces a plan for con
stant maintenance which. in the long
run, IS the only sure and economical
plan for furnishing the state with
good highways. The automobile is
no longer a plaything; il is a busi-
ness proposition. IL opens hitherto
undreamed of breadth Of vision and
industry to the farmer and the free
circulation Of automobile passenger
and freight traffic is more essential to
life and growth of the community
than the operation Of steam railway
trains and interurban lines.
I'm the big war. the roads were as
much necessary part of the scheme
of transportation as the railway and
the steamship. The same argument
applies with equal force TO commerce
and industry, except that it is far
ther-reaching and more permanent in
its benefits. II you break down one
link in chain; the whole chain goes.
The time is here when the roads must
form most important link in the
chain of transportation.
Michigan has some good roads.
especially in Wayne county. 1t also
has some pretty good gravel roads
But II Is the ordinary country road
am using for the purposes of com
ison And. discussing the ordinary
country road, in the Wolverine state.
/ will say without reservation that
the worst road in France is better
than the best Michigan has to offer
And let me add that had we been
forced to fight over roads such as are
common in our own state, we would
have paid the price in blood beyond
the dreams of those who do not look
beyond the first cost of highway
building to the benefits and the divi-
dends, yes the dividends in cash, that
are certain TO accrue.
Take Michigan today II is the
center Of the worlds automobile in
dustry, yet il is notorious for its bad
roads. Tourists in the east will tell
you they want to come to Michigan's
greatest playground Of the nation,
but the pleasure would be more than
loffset by the trouble and expense
traversing endless mileage Of roads
that do not deserve TO be dignified
under that title.