The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1919-03-13
BRIG. GEN. covELL, COMMANDING
MICHIGAN HERO BRIGADE APP
PLIES WAR TEACHINGS TO
PEACE TIMES.
LET UNCLE SAM HELP PAY BILL
States only General officer In France
Tells of Lessons Learned
Under Boche Fire.

| That main market highways are an aD-
solute necessity for the good OF the
community and that the State OF Mich
| igan needs, more than anything else,
properly built, properly maintained
system of roads, is the unqualified
statement of Brig. Gen. Louis c.
Covell, the man who led Michigan's
| fighting brigade of National Guards
men away in 1917 and led them
| through the earlier campaigning In
France when the now famous 32nd. Di-
vision won place immortal in the his
tory of American valor.
Gen. Covells words on the need for
good roads comes at the psychological
moment when the people of the state
are preparing to ratisfy a constitu-
tional amendment which will set In
motion the machinery for a compre-
hensive system of main market high
ways that will touch every community
In Michigan A vote for this Amend
ment does not mean a $50 900, 900 bond
issue. 1t merely opens the way for
| the people to use the States credit,
Sans dollar-for-dollar proffer of aid on
Michigan roads 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.
War Makes Him Road Booster.
Gen. Covell has returned to his
home State after being mustered out
of the service at Camp Sherman, o.
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 explosives in
France. He went through the hottest
kind of fighting during the earlier part
of the participation of the United
States in the war Twice he narrowly
escaped death. Once when Boche
shell burst amidst group Of German
| prisoners In a chalk cave at Tartierres,
where the general was sleeping and
again when IT high explosive shells of
large calibre literally peppered his
headquarters. General Covell doesn't
consider himself in the light of hero.
Except in singing the praises Of his
men. war is trite subject with him.
But he dearly loves to talk about roads
and the need for an immediate better
ment of Michigan's highways.
without French roads, this war
might have had a very different and
much less satisfactory conclusion"
said the general, EFF 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 un-
| less II embraces a plan for constant
maintenance which, in the loIh, run,
is the only sure and economical plan
for furnishing the state with good
highways. The automobile is no longer
q plaything; It is business PROPOSE.
ton. 1t opens hitherto undreamed of
breadths of vision and industry to the
farmer and the. free circulation of au.
tomobile passenger and freight traffic
is more essential to life and growth
Of the community than the operation
of steam railway trains and interurban
lines"
Roads An Important Link.
"In the big war, the roads were as
much a 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 farther
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 a most important link in the
chain OF transportation.
Ashamed Of Mlehlgan's Roads.
Take Michigan today 1t is the GEN.
ter of the worlds automobile industry
yet it 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 Offset by
the trouble and expense of traversing
endless mileage of roads that do not
deserve to be dignified under that
title"
when hit Michigan on the way
home from war, 1t was a great shock
TO me TO behold some Of the black,
muddy, impossible highways, after my
experience with the hard, glistening,
white highways of France. And after
my experience and observations over
seas. am booster for better roads
n for Michigan.
Not for war purposes, but for the up
building and growth of our great COM
monwealth. And cannot but feel that
others In Michigan who were not fortu-
nate enough to get into the fight
"over-there" will learn the lesson from
their lighting men and begin the con-
struction OF highway system, that
will be maintained and properly and
plainly marked and will meet with
fhe annroval of tha wolverine soldiers