roadway. His job was to organize the local residents into maintenance crews, usually in the early spring before planting. The result was poor maintenance on bad roads. In July 1909, The Gleaner announced: “In behalf of its 100,000 subscribers — the power behind this publication — The Gleaner is, with this issue, announcing a campaign for Better Roads.” The Society supported, and may have initiated, the effort announced by Slocum. In a series of editorials, The Gleaner stated its case:
This 1919 story reported the Society’s successful payment of all claims from both World War I and the 1918 influenza epidemic, two events that potentially threatened the Society’s security.
“Though capital, in all its power, has connected ocean with ocean, and though the map of the United States presents today a very spider’s web of shining rails, yet the small veins which feed these mighty arteries are choked with mud. Give us Better Roads, give our products an easy access to market and Uncle Sam can defy the world’s competition; panics and money stringency will be unknown, and we will blossom into an era of prosperity hitherto unheard of or undreamed of. The rural highways of America are probably the poorest that prevail in any country which has reached so high a state of civilization.”
War I. The paper even went so far as to design an ideal road and published the specifications! The “Gleaner Highway” had two concrete paths, each 28 inches wide with a gravel strip, also 28 inches wide, in the center. The concrete was to be six inches thick placed over a crowned roadway. It is not known if any roads using the design were ever built. The Gleaner campaign for better roads did succeed in improving highways in the Midwest, but only after a strong ally came along. The hated automobiles, once vilified by the farmer, multiplied quickly after 1910 until there were 250,000 of them. Auto clubs, including the American Automobile Association (AAA), were formed and they also began to campaign for state and federal funding. As more and more farmers bought automobiles the ties between the two groups became stronger. The combination proved effective, and the result of their efforts can be seen all across the country.
Not all the members of the Society agreed on the need for better roads. In a note signed “A Lapeer County Pioneer,” one of them stated: “The pioneers of the county have worked many years to make roads that we might have some pleasure in traveling on in our old age. Now what have we got? We find that we have brought on our destruction. If our roads were not already too good we would not be destroyed, both life and property, by hordes of idlers from the cities, racing through the earth (at 25 miles per hour!) with their autos for no purpose only to gratify their own madness.”
The Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-1919 The tragedy of World War I did not end with the Armistice in November 1918. A new form of influenza virus, spread through the trenches in France, was carried home to the European countries and the United States by soldiers. It became known as the “Spanish Flu,” although there is no evidence it came from Spain. More than a billion people eventually were infected with the disease and more than 2.2 million died. It was the worst health crisis since the Black Plague of the Middle Ages.
Only 10% of Michigan roads were classified as improved, and those in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were not much better. “Improved” meant graded, drained, and paved with stone. Gleaner advocates pressed the Better Roads Campaign for the next five years. Politicians favoring state funding were invited to appear at the biennial conventions and lobbyists worked hard both in Lansing and Washington. The Gleaner newspaper continued to publicize the issue until World
Newspapers reported widespread panic and told of undertakers refusing to enter homes of the deceased 54
