Coming up well talk with authors based here as we fir learn how the city was chosen as the states capital, and anyone 15 minutes the story of re olds and the auto company he founded in lapsing and then later well take a driving tour of the citys downtown. We begin our special feature as hear about james turner and the found offering lansing. The founding of lansing. James turner was pioneer. It wasnt until the state legislature designated this area as the new capital that he came with these other folks and helped build the capital. State had a slightly more expected, i sincible proven but we daytona that. We had nothing here. There was no transportation. They had several months to build the capital city. That was the very interesting, exciting and unique story of lansings beginning. The legislature established a state in about 1836, about a year before we became a state. They designated detroit as the capital but they were fearful that detroit could be easily attacked from the lake erie, and that they should move the capital inward but couldnt decide where. So they put in the constitution that the first session of the legislature of 1848 should be held in the new capital, which should be inland, and so they had ten years to decide and they waited until they had ten months left, every little town in the whole state wanted it to be by them because that would mean a great boom for their community. And so they kept voting and voting and nobody could decide, and finally the people who were thinking about this area, in putting a dam and a mill and they decided they would try to attract the legislature to this area. And james turner was juan of those who led that one of those who led that. The argue. , the persuasion, the lobbying, but it was james seymour, his friend who made a map, but a dot this is michigan, on the peninsula. Put a dot here and said, look, if we put it here it will be this many miles, showed all the number of miles, it passed the legislature, some people were quite surprised because they had been voting so many times and everybody thought it would be the last time but it was. And that is how they decided on lansing. James turn is from western new jersey became a land agent, starting off working for a man who had a star in jackson. He then when they came hereafter, people came, they said over a thousand people came here to this spot, which was nothing so they had to figure out ways to have where they could have them sleep, eat, and he had a story store, and he sold got the supplies and sold them from there the first thing he did was chop down all the trees. So they were going through about three or four boxes of a dozen axes each every day to get rid of all the wood. And then that left a bunch of stumps and marsh watery ground, and so it wasnt really dont get in the idea it was great little town. There were people who lived in ingham county, extremely excited about having the capital be here. When they heard writ was going to be here in the woods they would come like in their on their sleds with a horses and watch the capital come in. Once the cut down a tree that was hundreds of feet long, huge, huge tree, and they pulled it all the way up to the capital and started cheering and yelling and having a party. Over the fact it was come here. They built a hotel, james seymour, which is where the legislators could live. They had to walk a mile from the capital down. They were 66 members of the house of representatives and 22 of the senate, and all their flock of lobbyists that came with them, and so they built a white framed or two story capital there, which became the Meeting House and the library and Everything Else for this community bulls it didnt have anything. So, that was the first building. It was number of years later before the capital that we see today was built. The first middle easting of the legislature in their new Capital Building was in january of 1848. And that was in their order of business was plank roads, developing charters, which are given out to private groups within the city. There was no department of transportation in those days so if you town wanted a road you head to figure out a way to get it. So, they were issuing charters to build plank roads and after a while, the city of lansing received a charter and james turner balm became the organizer 0 the plank road and the plank roads were amazing. You could never build one now because it took so much wood to build it. It was all logs lined up. They had everybody working on it, the farmers who had land closed to the close to road. The Business People who came out and worked on it. I was a major enterprise and when the plank road was finally built they had a party on the plank road. At the beginning, the people who lived here, they had invested in the like having a store or a home, they were afraid the legislature would get fed up with the inconvenience of having this capital in the middle of a forest and would vote not to have it, and so it was really not until the 1860s when they finally decided to have the permanent state capital where they really at ease but the fact they were north going to move away. The cspan cities tour is on the road in lansing, michigan. Up next, we visit the Michigan State capitol. Our State Capitol was constructed starting in 1872, completed in 1879. So were celebrating our 1 0th. About 25 years ago the capitol wall fully restored and goal was to make building look as it did when it first opened back in 1879. The michigan achieved statehood january 26, 1837. Our territorial capitol and first State Capitol in in the cy of detroit. Detroit whats capital for ten years until 1847. In fact our first state constitution stipulated that ten years down the root, the legislature would have to approve of a permanent site for the capital city. There were a lot of cities that were competing to become the state capital. So lansing really ironically was picked as the cap cal city because no one wanted to pick lansing. It was offered up as a compromise location to the legislature built a small wooden building which they used 30 years until our present capitol was constructed and finished in 1879 the style of the capitol is renaissance revival or neoclassical. The exterior is based with ohio standstone and the upper dome area of cast and rolled iron. Were in the rotunda of the capitol. This is the first space that our tour ground get to come into when they start their tour. Its an aweinspiring area. So were 160 feet from the glass floor that were standing on to the inner dome. The exterior dome goes another 100 feet above that. So its a total of 267 feet from the ground to the very top of the capitol which is comparable to the height of the u. S. Capitol in washington. Were in the governors parlor. The second floor of the east wing of the capitol. The parlor is used originally as a receiving space for the governor to meet legislatures, constituents, maybe to meet an occasional foreign dignitary that might come to michigan. The space is used for the same function nowdays. This space is probably the most accurately restored out of any spails in the capitol because we had really wonderful photographs and line drawings of exactly what the parlor looked like when the building first opened in 1879. That would include such detail as which portraits were hanging on the walls and which specific locations of those portraits were hanging if the portraits in the parlor here are of former governors. All governors who served in our other two capitols with the exception of governor crosswells portrait, he was the first governor to serve in the capitol. Wall treatment is all painted by hand. The ceiling of the parlor is specifically very unique in that its original. It took four people over two months to clean this one ceiling, using q tips and cotton balls literally inch by square inch so they didnt damage that original artwork. We moved on to the floor of the Michigan State senate. This is where our members meet three days a week to pass laws for the state of michigan. Michigan senate is the 38 member body with approximately 250,000 people per district. It is a fouryear term. The legislature and the senate have met here since 1879. The capitol sports sport nine as of it is a tribute to the period when the building ohm, she victorian period. We take people through and so many people expect a building built in the late 1800s to best clay be black and white. People dont realize how colorful the victorians were. This is a prime example of it. What you see is as close as we can humanly come to what the building looked like shortly after it opened in the late 1870s. That includes restoring the original decorative art, restoring the original chandeliers, each one of them has 1760 pieces of crystal and glass on them. The ceiling contains the coat owes arms for each of the 50 states. Even though there technically werent 50 states in the union when our capitol opened in 1879. They are in order thereof entry. Start the left back corner of the ceiling as you roach the rom and then come around the perimeter as the stayed beyond the union inch the senate we have six wonderful portraits of individuals that were important to our nations history and to our state history. On the left as you face the rostrum is a portrait of the mar okayed delafayette who helped is fight the british during the american revolution, very respected for his help. His portrait is hung in all three of the State Capitols capd was commissioned very earl on and that speaks volume us about the strong affection that americans halt for lafayette. Off to the right is the front wall is a portrait of austin blair, who was michigans governor during the civil war. He was a founding father of the National Republican father which was formed in his home town of jackson, michigan and a suffragist, who worked for womens rightses and an abolitionist and very important individual in the state history. Ton the right wall is a small portrait of if extra mccal hamilton, monday hamilton was michigans first female locker room elected to the body in 1920. The year the women first got a right to vote nationally. A year friar that michigan was among the first states to ad ratify the 19th amendment to the u. S. Constitution giving women the right to vote. One of the most recent portrait additions to the capital is this fine portrait of mr. William webb ferguson, mr. Ferguson was michigans first africanamerican legislator. He was elected to the Michigan Houseve representatives in 1892. He reason we chose to hang representative fergusons portrait outside of the Old Supreme Court was very intentional. Two years before he was elected to the Michigan House, he had a very Important Court case that was heard by the michigan Supreme Court. Mr. Ferguson was a resident of detroit and one evening a friend was visiting from out of town and being a good host, he offered to take him out to dinner, and he was refused service because he was black. So mr. Ferguson did a very brave thing. He sued the Restaurant Owner for wrongful discrimination based on color. His case made its way through the courts to our highest court, and the justices on the michigan Supreme Court ruled in his favor. That spurred his interest in politics, two years later he does i think another very brave thing and runs for the Michigan House of representatives and was elected at our first person of color to serve in this building. We have moved into the Michigan House of representatives. Historically what has been known as representative hall. This the largest room in the capital reflecting the larger membership of the Michigan House of representatives. 110 members representing president 90,000 people. For two year term so in the Michigan House of representatives, bot above the rostrum, the speakers chair and speakers area we have embellish evidence on the wall the Michigan State coat of arming their coast oft arms is unique, designedded by a territorial governor, lewis cass. The interesting features feature most prominent feature thistle can on the left and the moose on the right. Very fewell can or moose in michigan, even historically. The rain theyre featured so prominently is because cass actually copied our coat of arms, parts of it from he hudson by a fur company logo which had an el and can moose on it so we have an el and can mouse. And tuebor is on thecoat is latin that mean is will defend and tied into the falk that michigan shared such a large border with the british, our job was to defend michigan against they assume would be a british invasion. I had the i considered to be the Great Fortune to be born raised near michigans capital city of lansing. In the long morning shadow of this magnificent building. With my family and having this incredible sense of humility, awe, inspiration, and i see that on a daily basis when i bring tour groups in and they look into the dome and they get this incredible feeling of inspiration, and to me this building represents most what were proud of as a state and what were capable of, and what we hope to achieve in the future. I work for the Michigan State capital commission, and we have a really lovely motto, mission statement, if you will, preserving the past and inspiring the future, and thats really what this capitol stands for. The rio Motor Company operated in lansing from 1905 to 1975. Up next we learn but the experience recover rios work force from author lisa fein. Where we are is in rio town lansing and rio town lansing is an old Historic District of the city that was where the rio Motor Car Company of lansing was built. It emerged near 1904 and stayed here pretty much close to thicke this location good a variety of different formats through 1975. So were here because from by perfect as the author overster of reo joe this is writted writa ransom. Old he went ton be involved in old mow football. Ransom e. Olds, a resident of lansing, and an early automotive pioneer, very important northwestern the early history along with ford and many others, started the company here originally in the late 1890s, for a few years it went down detroit, and then he returned to lansing, his only site or close it to, in 1904. The turn of the 19th and 20th century lansing was a town by any starts so kuwait a small place, smile in comparison to places like 234 prayer con to detroit. It had a lot of connectioned to hinter lands, a lot of its industrial activities was related to farming that went on in the areas around it, and it also had a very driven distinctive population that was white, rural and president extent and the city elders were very committed to keeping it that way. So from the perspective of somebody like ransom olds this was a labor force that was familiar to him. The believed that the workers that he could enlist here would have a great work ethic, committed to the collective project of the plant itself and that he could have a Good Relationship with them and they would buy into the kind things he was trying to do, and until the 1930s he was right. With the 1920s, the plant had green to over 5,000 workers, and it was a major and important employer in the city. And even though it wasnt a perfect workplace, a lot of issues and problems that cropped up, for the most part he did create that kind of world that he envisions when he brought the plant back their lancing in 1904. The kind the number of employees in he reo plant drew tremendously in the early part of of the 20th century its in heyday was the 1920s, and there were probably over 5,000 workers employed in the company in the 1920s. The conditions were pretty much standard for most automotive factories which is it was rough. It was pretty dangerous. Some of the people i interviewed who were there in the earlier days, in the 30s, once the depression hit, and the place started to turn down in terms of the numbers and the production that was going on, described wood block floors that were soaked in oil. There were a lot of descriptions of accidents that happened, people losing limbs and fingers and that happened in factories across the board. These were dangerous places. There was no safety net, no federal oversight for these things. Before the wagner act in the 1930s, and the fair labor standards act there was no opportunity for workers to even organize around changing these kinds of conditions. Having said that, though, many of the workers in the city believed that reo was a premier employer. There were many miami who told me if you wanted to get a good job in lansing and make good living and support your family and work in a factory that cared about you, desspy the conditions in the ocurrents happening, reo was the place so it was a very popular employer despite the fact that it suffered from some of the same kind of issues that plagued a lot of factory employment at the time. What was different about reo is really what was the subject of my book and why i was interested in the topic in the first place. Ransom olds had a different idea but a worker management relations. And again he wasnt completely unique in this but he was very thorough in his commitment to this and very effective in his carrying it out and he employed what he called a square deal. He believed that if you provide workers with benefits and with services and with opportunities to do well by themselves, they will respond in kind. The kinds of issues that employers at the time were worried but a were things like turnover. Turnover was in this time period very detrimental. People were there was a revolving door of employment in many factories, and there was a sense that if you can tie the worker to the company and get their loyalty, they will not only perform better but its more efficient and profitable for the company itself. And so many of these programs that were associated with what reo called the square deal provided a whole array of services. In the history and profession we call this welfare capitalism so ransom olds in his company reo established one of the most elaborate successful welfare capitalism in the late throughout the 1920s. A great deal of this was exemplified by the reo clubhouse, vest important space in the city of lansing, was a huge. Beautiful, imposing clubho