New-York tribune., 1902-08-16
DEATH IN EXCESSIVE SPEED.

Let us reason together about automobiles.
Surely the heartrending tragedy of Thursday,
on the road between TrOuvile and Paris, should
be sufficient to set us thinking. Nor was IL
solitary and unique. The record of the last
wear or two has been marked with ominous IRE
uuency by disasters differing from this one
in degree rather than in kind, all pointing the
same unmistakable moral. That is. the deadly
peril of excessive speed in running automobiles
We have had almost daily demonstrations OF
that peril in an objective sense. the menace
and the injury TO horsemen and to pedestrians
on the road. The shocking deaths of Mr.. ana
Mrs Fair and long train Of accidents OF Ike
nature show the peril to be subjective, too. a
menace 10 the occupants of the automobles
themselves.
These are the circumstances: Mr.. Falrs au-
tomobile was one of those big racing machines
built expressly for high speed. similar TO the
White Devils and Red Ghosts and Ring
streaked Gyascutuses which have become so
unnleasantly and dangerously common upon our
roads II had speed of seventy-four miles an
hour and at the moment of the disaster at St
aguilin was actually running at sixty-two
miles an hour Now. that is rate OF speed at
tained hy only a few express trains on rali-
roads Men lay substantial roadbed, as level
and straight as possible. Upon it they securely
fastep ponderous steel rails to serve at once
as track on which the wheels are TO run and
as guides and guards which shall keep the
wheels from swerving. They protect theSe
rails from obstruction, and daily inspect them
TO make sure of their continued integrity. upon
these rails they put an engine constructed OF
steel and weighing hundred tons or more, ana
run It at the rate of sixty or seventy miles an
hour with comparative safety. though never
without keen appreciation of the peril that
resides in even so well guided and perfectly
controlled speed.
YET here are men making machines of only
one-hundredth the weight of railroad engines.
ard making them in part of slender wires ana
inflated rubber tubes. They run them not
nnon snecial tracks. but upon the common roads
with slI their irregularities and roughness. with
ruts and holes and loose stones. and with now
and then sharp stones or broken glass whlch
NAV puncture or cut rubber tire: and they
run such machines. on such roads, AT as high q
speed as railroad engines make on their special
Iy constructed tracks, II is madness II is
doubiy madness For it would he rerilous to
RIM any machine at such rate on such roads,
and il would be perilous to run such machine
at such rate on any road.
The mania for high speed in automohiiing is
indeed n mania The uile-a minute auto
mobile is a thing which can he used to lis
full capacity only at peril which is little
short of suicidal To make such machine IS
TO make either a useless or dangerous thlhg
and such a thing is not TO be commended. Inc
commendable and admirable automobile. the
automobile which has come to stay, ana
which is a beneficent triumph Of modern IN
vention. is the machine which is capable or
making moderate speed and of sustaining 1t for
a long time. which is strong in construction and
trustworthy in action. which is comfortable 10
ride in. which is easily controlled, and which
is not offensive TO nose TO eye or 10 ear-such a
machine. in brief. Mr.. Fairs was not Oh
that fact it should not take many more such
tragedies to convince even the most speed-mad
mind.