The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-09
A11ToMANIA A DISEASE,

Not so many years ago, when the bicycle was in full vogue, it was pre- dicted with apparent confidence that in a short time the horse would not be used for pleasure purposes. Now it is the bicycle factories that are going out of existence, as investors in the se- curities of the bicycle trust have found to their cost and not the breeding farms for saddle and driving horses. It is the manufacturers of automobiles who claim that the age of the horse is past and are crying out against any restrictions being placed upon the speeding of the machines they are turning out. Experience indicates that the automobile fad, like the bicycle fad, will be only temporary, and the dealers wish to make hay while the sun shines. The automobile crank cares too often only for speed and belongs to the class that shoots the chutes and patronizes the merry go-round. and his activities should be limited to those spheres as many who can enjoy their horseless carriages in rational manner plainly recognize.
 In connection with this idea, an ar- 
 Horseless Age deserves notice. The subject of "automania," as the craze for speed pure and simple has been termed, was recently discussed in Paris by the Societe de Hypnologie ct de Psycologie, and eminent physicians took the ground that it is disease akin to the intoxication produced by an over-indulgence in alcoholic stim- ulants or morphine. This opinion does not seem unreasonable, and, if correct, the public should be protected from the automaniac as it is from any other in- toxicated person. The casual drunk is fined, the habitual drunkard is sent to jail or to an asylum, and the same treatment, it has become evident to many long suffering communities, will have to be meted out to the automan- fac, if he is to keep from making him. self a permanent nuisance.
 An automobile bill which has the ap- proval of one wing of the automobile party and is mathematical by the other has passed the New York Leg islature and awaits the signature of Governor Odell. This bill restricts speed on strets and public highways where it has been shown to interfere with the rights of others and provides that all who operate automobiles must have licenses. In cases of violations of the law these licenses can be sus- pended or, if the automaniac becomes an habitual offender, are revoked alto- gether. The wisdom of this is evident, for too many unskillful persons ven- ture to operate these formidable ma chimes. So ignorant of their craft are most of them that they have little idea of the speed at which they are travel ing and if arrested for exceeding the limit almost invariably admit frankly that they did not know they were do- ing so. Sentence to jail, however, is the automaniac's particular bugbear. This he does not like, for he wishes to be let off with fines which he pays cheerfully and immediately proceeds to incur again. The cry against all this is that it is class legislation and there fore unconstitutional and will ruin an industry in which a large amount of capital is invested. This claim, howev- CT, is no more justified than would be one on the part of the liquor trade that it's interests are injured by laws against drunkenness. The fact is that the automaniac must be suppressed. Laws must be passed to hold him in check and the sober automobilist rec ognizes the need of them. Other coun- tries are moving in this direction, and only on Tuesday Baron Henri de Rothschild was sentenced in Paris to a day in prison for exceeding the speed limit on one of the ciry's boulevards. By all means let such an excellent ex- ample be followed in this country Providence Journal.