New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-11-23
KILL TOO MANY, HE SAYS.
Reckless Drivers Denounced by DR..
MGckaU-Other Street Perils.

The Rev Dr. Donald Sage Mackay yesterday at
the Collegiate Church. F1fth-ave and FOrty-eighth
St, preached a sermon "The Perils Of the
Street" in which he appealed for legislation to
control reckless driving in this city. He based his
sermon three pers the street, the physical the
moral and the spiritual and quoted figures of COM
parison between the number of deaths and injuries
que TO traffic accidents I'm New-York and London.
He answered the question of whether the whole
sale slaughter of little children is unavoidable
by declaring the fact proved by statistics that in
the year 1902 in London there were 12S persons
killed. while in the year in New-York ASS
persons met death from traffic accidents. He COM
mended the police for improving conditions. and
expressed satisfaction that the agitation against
reckless driving of cars and vehicles being
carried on by the newspapers.
He said that ii is the duty of the Church to utter
warning word against the almost criminal care
lessness with which human life is sacrificed day by
day in NewYork. The pavement" he said, lis
the only playground of the children Of the poor,
and in grasping the only opportunity for healthful
exercise they open to the possibility of vio-
lent death. The facts gathered by the newspapers
show that at least six hundred people are killed
outright and three thousand persons disabled every
year. more than twice the number killed or wound
country.
parenty destitute of humanity, is absolutely in
dl l 1t is an Sutrase to sea helpless women
box. who seem to regard public highways as places
1t would almost seem that anarchy and not law
had become the modern rule of the road. The po
lice ara helpless to remedy matters unless strong
public sentiment is behind them to correct abuses,
chief among which is incompetence of wagon drlV-
ers. The boy driver is not the only offender, as
there men whose use of the whip classifleS
them incapable. Why should il not be possible
to pass ordinance by which every driver shall
be required TO be duly licensed after he has given
evidence of his ability to handle team of horses?
Let ii be further enacted that driver shall cross
any avenue round any corner at full speed, and
for the infringement of these ordinances let the
penalty be sufficiently severe"
AS regards the moral peril Of the street. DR.
Mackay declared that New-YOrk was in a far
healthier condition than London and Paris. He
held the longing for excitement. morbid curl
osity,' to be of the causes which made the
streets Of great city at night battle-ground
where too often virtue crushed by the bat
talions of vice. He said saloons. clubrooms and
quarters for moral degenerates.
"Saddest of ALL said DIR. Mackay, 1.-The moral
peril of the sidewalk is intensified through the
bitter struggle for daily bread The sum of = or -
a week, in addition to So salary. may be a thin
red line. side of which is happiness and on
the other misery. Two dollars or 81 week. one
way or another may mean the first steps down
no responsibility for these moral perils? Ought not
the Church to hold up the hands Of those who are
doing something to offset the dangers which beset
the young woman who Is alone In the CITY
The Church must in short, get down to the street,
FOR the street will never come to the Church
''One brief hour a week. at the Sunday morning
service is for 90 per cent of the processing Chris
have. The finer sympathies of the soul are with
cred and the man who, twenty or thirty years ago,
was generous and devoted to the service OF Chrlst
is to-day cramped by the grip of city life.