The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-29
ma srErnERs AGAfN.

The automaniacs should by all means erect monument to one New York Judge. whose name we have not learn ed The Philadelphia Record gives this account of a recent case:
 A child 8 years old was playing in front of his fathers place of business | and an automobile turning a corner the company that owned the vehicle I and was defeated in the trial court. The Judge took the case away from the jury and ruled that the father who allowed l his child to play in the street was gull ! ty of contributory negligence if the child were killed. The roads, he held, 1 were for vehicles: and pedestrians who received injuries were themselves to
 But pedestrians are obliged to cross streets, and a large number Of city children have no place to play except affirmed by the Appellate Division.
 which remanded the case for another trial Holding that the facts should Appellate Court declared that "a person, whether adult or infant, has a right to assume that the operator of an auto mobile will exercise care and respect the rights of pedestrians in turning the corners of streets. Due care IS re. quired under such circumstances that 1 the vehicle should be slowed down ana toperated with care"
 To call judge an ass for ruling that I pedestrians have no rights on the streets would perhaps be to slander the I ouadruped What the verdict of the trial court would have been we have no means of knowing, for, as stated, the judge took the case away from the jury and decided it himself In favor of the reckless autoist. Probably the judge ! is one of them himself and was decid- ing the question for his class That Ethe Appellate Court of New York took a different view of 1t is encouraging, as the statement made by that tribunal that any one has a right to assume that the drivers of these machines will be care full This, however, seems to be only an assumption, if we may judge from the frequent reports of accidents caused by reckless speeding.
 We so little further than the Ap- pellate Court did and claim that every person has right to assume that the streets are safe for pedestrians on all ordinary occasions. To claim, as the first judge did, that roads and streets ''are for vehicles" and as a natural se- quence pedestrians have no right to travel on or across them is such mon- strous doctrine that we cannot under stand how any man. judge or any other, can utter it. If q person is guilty of contributory negligence when run over by an automobile while crossing a street it is high time for some new laws and interpretations.
 While on this subjec. we note that The Brooklyn Eagle has some ideas on the subject that are about as falla- cious as were those of the New York Judge, as the following will show:
 For instance, Magistrate Voorhees,, who fined and the policeman who ar- rested Howard Binhop for speeding m Prospect Park might better have hark- ened to the spirit and purpose of the law instead of to its letter. The po- liceman charged that Bishop was trav- cling eighteen miles an hour. Bish- op denied 1t. but admitted that he was exceeding the legal speed limit of eight miles an hour. Thereupon the usual fine was imposed. AS matter of fact. anybody who runs an automobile must exceed eight miles an hour. You can not operate and control one of the ma chimes without getting up more speed than that that hs Sea l' in mind rGr '1s o what is dangerous speed for driving horses and without any regard to requirements or automobiles or the ease with which they can be controlled. The limit ought to be raised to ten or twelve miles an hour An auto at such speed creates no more danger than span of horses at an eight-mile clip and is subject to auicker and more perfect control. But until the law is changed policemen and magistrates should exercise discretion in the application of 1t, as they do of other laws, the strict enforcement Of which Is neither possible nor necessa- ry. -*.-.
 Here is the positive assertion that a person cannot operate or control one of the machines without running at greater speed than eight miles an hour. We do not know what kind of machines they have in Brooklyn. but we know that they are run and perfectly con- trolled in Montgomery at less speed than that. We frequently see them moving along the streets at not more than three or four miles an hour and there seems no difficulty about controll- ing them. We suspect that the party who gave The Eagle that information was stringing the paper good and hard. In fact, anyone with ordinary sense must know that the auto can be more easily and certainly controlled at speed of eight miles an hour than 1t can at forty or fifty.
 But The Eagle takes another view that is much more pernicious than is the one to which we have alluded. It virtually holds that policemen and mag Istrates should disregard the speed lim- it law, for that is what its argument amounts to. If the officers are to dis regard the letter of the law" and po-
 icemen are to exercise discretion" they might as we'll repeal all laws on the subject and let the speeders go as they please. And if the limit Is raised to ten or twelve miles an hour there would be no more regard paid to it than there Is to the present one. The further contention of The Eagle in an other part of it's editorial. that the speed maniacs' cannot be suppressed by arresting men for running over the present legal speed is as weak as any other of its arguments. Its whole edi- torial in fact, is an encouragement to autoists to violate the law. -~-@-~-
 THEY ARE AGAIN SHAVED.
 The people of Atlanta, we are inform