The Irish standard., 1906-05-05
THE SLAUGHTER GOES ON.

automobiles upon our streets. 1t may
be that some of our readers have
thought that the Importance of the
question has not deserved the attention
given To it, The death of "a little child
i going about her business under the
+, care of her guardian upon the public
street as a result of being run over by
. an automobile has again called the at
tention of the whole people of this
city to the menace of the automobile.
the trouble results from the improper
. use of the automobile by Il few. There
. are people who use the automobile in
such IL way that it's use by them is not
more dangerous than the use OF other
vehicles, but our observation is that
! the people who are careful are rather
i'm the minority. 1t is human nature
for u normal person in possession of Il
machine capable of rapid locomotion to
desire to so fast rather than slow. The
most level-hea,led person. when lie
ly tempted to overlook speed ordin-
anccs.
| An attempt has been made in the
| public press to excuse the man whose
machine caused the death above re-
/ ferred to. 1t has been said over and
over again that the machine was not
and that the little girl was playing in
| the street. The writer lives not far
from the place where the child was
killed and it is within his own per-
sunal knowledge that machines daily
are run upon that thuroughfarc at Il
rate exceeding thirty miic: an hour.
ings accidents. They are the natural
results of known causes. The accident
of the situation is that SO many escape
| injury. People are accidentally saved
| upon ;his very thorougffare where the
happening took place every day. If
one will stop to think that q man can
walk five miles an hour he will easily
appreciate the fact that few automo-
bilcS are driven at IL rate of less than
six miles an hour. An automobile will
go at the ordinary speed at which they
are driven in this city about five
blocks while Il man is walking one.
That means II rate of speed at least
| twenty miles an hour. and those are
automobiles which are not speeding.
Che uncle Of the girl killed has taken
occasion to correct some Of the mis-
statements that have been made in the
press. In the first place it. appears
that the little girl was not playing In
the street as has been stated. but was
crossing the street at the proper cross
ing place IN company with her aunt
OF the matter is that all three We're not
killed. II also appears that no warn
! ng was given except n short shout from
one of the occupants and that. too,
when the machine was in such close
proximity that the shout confused
| rather than warned. 1t appears also
that the child was not :. little tot but
was ten years old. amply able to- get
out of the way if an opportunity had
been given.
1t appears pretty conciusivcly from
those familiar with the facts that the
death was caused by the failure Of the
person in charge of the machine to
approaching Il crossing upon which
there We're people in the act Of cross
ing. II matters not what the speed
OF the machine was the result shows
that those in control Of it We're either
unable or unwilling to stop it in time
to avoid running down Il person who
had Il perfect right to be where she
was. 1t is not claimed by any one tina,
the little girl ran into the machine and
in some way got under it. 1t is adj
mitted that she was upon the street
She had as much right to be upon the
street as the automobile and she was
under no obligation to get out Of the
way than the automobile was to keep
out of her way. The whole truth of
the matter is that automobile owners
seem to think that they have a special
privilege to use the streets and that all
they need to do is to toot a horn and
everybody within blocks is supposed to
get out of the way. Men do usually
jump to avoid these huge engines of
destruction and because they do hustle
to get out of the way automobilists
seem to think that it is their duty to
do SO.
The death which occurred last week
is but one of many that will occur ii.
this community from like cause unless
public officers do their duty in reference
to this public menace. 1t is too much