The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-07-04
THE PESKY AUTO.

Sdlu was uldue when leSFSldlV6 DOulcS outgrew their deltberative character and became the registering body for committee brains should take note of an calculating debate which occurred the other day in the Connecticut sen ate. The new proposed automobile law
 was under consideration and as there were present members of that chamber who understand the peshy article from
 the ground up, flying comments were
 made which deserve to be rated with true eloquence.
 1 Senator Butterworth of New Haven
 sought to have the bill provide that
 cars should be run with a respect for
 the rights of others upon the road"
 and to make the speed limit twenty
 five miles outside the cities and bor-
 oughs and ten miles inside. Senator
 Buell., who is the chairman of the com
 mittee, said that the question of speed
 had been carefully considered both from the point of view of the safety
 of the public and from that of prohib- iting the trap evil. He stated that hun
 dreds of people had been arrested who
 have had no intent of violating the
 law for overspeeding on distances as short as one sixteenth of a mile Sem
 ator Potter objected to any such spe-
 cihc speed limit as twenty-five miles as
 1t would permit anybody so choosing to
 run at that rate. Senator McNeil of
 Bridgeport, who Is an old hand at auto-
 mobiling and who knows a bird in the
 hand from two in the bush, observed
 that unless policemen were located at
 regular intervals on all of the roads of
 the State a speed limit is dead letter.
 He then made the fine suggestion that
 the only way 10 regulate the speed is
 to regulate the manufacture of autos So
 that none could be built to go faster
 than the figure decided upon,
 It would be impossible to crowd
 more comprehensively into a running
 debate the obstacles placed in the way
 of intelligent legislation upon the auto mobile speed question by human nature, which is the source of the whole trou-
 ble The desire of Senator Butterworth to protect the rights of all on the high ways is a proper one and 1t would be
 easily accomplished without legislation if a way could be discovered to make men respect each the ights of tho oth-
 CT. The only good legislation can now
 do is to punish those who happen tc
 be caught imposing upon their fellows
 Senator Buell. Is especially working along sensible lines when he seeks tC : establish q speed limit which will make trapping of innocent autoists impossi. ble but 1t is a question if that can bt done. Any speed limit can be made tc l lend itself to skilful trappers but nc speed limit will all of the time mak' l car drivers respectful of the law,
 n The Senator who is really on to hi ! job as an expert in automobilng i s MT. McNeil of Bridgeport There | l no theorizing about him. He knows [ that the State cannot enforce it's owr - laws in any such uniformity as t Y make them worth passing, unless th' r State is ready to undertake the i'm
 practicable, namely the enactment o # laws regulating the capacity of ma r chimes. That is good sound sense an e it takes the discussion back 10 wher e 1t belongs, to the demand there is fo g, the Butterworth idea that the violation h of the rights of another Is offens g enough to call forth punishment Reg e ulating speed is waste of time but d is possible that the condition of tn y public mind demands it, It Is encour It aging, however, to see that the sena a tors are not blind to The difficulties 1 e. the way of intelligent legislation.