New-York tribune., 1908-07-05
THE AUTOMOBILE RECORD.

There will be general approval of the opinion
exnressed nv the Safe Roads Automobile Asso-
citation of Massachusetts in its first yearly re-
port that q large majority of automobile oper-
ators run their carefully. 1t is, indeed
obvious that it must be so, for II 1t were not, IL
the average motorist were reckless, there would
certainly be far more accidents than there are.
The report which we have cited tells us that in
Massachusetts, in the year ended June 30 no
fewer than 60 persons were killed in automobile
accidents 21 of them being occupants OF the
cars and II nOn-occupants, and $40 more were
seriously injured. That is a shocking record Ill
itself. Yet when we remember that thousands
of automobiles were in every day and night,
carrying many thousands of persons and pass
ing by millions of persons on the highways, we
must recognize that the proportion of offenders
was, after all, not large.
The report therefore tends to vindcate auto
mobiists against indiscriminate and wholesale
condemnation and to establish the repute OF
automobling as a means Of transit which, while
exceedingly convenient and enjoyable to those
who practise it, may be made and kept void
of offence to the remainder Of the commu-
nifty. At the same time it does not III the
least suggest the propriety of any d1mlnutlon
Of severity against actual and wanton Offenders
1t would never do to argue that because only
one In hundred or one in a thousand drives
recklessly there is no need Of law and a pen
alty against reckless driving Perhaps only one
man in ten thousand is thief and only one IN
a hundred thousand is a murderer, yet nobody
would for that reason abolish the laws against
theft and murder, or lessen the severity of the
punishment for those crimes. AS we understand
it this Safe Roads Automobile Association has
no thought of getting the law or the penalty
abolished. On the contrary, it seems to devote
its activities largely to procuring the strict en-
forcement of them, and in that it is doing q
valuable service both to the public In general
and to automoblsts in particular, The results
of its action confirm our often expressed belief
that in no way the offensive small minority
of reckless automobilists be brought to decent
WAYS CIR driven from the highways more surely
and effectively than through the resolute organ
lied action of the great majority of law-abiding
and right-reSpecting drivers of motor cars.
It needs to be remembered too, that local de
sires and regulations are entitled to some re-
spect in even the smallest places. AutomobillstS
appreciate the generous conduct of some COM
munities, which give up their highways for
time to the practically exclusive use OF motorists
for road racing But they should remember
that other communities have an equally good
right to refuse to grant such privileges, and to
insist that the legal limit of speed shall be
STRICTLY observed on their roads. PeOT.5 who
live all their lives along highway and who are
taxed every year for its maintenance are GER
tanly as much entitled to say how it shall be
used as are the strangers who occasionally ride
over it. The operation Of automobile traps Is
doubtless often annoying, and sometimes 1t is
probably mean, tricky and dishonest, though the
cases are certainly very few in which any one
would be caught in a trap if he were not break
ing the law But 1t is also annoying, and the
practice is sometimes attended with disastrous
and even fatal results, for motorists TO go
scorching through a rural community without
regard for the law, on the theory that it is a
mere "hayseed village which does not count"
1t is often in precisely such places that there is
greatest danger in scorching and greatest need
for the benefcent influence of safe roads asso-
ciatiOn.