Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-01-08
FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 1909.


slaughter on ! ne 1i9nWaySs
In the days before the Civil War,
when Americans boosted loudly about
the freest country in the world, and the
only country in which there was real
equality between man and man, Europe
an travellers and students of American
conditions were puzzled to reconcile
these statements with the fact that
Americans were holding four million
men and women as slaves. The success
sors of those European travellers and stu
dents must be equally puzzled today
when they hear so much about the res
pect paid to the individual man and
woman, without regard to previous con-
dition of birth, race, or education, the
sanctity which attaches to the person I'M
der our free government, and at the same
time read the accounts of the frightful
mortality. not only on railways, but in
streets of our cities and along the country
roads from reckless automobiles. As a
matter of fact, the regard for human life
in the United States is a matter of public
In Europe, under various forms of gov
eminent, all involving more or less class
rule, the men and women who walk, and
who are, of course, the great democracy
of the world, practically have no rights
which people in carriages or automobiles
are bound to respect. If they are run
down and injured, they alone are respon-
sibe, because they have no business to
be i'll the way of people in vehicles. In
this country, which calls itself "A demOc.
racy, the same state Of affairs exists: the
pedestrian must look out for himself.
and the chances of his safety appear to
be rapidly lessening. In practice, at
least, he has no right of way. He exists
simply on sulferance: so long as he does
not obtrude himself on any highway, or
interfere with the flight of mOtor-car.
he may be able to avoid accident and
probably death; but if, by any mischance
or lack of agility, he happens to be in the
way of vehicle running from thirty to
sixty miles an hour, he and his family
must accept the death penalty with
resignation. There is absolutely &c
remedy for them.
On Sunday, not long ago, in the imme-
date neighborhood of New York City,
three men were killed, three more sent lo
various hospitals or to their homes in a
dying condition, and twenty were more
or less seriously injured. Two men were
walking along an old post road in one OF
the most picturesque sections of West
chester County, which was the scene OF
incessant fighting during the period
when the American colonists were strug
Cling to secure "life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness" At some hour
after dark the two men were struck anC
killed by motor-c cars, the occupants OF
which did not report the accident, bu
sped on to their journeys end in safety
and are somewhere to-day, though guilty
of manslaughter. pursuing their usua
vocalions. The autopsy revealed tina
the men had not only been killed, prob
ably at the first blow, hut that subse
quently they had been run over by heav,
vehicles. and one molurist remembered
"having bumped over something" during
the night at the point where the bodie
Were subst quently found. If six mef
had died and twenty had been tai, int
hospitals with yellow fever or cholera OF
that particular Sunday New Yorl
would have been aroused. Measures fo
and every precaution that money and in
telligence, backed by powerful public
opinion, could enforce would have beer
put into operation. But the death of sil
people by viOlence-for that is what i
amounts to-and the manning Of twent,
Others are allowed to pass as every-da,
incidents in the life of a great city
Some day this state of affairs will cease
as some day the outrageous violation o
privacy by the sensational newspaper
will be brought to a definite end. Blu
the man who cares for the higher civil
cation of America, and attaches som,
value to the lives of the common peopl,
who have to use the highways, some
times wonders how long this reign o
death will continue The Outlook.