Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1910-11-25
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER as, 1910.
iNSOlENCE OF CHAUFFEURS
INCREASED SINCE ROSEN-
HEIMER'S ACQUlTTAL.
Augmented Disregard for Rights
ofPuhiie Shown in Many Ex-
ssperatins Ways-It Was
Bad Enough Before.
THEY KILLED SEvENTY-oNE PERSONS
AND INJURED 488 IN NEW YoRK'S
STREETS IN THE LAST TEN
MONTHS

STREETS IN THE LAST TEN
MONTHS.
New York Tribune.
People who visit or live in this CITY
are becoming more and more alarmed
over the constantly increasing danger
of being run down at street crossings.
So noticeable is the nervousness about
this matter, in fact, that it seems as
though public sentiment were on the
point of clamoring for some relief.
Every morning ones breakfast is
eaten to the disquieting accompaniment
of narrowing accounts of yesterdays
death roll. Here was man in the
prime of life, and there woman, some
ones wife and some one else's mother,
and another helpless little child or an
old woman-all were felled at various
times during the preceding day, usually
by some crafty driven automobile. I'm
easy with the recollection of these ca
lamities, one goes out to face the
chances of the day.
Many persons prominent in official
circles have come to the conclusion that
something decisive must be done to pro-
tect the voyager on foot or in lighter
vehicles from the destructive rush of
ehN oUSOiiOOiiC SiiO uSu Jul oblCCIo.
Colonel Cornell, the secretary of
privately supported organization known
as the National Highways Protective
Society, gave out yesterday to The New
York Tribune the society's official list
of persons killed and injured by auto
mobiles in the streets of New York
from January to October, 1910, inclu-
sive. The total of the role of misery is
II killed and 4S8 injured. OF the II
deaths twenty mine were of children
under sixteen years of age.
THE situation, said Mr. Cornell, "is
so bad that something must certainly be
done. do not say that it is only by
automobiles that human life is sacri-
feed in the streets, because drunken
truck drivers and wornout trolley motor
men, whose arms are numb from wind
ing brake u day, are also to blame
But the automobile is the principal and
worst offender.
Here in New York we have the lar
gest percentage of automobile owners
to the total population of any city in
the world, and we have the longest
death roll. Even Paris, with its repu-
tation for wild driving, cannot show
list of casualties to compare with New
York's.
Most of the trouble, it seems to me,
comes from the professional chauffeurs.
AS class they are utterly Indifferent
to human life, taking chances with their
own as with every one else's. Don't
careness,' if | may coin the expression,
is their watchword.
Just by way of side light on the
character of these men, I'll tell you that
the records of the Court of Domestic
Relations show more cases of bad usage
and desertion of wives on the part of
chauffeurs than among any other class
of men.
Another dangerous kind of driver is
the man, who buys cheap second hand
car and Immediately feels that the
world is his. There really is a good
deal of this done. Every year RESPONSE
BILE owners sell their out-of-date cars to
buy new ones, and the kind of man who
buys in these cars is usually of the I'M
settled class, with few, if any, respon-
sibilities, and desire to make big
show. Such people often do not even
know how to run car well enough to
keep out of trouble, because, you see,
owners do not have to pass examination
and take out license as chauffeurs do
now.
''The law should be uniform in this
matter of licensing man to drive
car. An owner who drives his car should
be regarded legally as a chauffeur. /
have no doubt we shall soon be able to
make that law.
Then, in addition to these two types
of criminally negligent drivers, we
have the society people who are hurry
ing from one appointment to another,
and who have started so late that ire
mendous rush through the streets is in
evitable.
''All of these alike forget the univer-
sal law of the rights of the smaller and
slower as against the larger and faster
vehicle. Just as the rowboat has right
of way of the sailboat and the sailboat
has the right of way over the steam
craft, so the pedestrian and the horse
and carriage have right of way over an
automobile. There is an increasing
sense of disregard for everything
spreading abroad over this city. Disre-
spect for laws as well as disrespect for
age and for sacred things.
81 don't know what we are coming to.
Perhaps we shall be doing as the great
men in Rome did, attach scythes to our
wheel hub to NOW the populace down.
Every day this Office is in receipt of
hundreds of letters, asking information
and help, from people who have been
the victims of cruel accidents. We do
all we can for them and have succeeded
so well in making our influence felt that
we were called upon 10 aid the prosecu-