Newark post., 1911-06-28
Automobiles, Chauffeurs And
The Public
BY CHARLES ]. BONAPARTE

tIudpS we ought not 10 COIli-
plain, certainly we do not, of the
mere discomforts incidental to the
Use of automobiles, the dust, the
rapid destruction OF Our best roads,
the frequent smoke and the we'll
nigh perpetual smell.
d Things like these. you know, must
be
In every famous victory.
Victories of science or inven-
ton are like others; they have
their drawbacks; and reasonable
people, at least in America, learn
to put up almost too patiently
with such drawbacks, especially
when these are connected with an
apparatus enabling us to get over
ground two or three times as fast
as we could before it's invention.
But even this great service to civil
lization does not make it satisfac-
tory or tolerable that our high
ways should be rendered unsafe
and Our fears and sympathies con-
stantly excited by gruesome tales
of injury to life and limb. Acct
dents arising from the use of aero
planes may be perhaps even more
numerous in proportion TO the
number of such machines used,
than accidents arising from the
Use Of automobiles but the only
people killed or crippled during
aviation are the aviators them
selves, and they run the risks with
their eyes open; automobiles rush
about on streets and roads intend
ed for the use of all citizens, and
which all citizens are compelled to
use very frequently by the neces-
sites of civilized life: and many
OF their victims are people whose
only fault lies in their inability to
get out OF the way fast enough.
Need there be all these lives lost
and all these grave and perman-
ent injuries?
Many Automobiles appear to
think that i: a machine might be
made to go very much faster the
rate at which it does go cannot be
too fast; if they could run at 30
or 40 miles an hour and, in fact,
run at only IS or 20 or IS miles,
like Give, they are "astonished at
their own moderation if. how
ever a carriage were driven for
any distance through a city's
streets at the speed of 20 or even
IS miles an hour, the coachman
would be probably arrested for
reckless driving and certainly con-
sidered culpably indifferent to his
own safety and that of others. If
locomotive were adapted to
pavementS or a steam roller could
run a mile in three or four mint
tes, everybody would recognize the
need of extraordinary care in the
management of so dangerous
machine, yet neither would be in
tact, as dangerous to the public as
the automobile, by reason OF the
latters noiselessness. A runaway
team going at 20 to Is miles an
hour would make clatter TO be
heard a square ahead, but an att
tonobile going at twice that speed
may glide up to its victim as sill
emily as would a cat. After a re-
cent deplorable accident at a rail
road crossing, in which four lives
were lost, it was sought to dis
prove negligence on the part of
the victims by showing that when
their. machine was struck by the
train, its speed was only" some
twelve miles an hour; what would
be thought O' the driver of car
riage who dashed across railroad
tracks at that speed? Indeed, the
obvious duty of slackening the
pace on approaching a crossing or
turning corner is wholly disre-
garded by a large proportion OF
our chauffeurs; they fly around
from one street into another with
out slowing up and usually with
out warning, and seemingly ex-
pect everybody else who may be
using the street to stop, look and
listen for their approach; as
though the public highway, free to
all inhabitants of the State, were
the private right-of-way of a rail
way corporation and they were the
agents OF that corporation. That
it is his business to avoid doing
damage to other travellers, not at
all the business of other travellers
to keep out of his way at any cost
and under all circumstances, is an
idea apparently quite foreign to
the mind of the average chauffeur; F;