Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-01-06
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1911.
ADVOCATES INCREASE IN
AUTOMOBILE TAX.
jefferson de Mont Thompson
Urpes Car Owners TO Cooper
ate With Authorities.
TALK TO HIGHWAY SOCIETY.
AUTOS RUIN ROADS AND SHOULD BE
TAXED FOR DAMAGE, HE SAYS
ADVISES LICENSING OWNERS.

Declaring that almost every part of
Europe has become within the present
season unfit and unsafe territory for
American Automobiles, Jefferson de
Mont Thompson, who has just return
ed from Continental tour, stated yes
terday that radical change on the part
of American car owners and drivers
toward the State Governments was the
only thing that could prevent similar
situation here.
Instead of trying to weaken State
control and to keep down the tax on
cars, he declared that it was time for
Automobiles to join in making the tax
es higher and the laws and penalties
more rigorous for bad driving, allowing
cars to smoke, and disregarding the
rights of pedestrians and wagon drivers
on country roads.
Mr. Thompson is a member of the
Automobile Club of America and once
was holder of a Vanderbilt Cup. He
has spent his last five summers touring
Europe, but does not intend to try it
again until conditions change.
He said the new trouble over there
was due to the fact that the automobile
associations have persistently failed to
tell the Government the truth about
many things. The result has been that
the authorities have investigated for
themselves, and in strengthening the
laws have acted in the belief that car
owners would not cooperate with them.
''There is tax on everything this
year." he said, "a tax on your lamps,
on your spare parts, on your spare tires,
on your horse power, and on your seat
ing capacity.
I'm some cases the taxes are
l,,t boo
levied to raise funds to rebuild the hope
lessy ruined European roads that for
centuries have been the pride of several
Governments.
''What the automobiles did to de-
ceive the Governments for time was
to claim loudly that automobiles did not
harm the roads-that the wide tires
really benefited them, and that the
narrow tired wagons really did the harm
that each year became more visible.
well, when the Government began
really to look into it they found the
finest boulevards so bad that ones teeth
would almost be shaken out in any rid
ing of over twenty miles an hour. 1t is
so in the Bots de Boulogne. 1t is so
everywhere, and find it on my return
exactly so in our own Central Park.
Commissioner Slower, understand.
is now asking for several hundred thou
sand dollars to repair the park roads.
He hasn't learned the whole truth yet
the roads can never be repaired. They
have got to be rebuilt from the bottom
up, and after they are thus built it will
have to be done all over again in year
or two.
1.-The automobilist must admit the
fact and work in harmony with it, that
QMfnmnhilpc do min rOaHc md thaf ba
cost of keeping them in condition is a
proper charge against the business of
running cars either for pleasure or for
sport"
Mr.. Thompson made his statements
to the officers of the National Highway
Protective Society for the purpose, he
said, of letting them know the exact
condition abroad and the reasons which
brought these conditions about
Mr.. Thompson said that the original
draft of the automobile law now in force
In this State contained many provisions
that automobiles succeeded in eliminat-
ing in the mistaken idea that they were
thus helping their cause. He said the
provision requiring owners to be Ii
censed was one of these.
In Paris, he said, as an illustration of
the strict enforcement of the law, he
recently tried to get through town with
a new car just from the factory. 1t
smoked, and policemen stopped him
every two blocks. When finally he
reached his hotel he had been arrested
eleven times. According to the French
system, notices of his fines were sent to
his hotel, and by promptly renting he
saved himself from Jail.
Col. Cornell Secretary of the High
ways Protective Society. plans to dis
tribute copies of Mr.. Thompson report
to all automobile societies in this
country - NaW York Times