Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-04-26
From New York Times.
CONTINUED from last week. I


"There is no doubt, in my mind, that |
reasonably drastic enforcement of not
too stringent laws would rob New York. |
streets of the greater portion of their
perils. Establish a speed limit of, say,
fifteen miles an hour in the congested
districts, and twenty miles an hour in
the less thickly populated sections of
the city, provide enough men, properly
equipped, to really arrest offenders and
back these men up from the magisterial
benches with the infliction on their
prisoners of adequate penalties, and
speeding in New York will very quickly
stop.
when New York's citizens go at
things earnestly they always do what
they set out to do. When the National
Highways Protective Society, two years
ago, induced prominent physicians to
petition the Health Board in regard to
the intolerable nuisance of the smoking
auto, the competence of our official
machinery was tested and well proved.
An ordinance was enacted and, through
the efficiency of the Health Board Squad,
backed by the regular police, the null
sance has been abated to the extent of
not less than 80 per cent. We could do
the same with speeding, if we set about
: it with the same determination and in
telligence.
"And the speeder is a menace not
alone to human life but human courtesy.
We must not be too hard on him, for he
i is but the logical development of that
National impulse toward hurry which at
n first was necessary in America, but has
= now become a real disease among US.
e 1--WE are loosng our politeness-on
e sees it everywhere. In the street cars
we push in without a beg-your- pardon
to the man or woman whom we crowd
S the demeanor of the New York boy upon
the street is dominant, aggressive, bull
S doing. Our life from dawn to dark is
d a forced march. In the forced march
J. of an army it leaves its dead and dying
;. by the wayside; but the army has to
Rtl Olb POooiDiy, blCCb NSlCd
IL with the average American, who pro
It ceeds through life at tenth speed, it is
II not necessity which drives, but the mere
C habit of desire to rush. 1t has reached
d it's most depressing manifestation in the
e dangers of our highways.
l. ANY doctor will explain, as DR.
al Polk did recently in the columns of The
n Sunday Times. that this is filling oul
e asylums with insane men, that it il
e filling our increasingly numerous SAM
j. tarums with women nerve-racked ant
1t forlorn. that it is having on domestic
N life general effect which is fast making
Or US dsgracefully unique among tn
nations of the world.
lie mot long ago a man was struck blin'
lie suddenly upon the street. All the news
,e papers announced the verdict of the doc
in tors-it was queer result of many day
De of worry for his safety as he crosse
r that thoroughfare while going to his of
fee. Not all of US who worry are struc
blind, but there are few of us who
n not worry, and every one who worrie
suffers some unfortunate effect there
~ from.
"There is danger to the citizen O
New York city in the fact that he ha
an long lived here and grown accustome
id to the perils of our streets. We have
no floating population of, say, 100, 600 pee
of pie. They are unaccustomed to Me-
lv York. and logically, would be considere
III far more liable to accident upon on
~ throbbing highways than the old Ne
&c Yorker, trained to jump and dodge.
va "Such is not the case however. Yer
few fatalities occur among the stranger
ed on our streets. When a man of Cairo
ed H., leaves home his wife kisses hi
of goodbye and says;
NJ CHOW, John, you're going to Ne
oo York. Please do be careful -
in "Then she presses into his right har
little clipping from Cairo newspapt
H. which tells him the amazing total of f;
in talities on New York's streets each yea
al That man comes here impressed with
m real sense of portland he goes hon
he whole.
,aI 1.-The New Yorker has no sense {
he peril, and he goes home in an ambulanC
or in box.
100 ANY nerve specialist will tell yc
MOO that fast auto riding has a sad effect {
400 womanhood, especially on motherhood
MOO it certainly has an unfortunate effect {
. manhood and on fatherhood. Womt
100 who speed through the country, it
said, very largely lose their powers
observation, because of the too-rap
I'd flight of roadside panoramas; the ma
on who poses, tense and with the muscl