The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-02-07
AUTOMOBILE LAW
 TO BE REHASKED
Secretary Phillips Wants Changes Made-Taxation Taken Away From Town Officials

Hartford. Feb. 7-A1bert Phillips, the new Secretary of. the State, has been busy revising the automobile laws which were passed by the Jan uary session of the 1911 General As sembly, and having revised them i'll a manner most satisfactory to himself, has caused them to be introduced 10 the General Assembly,
 The most important of the changes, takes away from the town assessors the right to tax automobiles, placing it in the office of the Secretary of the State: and fixing 2 unlaorm c roived raeG ol are returned to the treasurers Of the towns in which the machines are owned. The bill provides that the owner shall pay at the time his car is registered for the year, 10 mills on
 the value of the car, which is placed at 75 f,raf per var na per Cent of the the list price for the second year; 50 per cent. of the list price for the third year, and for the fourth year ana a1-
 ter, a tax Of 20 per cent. of the list price The Secretary of the State then turns over to the Treasurer of
 fhe State gTrea surer sends to the town
 treasurers 95 per cent of the money received from cars owned by resi-
 dents of their town Keeping the per cent for clerical work.
 In the opinion of MT. Phillips this
 will do away with great deal of over and under-valuatton Of cars py
 assessors, make each car in the state pay it's share of the tax, and insure a proper and equitaA le rate for all
 cars in the State: The Dill % Was re- Another part of the proposed
 changes in the motor vehicle law gets after commercial motor cars owned | outside the State and daily using the State highways for delivery purposes. 1 Under the present nonresident sec
 ton, they are not comRel1ed to reg lips's amendment makes all 'commer- cfal motor vehicles, owned and oper- ated by non-reSidents within thls 1 State not exempt under the provisions | of Section 10, except for a period of
 ten days in any calendar year" This
 section does not apply to touring cars l and the ten-day clause is inserted for
 the benefit of moving vans which
 make occasional visits with house l hold goods, and other materials of 1 A change of fees is also in pros pect, if the amendments are passed
 A dealers license will be $40 instead of $20 so as to remove temptation ! from individuals who would desire to
 operate a string of cars under the ! lower priced dealers license, under : the pretense that they are dealers.
 Small power cars which come in un-
 der the pro rata law, and which in the i cases of some low powered electric enough to pay a minimum regisra- ! tion fee of $1 and the minimum an nual fee for any motor vehicle, except 1 motorcycles, shall e $5.
 An amendment to Section z, which provides for brakes, lights, bell and 1 horn has added to it, ''and 1t shall l be unlawful for any purpose to use any device which will not produce an abrupt sound sufficiently loud to serve as an adequate warning. It 1 shall be unlawful for any person op- erating any motor vehicle to make or i cause to be made any unnecessary i noise with any such bell or horn or 1 other signal device, or to use the same | except as a warning of danger Section 4, in which the size of the I numbers of the marker is regulated, | and which has never been followed
 because the marker would have to be
 too large, is amended to reduce the
 size Of the numbers. The rule now
 in force is that the figures tssha11 be not less than four inches high, and II each stroke not less than Ave-eighths of an inch wide, and each digit there | of shall occupy space not less than 1 three and one-ha1f inches in width. 7 1 The proposed amendment makes the 1 numbers four inches high, with 8 one-half inch stroke and occupying a space of two and three-quarters inches 1 wide
 | The last amendment contemplated is of Section 3, in which the word dealer is substituted for the word agent because as ~The principal is liable for the acts of his agent,'' au-
 tomobile manufacturers are giving out very few commissions as agents for
 their cars.