The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-12-01

bia UniVersIty-Why Not the Auto?
A "Deodand."
When any one is run down and kill
ed by an automobile in any of our
highways. would it not he d good idea
for the community to seize and de-
stroy the automobile?
This is the interesting suggestion
made by Professor Franklin H Gid
dingS of Columbia university as one
way of stopping or, ut least, of materi-
ally lessening the number of highway
accidents that represent 4 compara-
lively new evil in our community life.
The steadily increasing number of
such automobile killings bears witness
to the fact that we have not yet learn
ed to cope successfully with this evil.
Motorcars ranging from the omnipres-
ent taxicabs to the laundering. street
shaking mail trucks dealt death on
the streets Of New York alone in 1872
cases in the first nine months OF this
year, according to a recent Compila-
ton made by the clerk of the coroners
court there.
What the list totals in other cities and
in motor travelled districts throughout
the country it is impossible to guess.
Make Cars That Kill "Deodands."
THE American cares little about his
own life and little about the lives of
Others" observes Professor Giddings.
but l think the street accidents
would tend to stop if the car that kill
ed were a deodand."
That last word goes back to the
early English law. \ deodand was u
thing which, because it had been the
( immediate cause of the death of a per
son, was given to God or, more accu
rately, forfeited to the crown. TO be
applied to such pious uses as the dis
tribution in aims. For instance. if q
cart ran over Il man and killed him il
was forfeited as a deodand. Dec
dands are unknown in American law
says Webster. but they were not aboi
isbed in England until 1916. AnC
now, says Professor Giddings. VIII!
not forfeit the car that kills?
1t might be pointed out that nothin.
could rival the memorial antiquity O
avoidance that would be the sourc,
and give the sure solidity to such ;
law.
It's parallel could he found in old lie
brew law. The AK that killed in cart,
social history was Il thing accused
ana it will be recalled with iutereS
that in very recent case in New Yorl
city an example of this ancient fcelin
played IN important part in the out
come of the trial
Shoe Last Aids In Conviction.
One Gregorio Giordano. accused O
the murder of his wife. was believe
to have killed her with the shoe las
which was found near her body. Ii
recoiI from this object when it wa
produced in court ana his reluctanc
, to touch it are said to have added con
elusive weight to the accusation in til
minds of the jurors.
The accurSed TX or hatchet of Ion
ago was soIemnly consigned to the WI
tiers of 4 lake. 1t WAS forfeit bccaus
o. it had killed. SO, too, that other ear
4 variety of property, the slave. was Il
cursed and destroyed if lie Killed
e fellow slave. Later the master stepp,
" in and redeemed him with none
;. payment, and from this. 50 say the $
biologists, grew the doctrine Of the Ell
: ployer's responsibility for injuri
" caused by fellow employee.
~ In the matter of street accident
then, it is suggested that we mig
: find new and important and practic
is aieiu wherein 'iie '"ooo Iee''hs eou