The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-11
STATE MAY HAVE
TO CONTROL AUTOS
Motor Vehicle Traffic May
Come Under Rule, Says
Francis NJ. Hugo.
no PRECEDENT IS FOUND
ny FRANCIS VI. HUGO,
Secretary Of state.

For the uses Of popular discussion
/, Is no longer seriously commended that
the motor car is either q luxury or q
road destroyer, for the vast number OF
persons in this State who derive per-
,onal. social and economic benent
through the use Of motor vehicles has
already surpassed all other common
yealths or nations in the quantity
and quality Of cars habitually employed
on the roads, the hundreds Of thousands
u motorists participating in their bene-
hts and the adaptabilities of its high
ways TO motor travelling for pleasure
and utility.
Here, therefore. have arisen the oue.-
tons calling for State regulation and
here they will have to be dealt with,
forming examples for other States from
which TO learn, as the same problems
nave matured there. Little assistance
will be found from presidents set by
the courts during the railway making
era In this State. for beyond being In
their turn equally novel means OF loco
motion there is little resemblance be-
tween railways and motor traction as
regards the special questions raised.
Still their common features as means
OF national locomotion render both OF
them deserving of wise treatment in
dependent of partisan interests or preju-
dice The railways were given consid-
cradle attention and motor traction can
advance claims to similar measures OF
impartiality. but the distinct exceilences
OF the motor car are just those which
marx It of from the sphere OF the rail-
road and are also the cause OF that
everyday interest which already makes
the motor problem So difficult to deal
with.
The rail locomotive could run only on
a road specially constructed by compa.
nies legally chartered and controlled
The motor car runs on any road heidi.
Gated to the public at the will OF any
individual, without the need OF speciaI
charter or control. thus completing wha,
the rail locomotive left untouched. II
raises the service to be gained from the
public highways to an equality with
that to be gained from the metal tracks
or a railroad and II will make tina,
service even more important still II II
Is given an equal chance. But at the
same tins II perplexes the Legislature
by distributing Its coercion among mill.
ions OF ordinary citizens instead OF con.
centrating them among a few grea'
and vulnerable corporations. Locomo.
ton is a matter OF space and time com.
olned and the motor car supplements
the services OF the rail locomotive b,
its capacity for meeting the various
times and occasions which rule thu
greater part OF life.
No railway system can work TO much
effect without a time table ALMOST as
rigid as Its metal track. No human
life can be even. nearly compiete II II
IA always tied up by such rigid condi-
tons. But motor traction with It's small
units can deal as pliantly with time as
II can with space. Every traveller must
have noticed that when moving In a
country where railways did not exist and
the horse was the common means OF
locomotion, the Inconvenience turned out
10 be far less than could have been
conjectured beforehand. The reason IL
that the convenience OF using small units
20 the use which the States develop
ment had necessarily been adapted com.
pensated for much of the want OF power
and speed.
When we get all this sort OF con
ven!ence with little sacrifice OF power
and speed, the gain must he immense,
This Is what the motor car confirms In
countries whose histo y has been for
tunate enough TO give them "A high sys-
tenn Of main and by roads. together with
a sufficient equipment of railways to pre-
vent the heaviest and fastsa trafic from
incommoding those who would put the