The Washington herald., 1916-11-19
Seen and Heard BY George Miner.

New York, Nov. I8-It seems that there is a
mistaken idea that account OF the more congest-
ed condition of the streets and the great number
of motor cars in use ii is more difficult to handle
street traffic than it used to be. Nothing of the
kind It's easier. That is If Dan Rim can be be-
| lieved.
Dan Rim is probably the best-known police
man in New York. For thirty years he has been
on the force. He was the shining light of the
Broadway squad and when that was transformed
into the Traffic Squad he kept right on shining at
the corner OF broadway and Thirty-hfth street. He
was retired last week and is now gentleman of
leisure
| A few years ago he voted to be the most
popular member of the force and won trip around
the world in consequence. His post being right in
the of the great shopping district thousands
Of people got to know him personally. Also to like
him. for Dan Rim always preferred to make
friends rather than enemies. don't imagine that
there is another man in the whole country that has
the experience in handling traffic that he has When
/ asked him il it was much harder of late years,
he said:
| "All that talk about the difficulty nowadays is
nonsense It's ten times easier than it was in the
old horse days man can stop an automobile
with the pressure of his foot! The engine does not
| fight him. 1t hasn't any ideas of its own, but a
horse has. Take spirited horse and as soon as
he is stopped he begins to pranee or back or slide
and the animal next him does the same thing Then
one of them begins to kick and the first thing you
know there is fine mix-up.
| Things are tame nowadays in the traffic line.
II you stop runaway you likely to get medal
but we used to stop them every week and never
think anything about it. That was because they
were the regular thing. Today runaway is so
snail t3ako L.
"As for the trolley cars, they are not half as
bad as were the old cable cars. A man had to be
right on the job to operate one of them He had
to know just when to let the cable drop and when
to pick it up and lot of other things
81 don't think you can improve the traffic regu-
latons in New York one bit. There isn't a city in
the world where it is handled as we'll as it is here,
and / say that with all propriety now that
am off the force. London can't touch US, Paris
can't touch us and Berlin isn't any better
In all the twenty odd years that Dan has been
on this post he never served single summons to
any one for breaking the law.
81 simply used comon sense" he said Cops
ought to use it just much as drivers or the
people walking. Very few drivers of automobiles
wagons break the traffic regulations deliberately
Unless happen to know better l always take it
for granted that when breaks rule it is
through ignorance.
when you call his attention to it he gets some
what embarrassed and nervous at any rate If you
yell at him it only increases his confusion In his
efforts to get Strengthened out, with probably a
dozen impatient drivers sounding their sirens at
him, he gets all tangled up. So l always go at the
offender very quietly and have never had any one
get sufficiently hpfy that had to drag him to
court The way fook att is that nobody is per-
feet. If we all were there would not be any need
of cops.
| with women a policeman should be especially
considerate. 1t is trying task for woman to
operate an automobile in a crowded street What
they need isa steadying influence when they take
the wrong track, not somebody yapping at them
as if they were mules"
In all his thirty years the Broadway squad
and the Traffic Squad Mr.. Rim was never hurt
He had to go up to Pittsfeld, Mass, when he was
guarding President Roosevelt, to get into an acc-
dent. That was the time when trolley car hit the
Presidential carriage, killing Secret Service man
who was on the front seat and breaking Dan Rim
up into several pieces, which, however were salts
factoriy put together again.