New Britain herald., 1916-06-10

paratus. Further evidence of their skill is shown in their recent work in rebuilding an automobile for the city electrician. New Britain has a good fire departm and is doubly forum ate in having it manned by an in- dustrious, respectable and dependable lot of men.
 The visit of the Eastern Division of the American Union of Swedish Sing CTS, which closed a three days confer ence here today, was an event of which New Britain may well be proud and if ever a city has been honored by public recognition it is this Never before has this Union held a con- vention in city as small as New Britain, and members state, it is highly improbable that any but the larger cities will ever hA visited again in the future. Therefore a distinc ton has been made in the case of the Hardware City and when a place the size of Hartford is passed over in favor of our own home town the citizens cannot but feel a justifable glow of pride.
 Action of the safety board in hav- ing an aisle of safety marked on the Main street pavement at two congest- ed corners is meeting with general ap- proval. Two years ago the safety board considered the advisability of marking paths at street crossing that pedestrians might be provided with more safe place to cross, but nothing was done If the plan works out we'll similar lines of demarkation will be made at the junction of Main and Church streets, the junction of Main, Chestnut, Arch and Walnut streets, East Main and Main streets and East Main and Hartford avenue. the last named corner being recently protect ed by a traffic officer. If pedestrians can only be educated up to crossing at the proper places, and drivers be taught that they must observe the rights of the walkers in these zones, 1t will be a long step in the direction of preventing many accidents. In New York, Pittsburgh, Boston, Chi cago, San Francisco, London, Paris and other large cities of the world street crossings are marked thusly; pedestrians observe them as the proper places to cross and drivers do likewise. There is no reason why such should not be the case here
 
 the rights of the pedestrian, which in this state at least are almost abso- lute, are very much curtailed. If a pedestrian crosses the street at any place other than the crossing provid- ed and is struck by an automobilist whether he is seriously injured or not he is the man arrested and the motorist is not only liberated but also acts as witness against him, for the law recognizes the rights of the per- son on foot at only those places desig- mated, while the road drivers rights are recognized at other places. In New Britain and other cities as we'll there is a certain class of pedestrians who are highly offensive in their ac- tions They will cross a street be- tween crossings and look bland1y at an oncoming motorist, compelling the driver to apply the brakes and not show the slightest sign of hurrying. If even as a result of his own bold ness, he is struck, it is the motorist who is arrested. Cooperation on the part of pedestrian and motorist and proper zones of safety which must be observed by all will go far towards eliminating much of the traffic trouble.
 During the past two weeks New Britain has been literally invaded by millions of caterpillars which are de- stroying foliage by the roadside and threaten to do considerable damage unless they are exterminated. Along the concrete pavements, where objects can be readily seen, are thousands of these little pests and the attention of many has been attracted to this phe- nomina, an army of crawling caterpil- lars.
 New Britain is being we'll and ably represented at the three big political conventions this month. Senator George w. Klett is present as dele gate at the republican Chicago con- vention; Dugald McMillan, an alter nate, is attending the Progressive convention, and Senator George M. Landers will attend the Democratic convention at St. Louis which con- venes on June 12. Johnstone Vance, managing editor of the Herald will attend as an alternate. P. F. Me- Donough has been invited to attend as Mr. Lander's guest.
 The failure of the superior court judges to reappOint the Hon. Judge John Walsh as a court stenographer after he had served in that capacity for thirty-two years must not be taken too seriously by the judges friends It is no reflection on the ability of the man who has served so long, but seems to be simply in keeping with what is a pecedent with the judges and will likely be with other officers of this court. Superior court judges are automatically retired at the age of seventy. Judge Walsh has Just turned seventy, so it is evident that the appointing judges merely placed