Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1917-08-17
Editors Letter Box
Doesn't Like Submarine Campaign
Against Auto Drivers.

Editor Kernebec Journal:
In the Boston Herald of August IS
is a half column editorial OF plain
facts which appeal to the lover of fair
play. Under the caption Motoring IN
Maine" the Herald says:
| "Automobiling in Maine has never been
| episodes for those from a distance, and
TINS season provides the list with a no
table addition. During the session OF the
| Legislature last winter-nobody appears
"a law passed giving local officers au-
! thorlty to take those arrested Tor speed
| ing or other violation of the road laws
| before a bail commissioner, instead or
merely summoning them 70 court; Inat
means not only substantial fees for the
bail commissioner, which have to be paid
| on the spot but also the deposit OF cash
as a guarantee of appearance in court
and If cash is lacking, the obliging com
missioner accepts watches or jewelry.
Otherwise the motorist faces a night In
the local lookup. Not infrequently the
notorist is discharged without fine or
reprinlanded when he goes to court. but
he does not goS back the five dollars that
the village bail commissioner pocketed
In some towns of the southwestern part
Of the State that industry has been thriv-
ing but the protests of Maine new spapers
and of the Maine Automobile Association
have checked it of late. Naturally most
| of those who suffered from the system
were out of the State motorists and they
| have been flooding the newspapers and
the Maine highway commissioners with
letters of protest that have not been
without their effect for Maine counts
heavily on the growing tourist travel ana
cannot afford to get 1t sore. The eX-
tent Of that ravel is indicated by the re-
port of Boston man who counted the
/ license tags of 20 states last Sunday De-
tween Kittery and Brunswick:
Of course, it is highly desirable to dis
courage speeding on the excellent roads
that Maine is building of late, but there
! is small excuse for the towns that at
tempt to enforce, in the way described
above, a speed limit Of Is miles on open
! country roads. The % miles that is the
i limit allowed by the wide-a wake patrol
men on the many miles Of concrete road
from Saco to Portland is wholly within
reason and deserves the hearty co-opera-
| ton of visiting motorists. one thlhg 10
! be said in defence of Maine officials who
seem over-zealous is that many motorists
from outside the State have failed to APP
pear in court when summoned mat Is
something for the highway commission
ers of the motorists home state to deal
with. 1t emphasizes the great need OF
closer interstate relations and OF greater
interstate comfy in the matter OF tne
pleasure vehicle that has made state
I lines negligible.
The above condition does not apply
! locally, so far as | am aware. and is
evidently being corrected. But II
brought to my mind the lnten-
ely sactive part the officers take In
chasing down offenders. and the
thought came to me, why don't they
get the real spirit of the thing and
wake up to the 1917 idea-PREVEN-
/ TON? It's a gone-by system to set
traps for folks. l have watched the
plain clothes man concealed over at an
East Side junction, doing this stunt
| OF watchful waiting, ready to pop out
and inform some one they've got on
the wrong side of the spindle-and
these spindles are excellent safe
guards, and necessary, too. But why
not put the man out where he can be
seen, with his badge in sight, and let
him earn his money by giving service
to the public--to autoists and pedes-
trians alike? No one likes to be
fooled or TO run into traps set by small
minds who fail to get the spirit Of
! things. Prussian intellects, we'd call
them.
Personally I haven't had a bit of
trouble this year or last, and my AZ
centimeter is aimed at the man who
engineers things in the negative way.
l passed our Marshal today and Won
dered if he'd seen what witnessed the
! other day, if he wouldn't get the point
I'm trying TO make.
Coming up Water street at noon, an
electric car made a block. It all hap
pened in minute or two at the Water
street corner. An auto was jogging
along to Upper Water street and was
caught in a vice and forced to take the
LETT of the spindle-and take it quick.
The driver had no warning of the car.
All this time an officer was leaning on
the spindle doing the Little Boy Blue"
What was needed of course was a
wide-awake officer to give the motor
man the come along, and the auto a
halt or vice-versa. A bit of preven-
ton was worth lot of what hap
pened. The driver had to take the left
Of the spindle and do it quick. The
policeman came to in time to get in on
the tail-end of things. and administer
Chinese law-that is, the man was held
guilty until innocence was proved. No
appeal could be taken from the awak
ened arm Of the law. The auto driver
was not given commentator for
quick thought put in action. but was
backed up like a mule with Prussian
at the bits, and made to go ont
around--to turn to the right regard
less of electric cars and such things.
He seemed a fine sort and likely
thought it might be we'll to pass up
this town next time he came this way.
This letter is getting away from me.
and I will just take final shot at the
subma rines of an otherwise clean cut
department.
The other day car came down the