The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-08-10
MOTOR DOPE
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
By Frederic j. Haskin. Director,
Washington, D. G.

II
II Washington. D. G.
! New York, Aug. 10.-Since day be-
fore yesterday you must know how to
! drive car before you are allowed
| to operate one on the streets of New
York City. That is, every owner or
| a car who proposes to be his own
| chauffeur must have a license and
I pass an examination to prove his tit
ness Incredibly enough, the law
! heretofore has been that paid chaut-
| feur must be licensed and examined,
| but any one who owned car was
allowed to practice running it upon
/ the traffic-throttled streets without
any regard to his knowledge or qual-
| fications More than once reckless
amateur has killed pedestrians by run
/ ming his machine up on the sidewalk
A good many men have learned to be
| careful at the expense of several lives.
| The Cromwell-Kelly law is wise
| but somewhat tardy action on the patI
of the city fathers; they are just pc
| ginning to realize, it seems, that the
| automobile has literally taken posses
sion of their city body and soul The
| island of Manhattan is not growing
any, but the number of motor vehicles
| that are operated upon its crowded
| streets is increasing about 33 per cent
4 a wear. Already they are causing
| some twenty thousand accidents ana
about four hundred deaths a year
Where does it lead, and what IS the
remedy?
Unless scarcity and war prices of gas
oline cut down the purchase OF pleas
ure cars, it is hard to see how their
increase can be checked. For the
automobile has become the symbol OF
METROPOLITAN America. 1t is the play
thing. the tool and the pride or the
city. 1t represents speed, wealth
pleasure crime. ostentation 1t has
found it's place in every essential ana
| typical phase of the city's life. Cars,
| many cars, immense cars, are lnVar-
liable perquisites of wealth. Inc car Is
the vehicle of big business, and OF
society. 1t is the instrument of vice,
of the furred and feathered creatures
of New York's wild life. ModeTn
metropolitan crime works with mo-
tor. All of the famous killings-the
murder of Rosenthal, the shooting of
Baff-are committed from autos The
high-powered car is the standard get
| away of the criminal, who counts on
| this means of passing the bulls that
are placed at all the stations after a
big crime. Payroll robberies are in
| varia oily committed with the help OF
high-powered motors, and the mod
ern and up-to-date second story man
departs in his car.
Motor trucks carry more and more
of the city's. delivery business, and
their radius OF action is steadily ex-
tending. -Ambulances, fire engines
and patrol wagons are nearly all mo-
tor-driven. Everyone in New York
rides-everyone except the great null
titude that tolls and walks-and
lodges. But everyone rides who has
money, and money rules New York as
absolutely as the Pharaohs ruled
Egypt. So the auto is here to stay
and go on increasing, be the death toll
what it may. Fifth avenue, designed
| nc lai
carriages, must continue to be a
harassed channel for an endless, rest
less torrent of motors. Broadway
that was never expected to be any
thing but a modest business street
must carry in countless taXis an ever
growing horde of pleasurelustful hu-
mainly.
II Is menace to the public safety
tbut d Tremendous spectacle, this end
less New York auto parade-only few
stop TO look at it because it is always
there. Stand on corner of Fifth
avenue for half an hour during the
. rush hours of the evening, and you
can see more different kinds of cars
go by carrying more different kind.
of people than anywhere else in the
world. 1t is a sort of ticker of the
| cityS stock in men and motors. Every
class except the poor is represented
and every conceivable shape; color anC
size of machine. You will see {
doughty little Ford <snorting along un
der large family party, and an enor'
nous imported car burdened with al
overdressed woman and a superciliou!
; looking Pomeranian. Rubbernecl
: wagons pass, loaded with forty-seve1
different kinds of provincial Amer
ica speedy little police autos, equip
l ped with big searchlights; electrical!
: driven glass cages with queer human
exhibits inside; Hmousines shown;
glimpses of luxury thru their win
t dows; taxis innumerable bent upol
= furtive errands.
g The dogs in the auto parades alon
are worth a separate study You cal
see all of the useless varieties in pro
4 fusion 1t is wonderful how they hav
. | learned to ride, sitting upright OF
| their seats with their little noses II
the air.
= And this auto stream pours thru
d all of the principal traffic streets an
a for fifty miles into the country. o.
:. | hot evenings the lights flicker up an
down the banks of the Hudson a
thick as fireflies cover clover hel
il in August, and the air is filled wit
drone and rumble and squawk, Will
y the machines cluster like moths abou
s the radiant roadhouses that crown tn
e hilltops above the river
Yet there are not nearly as man
motors onthe streets now as there vii
q be a couple of months later. MI
l. Mills E Case, the statistician of tn
~ police department, has made a care
: full study of the habits of the mcto
fleet and has found that it's move
Is ments vary with remarkable REGULAR
IS ty, both by the year and by the day
:. Motor traffic is at its lowest ebb i
February; only 10S auto accident
| accrued in that month last year. TIL
= curve which Mr.. Case has plotted rise
NO steadily, with a little setback in Jul
and August, until September, which
IT the favorite month for the pleasur
k car Last September there were 30
n | auto accidents.
Vastly more interesting and import
= ant however, are his studies of tn
n daily movements of the motor-strean
h these suggests at least a temporar
= remedy congested traffic. He ha
W fbat the time of heaviest ira fl