Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-10
AN EASY WAY TO PREVENT
MOTOR TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS
Men Work Unhindered by the
Petty Politicians


about speeding motors, fewer accidents
and less worry about schemes to make
the streets safe for the democracy that
goes afoot.
But the laws are not enforced.
The police are not permitted to enforce
them.
In no department of the municipal serv-
ice is there more petty and detestable
political interference than the traffic
squad has to contend against The con-
tinuing efficiency of that hard-worked
unit and tho good sense and good man
ners of its members are a cause for Won
der to any one who knows what a thank
less and difficult job is that of the men
charged with the enforcement of ord
nary rules of safety in the streets.
Eliminate the big and little politicians
who whisper and pull strings and make
threats when speeder is arraigned before
a magistrate and there will be little need
for the sort of informal police method
that Superintendent Robinson would es-
tablish by the use of tell-tale cards,
issued to the public to be returned with
the record of supposed traffic violations
HIS pldi line any tllplJ W Sulb CllC
speed maniacs, is in some ways COM
mendable. 1t may enable; the police to
keep record of habitual lawbreakers
for use in supporting formal charges in
an emergency. But Superintendent
Robinson will be lucky if, in the long run,
the scheme doesn't work more harm thar
good.
The simple and direct way to make
the streets safe is to enlarge the traffic
squad, put half dozen motorcycle men
on patrol along the streets of West Phila-
delpha and then see to it that the police
are unhindered in the performance of
their duty and that they are assured of
the cooperation of the powers at City
Hall.
That cooperation is not possible now.
The everyday experience of the aver
age traffic man makes it appear that at
least half of the people arrested for
fragrant violations of the motor ordi-
nances have friends higher up who are
always ready to intervene in their behalf
and make punishment impossible.
"I've often come down from the Cen
tra station" said one member of the
squad, "to find a man I'd pinched driving
away as happy as you please a few min
utes after I had taken him in. And
often enough these fellows take the trou-
BILE to turn around and drive past my
post to give me the laugh. After a while
you begin to realize that to run 'em in
is a waste of time. We can only bawl
'em out. And, believe me, we do that,
anyway"
Nine out of every ten men who drive
automobiles are careful, for their own
sake and the sake of others, to obey the
traffic laws. The friendly relation estab-
lished automatically between this ma
| jority and the police themselves and the
instructive impulse for cooperation that
animates them are the best possible pre-
ventives of accident.
There are fools everywhere. 1t is too
much to expect that they will not be
found occasionally behind the steering
wheels of motorcars. There is a familiar
| type of driver whose singular vanity is
gratified whenever he can break the law
and get away with it. And, oddly enough,
he is the sort who has friends at the
Hall"
One wild driver sets an example to
others. West Walnut street and many of
the streets in West Philadelphia are
speedways because they are sparsely
policed. And statistics prove that acci-
| dents do not always occur on heavily
travelled thoroughfares, but many occur
on the streets where traffic policemen are
few or altogether unknown Until the
good influence of the traffic squad can be
extended there will be violation of the
motor laws, danger to life and an in
creasing percentage of casualties in the
streets.
Policemen of the type which rules in
the traffic squad know how to deal with
motor traffic. If the politicians will let
them alone the public need not go into
the police business on its own account.
1t is not easy, without experience, to
determine the speed of an automobile or
to judge the hazards attending its opera
ton. That is why Superintendent Robin
sons card system, devised as it has been
with the best intentions and for an ad-
mirable purpose, may have some odd and
surprising results.
The number of excellent people who
are still unreconciled to automobiles and
who view all such contraptions as a visi.
tation of Providence, sent as an awful
preliminary to the day of judgment in ar
unrighteous world, is surprisingly large
1t is unfair to everybody to ask such folk
to pass fair judgment upon the work
of motor drivers. Those who dislike
motors dislike them with enthusiasm. II
= is possible to find an occasional citizer
who is convinced that no automobile evel
travels less than forty miles an hour any
where.
The world is pretty evenly divided be-
tween those who ride in motors and those
who, for one reason or another, do not
Prejudice exists on both sides. But who