Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1920-08-16
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL MIGHT NOTICE.

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THE ATTORNEY GENERAL MIGHT NOTICE.
An automobile press bureau in its
news" Of a transcontinental passage
by car seeking the record relates
that part Of the trip thru Iowa was
made in daylight on roads flied with
vehicles A4 an average speed OF forty
miles an hour. Another section was
negotiated at an average of fifty
miles an hour.
This was q direct violation Of the
automobile law Of the state and
whatever may be claimed for the
skill OF drivers 1t was dangerous
proceeding from the take off to the
finish to drive a machine at full speed
over a highway filled with vehicles.
Those vehicles were occupied by
people going about their business on
the highways which the laws are
presumed to, protect, Every reckless
youth who might be out with high
speed machine had precisely as much
right to burn the road" as the drivers
Of the racing cars out for a record.
And the vehicles and the people who
"nlled the road have the same right
to protection against speeders out to
break q record as against John
Smiths speed crazy boy who "opens
her wide" along crowded highway
to brighten and perhaps kill family
driving decently along the road on
business or pleasure.
Further. it isn't. actually important
to know how fast a car can be forced
across the continent. That isn't the
object Of the common every day car
that common every day folks drive
here and there. About the only pos
sible reason for attempting to out
race a limited train from New York
to the Pacific is the speed eminence
thereby attained over other cars and
the advertising it gives. And Iowa
highways were not made nor should
they be used for such purposes lat
Illegal speeds. There is no more legal
excuse for those who thus use them
than for the speed maniac who
should seek to make record thru
Main street Of Saturday evening.
The attorney general would be do
ing his duty and protecting the lives
Of citizens Of the state by severe
prosecutions Of those who assume to
be above the laws Of Iowa.
MORALS NOW AND THEN.
In his recent address to gather
ing Of newspaper publishers and
newspapermen Senator Harding
said:
There Is one service of the AM
erican press. not partisan. but pa
triotic. for which there is a call to-
day. America needs a baptism in
righteousness and new consecra-
ton In morality.
It is true perhaps that America
needs new baptism Of morality and
Righteousness but the press is not the
only influence that must be invoked.
And it is true also that with few ex-
ceptions the press of this country
stands for morality and righteousness
Individual and social.
That we, as people or as indivi-
duals are less righteous or lacking In
morality in comparison to past gen.
erations is not to be accepted without
consideration. Perhaps it isn't SO.
Conditions have changed greatly in
a life time. Much that is old and was
stable has passed away and
much has become new. It would be
as hard or harder for our grand
fathers to adapt themselves to the
new as it would be for us to live as
our grandfathers lived. Yet that does
not argue that either generation is
the superior Of the other
in morals or righteousness.
We have gone far from the patriar-
chical conditions Of that elder time
when a few leaders were the censors
Of morals and Of righteousness and
In and out of church and when the
mass followed with apparent meek,
ness. But it is not fair assumption
that we have lost either In morals or
because we have moved
on. Granted that we are still in the
ferment of change and unsettled few
viii be bold enough TO declare that
the ordinary citizen is essentially less
decent and honest than his grand
father or that his condition Of life is