The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1922-02-02
WOULD HAVE AUTOISTS IN THIS
STATE CHANGE CARDS YEARLY
Commissioner Baughman Preparing
Bill Affecting Registration System

Bill Affecting Registration System
A bill to change the present system
Of registration for owner-operators of
automobiles is being prepared by Au.
tomobile Commissioner f. A. Baugh-
man and viii be presented to this
Legislature.
Stripped Of all legal phraseology it
means that the holders Of an opera
tors license will no longer enjoy a
permanent license to operate an au-
tomobile
If the new bill is passed it will pro
vide that operators, license change
yearly in the same manner at the
chaufeurs' licenses and a payment Of
SLOO viii be charged for the change.
Commissioner Baughman commit
ed himself to introduce such a bill
at the Conference Of Motor Vehicle
Administrators held last week in
Hartford, Conn. The hades of auto
mobile departments Of 10 States were
at this meeting and each pledged
himself to introduce this form of leg
islation.
"Such a measure seems to me to
be fair to ALL" said Commissioner
Baughman, explaining this new plan.
Our files and records to automobile
operators is hopelessly out of date
and there is no way of Strengthening
it out. Ever since there has been a
Commissioner Of Motor Vehicles it
has been necessary to get a permit
to operate a machine. Not until a
few wears ago was an examination
held, however, and prior to that time
the records were incomplete.
There are now on the books hun
dreds of cards issued to persons, some
of whom are dead, others who have
moved away from the State and to
still others who have given up oper-
ating machines. Some of these cards
still are floating around, and, l have
no doubt, persons to whom they were
not issued are using a number of
them. If it was made necessary to
change the card yearly our files could
get some valuable information which
it is now impossible to gather.
Besides, the office of the Commits
sioner of Motor Vehicles is organized
for revenue purposes and to collect
all the money it can to help in the
upkeep of the State roads. Such a
plan would help to increase the year
ly revenues. The measure would
provide no incpnveniences for the mo-
torist, for he would renew his opera
tors card at the same time he pur-
chased his license tags"
Another matter on which all the
motor vehicle administrators agreed
to seek legislation is the control sof
truck sizes and weights of load. In
Maryland the law on this point per-
mits only gross weight of 10 tons
to pass over the roads. In New
York the weight allowed is IA tons,
while in some other states the nine
ton law is effective.
1t is the aim of the members of
the conference to have uniform law
passed which will be effective in every
State in the Union. Trucks with full
loads then could be operated all over
the country with the assurance that
there would be no interruption be-
cause of change in the ton laws.
Another measure which met with
approval concerns the proper focusing
of headlights so as to prevent road
glare. This matter probably will be
taken up with automobile manufac-
turers in an endeavor to have a
uniform headlight focusing device in
stalled as a part equipment of each
car manufactured.
n