The Washington times., 1922-08-12
COURTESY WILL !.
AID CONGESTION
ON ROADWAYS
Federal Truck Official Urges
Respect for Rights OF
Other Fellow.


and general manager Of the Federal
Motor Truck Company.
The highways are for everyone.
On them no one is king. Every per.
son meets every other person on the
highway--upon a common ground
upon an equality OF drivership. The
man In the big twin eight has no
greater privilege upon the pubic.
highway than the man with the twin
two flivver, and IL the latter wants
to pass the big car he should have
the chance II there is room. Like
wise, big speedy car ought to have
half Of the road to pass the big.
heavily laden motor truck
Here are few suggestions on road
courtesy as recommended by the
Federal truck official:
Let the other fellow have the other
half OF the road.
Swing out with safety TO let the
hurried driver pass.
When you hear a horn-it may be
your brother's-give ground.
II a mans In trouble-be n Good
Samaritan.
Give the woman driver a chance.
Credit the other driver with buri-
ness just as important as yours
until you know different.
Say '.The road wasn't wide
enough" instead of-"Why didn't
you keep over on your own side?"
Smile.
Make friends with every driver
they may help you some time.
The man who bumped you may
feel worse than you do.
Smile-keep smiling.
On the highwsys-CCurtesy alone
is king. .....
Charity on Highways.
Even II charity does begin at home
II should be continued on the high.
ways and byways. shouldn't IL?
There is no logical reason why the
automobile or truck should run
down courtesy and kill II.
1t is human nature, perhaps, that
he who drives a car or truck natu.
rally blames the other fellow. We
you and I--cannot possibly make q
mistake. It's always. mo. sir, IL
wasn't my fault. He should have
stayed over on his own side. He
bumped into me-" That's the way
you and ! explain most OF the acci.
dents, isn't it7 II Is absolutely true
that for every car we pass we also
pass the buck for the blame.
Whenever we drive. there are over
ten million automobiles and truck
drivers on the road with US. We are
all human, hut we all have our equal
rights, and we must keep friendly
with the other drivers.
We might just as well sit up and
think the situation over carefully
now, because the number Of drivers
is increasing by the million every
year. The roads aren't being
widened fast enough to make II pos
sible for us to have our former free
dom and room. We must give
as the traffic increases
The law Of the highway OF the fu.
ture will not be MIGHT, but RIGHT,
because lives are in the balance.
Thousands OF our children are being
killed every year because Of the self
'shness Of drivers.
We are all good-natured at heart.
but the crust over our exterior won't
'et us be charitable toward the other
fellow-that is, II he is in an auto
mobile or truck. Meet him face to
face in a lobby Of a hotel or in his
home and he Is a mighty good fel-
low, but on the highway-he is some
one. or something entirely different.
Causes Of Accidents.
why should we say. Let George
move over and stay on his own side
of the road and accidents won't hap
pen." Let us see what this foolish
stiffness OF our backbones Ia doing.
There are three main causes Of acci.
dents. They are:
1. Foolish chance taken.
2. Misjudging road distance or
speed. s.
3. Mishaps to mechanism.
Number one by far overshadows
all others In causing accidents.
One thing we passenger car
drivers must remember is that-the
truck has its place on the high.
ways. It Is part Of our great COM
mercial system and business would
suffer tremendously without II.
You would go without a good many
things tomorrow II the motor truck
ceased to exist.
The truck driver has his rights
and they should be respected. He
is human and just as llkeable a
fellow as there Is in the world, and
he Is on the Job doing his work.
as he sees It and, being busy, he is
thinking about nothing else but
BettinB MS lOau ueilVeTeu. IL you
or were driving in his place, that
is the thing we would be doing.
too. We should always remember
that although the truck may be 60
ing slower and may be taking up
lot OF the road, its errand may
be much more important than ours
and It's driver may be in just as
big a hurry as we are. ..a
Caution Is Necessary
The truck driver, on the other
hand, should remember that the
highways were not built entirely
| for commercial use and that there
are nine times as many passenger
cars on the road as there are
trucks and that the errands they
are on are not all frivolous. Doc.
| tors, commercial travellers, heads Of
business and many others are con-
stantly using the roads for busi-
ness purposes as important as
| those OF the trucks. Big deals may
be pending, or lives may be at
stake and these passenger cars
must 60 on with the least possible
delay. ,
The truck driver should remem.
ber that slow moving traffic should
| f.1n. a. tha yiCht ahould n0t