Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-07-18
MOTORS AND MANNERS

A BROAD street traffic policeman, dis.
"A coursing upon the troubles that ac-
cumulate at his post. remarked n day or
two ago that drivers of automobiles from
other States have better manners and seem
more respectful of the laws and ordinances
than those who display Pennsylvania or
New Jersey tags.
This doesn't prove that there Is any es-
Scntial difference between the tourist and
the native.
1t Is safe guess that the motorist from
far place drives conscrvatively and is OBJ
viously sensitive to the requirements of
traffic laws simply because of tho instructive
caution of the stranger amid strange sur
roundings.
1t might be said in comment on this gen.
cral topic that traffic policemen are in turn
more polite to the visitor than they are to
the native driver or to the driver from
nearby parts. That, of course. is as it
should be. In the course of time traffic
policemen will be polite to everybody. That
will be after everybody learns how to be
polite to traffic policemen.
One of those reforms that originate so
rlcntifully in the West touches intimately
the relationship between the motoring pub
lie and the public authorities. Hitherto in
most Eastern communities the police have
mad IN air of toeratng the motor and the
persons who ride in 1t. West of the Mis-
siSSippi, however. the increase of motor
tourists has given the average policeman
and the average Mayor pause.
a second thought made it clear that the
people who travel in motorcars are quite
like other people.
So in the West a motor driver may 20
from one State to another and move in and
out of cities without once feeling. as he
often feels in the East, that he is con-
stantly under the eye of an unfriendly law.
In many mid Western cities the tourist
with foreign license plate will be
stopped by the first traffic man he meets,
who passes him a little proclamation of well
come from the Mayor and Il miniature copy
Of the States road laws. lie will be cheer
fully addressed with an expression of the
community's desire that he make himself at
home and have n good time. and call again.
1t Is n regrettable fact, but n fact never
thelcSS, that such attention as the average
Eastern policeman gives to motorists is us
ualiy tinged with resentment inspired by
the minority of speeders and gasoline idiots.
The majority of drivers. being law abiding
and decent hammered. seldom bring them
selves TO the attention of the authorities
and, so far as the police go, they don't
exist Or. rather they didn't exist.
Lately the traffic men have been taking q
more cheerful view of the automobile. They
have an obvious desire to instruct rather
than TO bawl out motorists who fall un-
consciously into small infractions Of the law
The habit of official discrimination against
motor drivers is disappearing.
Life awheel will be peasanter when
traffic men, whose trials are great, can at
least be as pleasant and helpful to the ma =
tive, as they are to the visitors from far
away. For the present the police regard
the native as one Of the family and there
fore, without special right to friendly con =
sideration. They reserve their best man.
ners for the stranger within the gates. And
who can blame them for that?