Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-11-24
SPEED MANAGES AND
SPEEDING MURDERERS

SPEEDING MURDERERS
Every time some sad and serious
accident happens in community
there is spasmodic appeal to take
steps to abolish all possibility of a
recurrence of the affair. For a !
brief time all goes we'll; gradually
there is less attention paid to the rul-
ing; and before any considerable time
has passed all memory of the regu-
lation has lapsed.
That is the condition at Orlando to-
day. Another one of those frlghtful
casualties has been added to the long
list of recent accidents, and the
press is demanding that strict meas
ures be adopted to so penalize those
who drove rapidly that the practice
will terminate But will it be done!
Not so many years ago that 1t is
yet forgotten there was law oper-
ative in Orlando by which there were
stationed at the several highways
leading into that city officers quail
fled to make arrests. Those men
commenced to put the screws" to
the idiotic speeders-but they made
the "mistake" of every now and then
getting one of their own citizens in
the tolls, when the law was supposed
to be active only in the cases of the
fellows passing through"
Richt then and there the law be-
came moperative-and the officers
dropped off the job. 1t was all right
to get the man from outside who
was cutting up monkeyshines and
stepping on it; but when "Wil-f-i-um,
son of our bee-loved pahstor," or
"Happy,' whose father was a big
factor in politics. happened to get
pincned, why, ter, it was embar-
raising, to say the least. When the
law is operated for the especial ben
eft of someone who is stranger
among strange people and not for the
benefit and correction of the good
fellows" who are "among our best
citizens" it sa travesty upon JUS
tice and farce in good govern
mental regime. The law should be
abolished-and that at once.
Because the "speedcop" of Osceola
county saw fit to pinch all law-break-
ers, regardless of "age, sex, or pre-
vious condition of servitude," he was
"fired unceremoniously," and since
that time there have been no speed
laws recognized in that county. That
was along the same line of least re-
sistance which has sorely afflicted
Orlando. Possibly both that county
and that city may wake up now. If a
child or an old man is run down and
killed by an automobile driven by
some damreckless fool, it makes but
little difference to those bereavec
whether the man was 3, neighbor OF
A visitor from Vladivostok; and the
county or the city in fighting any
claim for damages on the ground
that the streets were not properly
patrolled and protected would have a
sorry time to clear itself of charge
of negligence.
States have the right to enact laws
regulating the carrying of concealed
dangerous weapons. The govern
ment may some day enact a law
against the manufacture of automo'
biles which have a speed above thirty
miles an hour; one mile every two
minutes. The deadly auto driven by
a cross between fool and a lunatit
is far worse than the deadly weapon
as it is usually carried. If the one
practice can be stopped it is certain
that the other can be handled in the
same way.
Every county in Florida should en-
act rigid laws to protect the innocent
from the ravages of yowling yops
who fancy they can step on 1t all
they desire and no one will say
them nay. Fines are not sufficient
to curb the creatures. Jail terms are
the only safe methods.