The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-05-19
Stop 1'he Slaughter
By H. ADDINGToN BRUCE

Surely it is more than time that a wrath fui public opinion compelled radical change in the matter of granting licenses to drive automobiles. Under present conditions the semi-inteligent as well as the truly intelli- gent, the neurotic no less than the nervously well balanced, the psychopathic equally with the mentally sound, all sorts and conditions of men and women have no trouble in gain ing a chauffeurs standing. Except in n few enlightened communities ability to buy an automobile is virtually tantamount to the right to occupy the drivers seat.
 And herein we have in chief part the ex- planation of the trail of blood the automobile is leaving on our highways. It is trail that, with every passing year, is deepening not les sening in@intensity.
 Complete figures of automobile fatalities in the United States and Canada during 1923 are mot available at the moment of writing. But there is ample evidence that. the motor ists' slaughter-rate was then higher than ever before.
 One large insurance company, having 15,- 100000 industrial policyholders on both sides of the border, reports automobile fatalities among this class of poIicyholders during 1923 at a rate of 15.4 per 100000 persons, an in- crease of more than 13 per cent. over the rate for 1922.
 Tn Connecticut there were last year more than 17,000 motor vehicle accidents, causing nearly 300 deaths and injury to 4,000 people. In Massachusetts no fewer than 5T8 were killed in automobile accidents during 1923, of these no being slain in Boston.
 In Indiana the sIaughter-rate was 13.5 for 1923, as compared with 11.3 in 1922. The total of deaths was BIT, and, in giving the figures. an official state publication aptly comments:
 "The entire state would have stood aghast at the loss of 377 lives in any great dis aster, as fire, cyclone, flood or mine explo- sion. Distributing these deatbs throughout the year does not in the least detract from the economic loss to the state. Nor does it change the fact that most of these deaths are preventable and therefore unnecessary"
 And, would repeat prevention depends, not wholly but chiefly, on closer scrutiny. of the psychic makeup of persons applying for driver licenses.
 It is true, as aDologists for the slaughter frequently allege, that some deaths are due to carelessness by pedestrians-pede who too frequently forget that our imbecile licensing methods have loosed herd of speed mainiacs on our streets and roads. But for the vast majority of deaths it is certain that the blame rests with the kinds of people we permit to drive cars.
 What is the use of anti-speeding laws, what the use of fines and imprisonment, if we con tinue to entrust to mOrons, neurasthenes, moral idiots, and mental retardates the man agement of high-powered contriyances with death dealing potentialities2 Action needs to be taken before rather than after their ineapacity has bred tragedy.
 The proper action, the most necessary ac- tion, is to have every license applicant psychologically and medically examined, the examination to include an inquiry into the applicants previous history, with special ref erence to his character, his general morale, and his past illness.
 Whatever expense this entails should fall on the applicant himself. For he surely must concede that the community has the right to insist on his proving that he really is a fit person to be entrusted with what in the hands of the unfit, has long since been found to be a deadly menace.
 In any case. till mental and physical fit ness is made the main requirement. in chauf- feurs the automobile slaughter will go on. And the greater the manufacture and sale of automobiles, the greater the slaughter will be.