Evening star., 1924-12-14
PARLEY ON TRAFFIC
OPENS TOMORROW
Experts From All Parts. of
Nation to Meet Here for
Conference.

Aroused by the mounting casualty
rate from traffic accidents, more than
400 traffic experts, police heads, auto
mopiIe manufacturers and others will
meet with representatives of the Fed
eral Government tomorrow to devise
group of blanket regulations to
curb deaths due to traffic accidents.
The conference called by Secretary
or Commerce Hoover nearly two
months ago marks the first concerted
attempt of the Federal Government
10 take official action toward reduc-
ton in the deaths and property losses
due to traffic accidents. Hitherto the
safety movement has been a local one,
aided by national organizations. The
conference which opens at the new
home of the Chamber of Commerce OF
the United States at Connecticut ave
nue. and H street tomorrow Is the
nrst move on the part of the Govern
ment to join with local and national
safety organizatio toward the pro
mitigation and fostering of a national
SAFETY policy, capable Of application
TO any municipality in the Nation
which has traffic problem.
Hoover Is Interested.
Secretary Hoover has taken a great
interest In the work of the confer
ence, which will last two days and
VIII preside a every session.
Differing from most conferences
called to discuss national problems.
the conference which opens tomorrow
VIII have before it reports of eight
committees, organized many weeks
ago, which have made careful and
exhaustive. studies into every phase
or the general traffic problem, and
nave submitted their recommends
tlons to be read at the meetings. In
stead of appointing committees after
| the conference opened to draw I'D
hastily set Of recommendation and
conclusions reached after immature
consideration of the problems in
VOWED. Secretary Hoover deemed It
| more advisable to attack the several
problems long before the actual con
Venlng or the conference, work OUT
| suggested solutions and present them
to the conference as debatabIe sub
1ects TO be thrashed out by the entire
group of conferees.
Make-Up of Committees.
These committees are as follows.
Statistics, William NJ. Steuart, director
OF census, chairman; traffic control,
Roy F. Britton, chairman; construction
and engineering, Frank Page, chair
| man; city planning and coming, Fred
eric A. Delano, chairman; insurance.
| S. S. Huber, chairman: education, A.
w. whitney, chairman; the motor
vehicle, H. NJ. Crane, chairman, and
| public relations. George NJ. Graham.
chairman. The reports of these com
mittees, already made public and dis
| seminated throughout the country, will
| not be read at the opening session, as
they have already been mailed out TO
the men who Will attend the meetings.
Following the opening address out
lining the purposes of the conference
| by Secretary Hoover. tho conference
will proceed at once to discussion of
! the committee reports, and on Tuesday
| the concluding day of the conference.
| consolidated report, wherein ali the
recommendations of the several com
| mittees will be incorporated, will be
! submitted to the entire meeting.
Guide to Legislation.
This consolidated report, with the de
tailed reports of the committees, is
intended to- serve any municipality
with traffic problem to solve and those
who can see traffic problem in the fu-
ture as guide for legislative action and
as a handbook for administrative en-
| forcement of the existing and future
| traffic laws. Cooperation with all
Federal agencies and State and munI
| cipal agencies in safety measures will
| be urged, as we'll as uniform set of
traffic laws which will apply as well
! in California as in Maine.
| Termed life and death" confer
| ence, the delegates from every State
| in the Union, from more than 100
cities, with Washington represented
| by every safety organization in the
| city, will have before them tie task
of reducing the'loss of more than 22.-
| 500 lives taken in preventable traffic
| accidents last year, and the more
than S6,000,000 damage to property
| resulting from the same cause.
| A large proportion of the deaths
and serious injuries making up the
| annual traffic toll have happened to
individuals on foot The next larg-
est group to suffer death and injury
are the motorists who are the suffer
| ers from reckless driving by small
minority, according to figures made
| public by the Census Bureau. These
! figures attributed a large proportion
| OF the street and highway accidents
| in the United States to the automo-
bile, and show a steady increase in
! the toll of lives and injuries due to
| traffic accidents in which automobiles
have figured.
For this reason the major portion of
| the discussion and the committee re-
ports will deal with the automobile
as the main contributing factor in the
traffic toll in this country.