Evening star., 1924-09-14
PROTESTS LAX|TY
IN NAUT0L|CENS|NG
Automotive Trade Asserts
Desire to Raise the Stand
ard of Motor Driving.

Contrary to a general belief built
largely upon ignorance OF the 1ac1s'
the automobile trade does not taNor
the licensing of Everybody, accord
ing to the traffic and safety commit
tee of the Washington AutomotiVe
Trade Association.
The committee refutes the opinion
that it is to the interest of automo-
bile dealers to make license require
mentS as simple as possible.
washington dealers are too fore
sighted to encourage any laxlty In
licensing" says bulletin on the sub
Ject 1T is to their best interests,
and to the public's interest as well,
to see that everything is done to
raise the standards of driving"
Corrects Erroneous Impression.
Issuance of this bulletin by the
w. A. T. A. is said to he the result of
an effort to eliminate once and for
all misunderstanding that has for
some time existed in the public mind
regarding the automobile dealers at
titude toward restrictions upon drIV-
ers. In the opinion of the committee
the public would be more likely to
cooperate in the interests of safer
driving if it knew just where the
dealers stand in the matter.
IF local dealers were in business
merely TO sell cars today, they might
be expected to block any attempts
to cut down the number of available
drivers" the w. A. r. a. paper reads,
but the biggest part of the automo-
bile business is in the future. Moth
ing that would injure future busl-
ness and the progress of the automo-
bile in its work of solving the Ma
iion's transportation problems Will
be tolerated by any progressive au-
tomotivc merchant.
"It is reasonable to expect that
dealers want to sell as many cars as
they can, but where would there be
any logic in selling cars to persons
now who would not be able to buy
cars in the future? The automobile
trade is looking forward to such
business as will develop through pub
lie Satisfaction with the automobile.
Dealers on the Alert.
dealers are planning to take even
greater pains to see that newcomers
are properly instructed in driving.
If customer is found to be unfit to
drive safely he is given every assist
ance in trying to find suitable
chauffeur, and if he is not able to
hire a paid driver the dealer is usu-
ally willing to instruct some other
member of the customers family.
Even if it is necessary to sacrifice
sale, no progressive dealer is willing
TO run the risk of putting an incom-
petent driver at the wheel of one OF
his cars. 1t handicaps motoring, and
anything that handicaps motoring
today handicaps business.
1.-The W. a. T. A. is keeping in
mind that it is important to see that
the thousands of persons who are
driving cars around the city are so
sold on the automobile as to come
back year after year for new cars.
To put out a. lot of cars with ire
sponsible or incompetent persons at
the wheel would be to make motor
ing a difficulty for the more expert
enced persons. That would not be
good business.
There is no reason to assume that
because many new drivers have got
ten into trouble the field of possible
operators is diminishing. AS mat
ter of fact new generation of peo-
pie is coming of age, and from these
there should be many millions of au-
tomobile drivers. The problem is to
aim to make them better drivers at
the start of their career than their
fathers were when they first took the
wheel. The w. A. T. A. is fully alive
to the part it must play in this devel-
opment"