The Washington times., 1925-05-16
With the
|AlibiArtists
la Cross Section Of the
| Daily Grind in Judge
Schuldt's Court.
Read En- and Weep
rs DONALD McDOUGAL.
A Chinaman's Chance.

To drive around washington
without being held up for viola
ton of parking, one-way street,
or left turn restrictions, you've
got to be familiar with new regu
lations lying around loose in six
different sections and four separ-
ate articles OF the traffic code.
And you'll better be familiar
with them. because if you pull UP
at a street corner long enough to
look through TIE book and see
what you're supposed to do next.
you're likely to get pinched be-
fore you can find the paragraph
that says you're not allowed to
park there.
If we'd ali got copies of the
code the day 1t was published.
we'd still have a lot to learn in
ten days-seven newspaper col
umns of it.
A Guessing Contest.
But we didn't even have that
much of q chance-the code was
published in one edition Of one
particular paper, and anybody
who didn't read that paper was
left to guess fat the regulations.
To help us guess right, signs
were posted by authority Of one
OF the regulations-and most Of
us had never even heard OF that
regulation.
But even here we got the heavy
end OF it because the signs were
not displayed so as to attract the
attention OF the average driver
They were. in most cases, hung
on trees and-with a whole rain
bow to select from-were painted
green. so that they blended With
the general color scheme. instead
Of contrasting witt. It.
Further, they were hung fac
ing the street, so the approach
ing driver could see only the
edge, or the forshortened face,
Of the device, until he was
abreast Of it. Then he wasn't
looking toward it, and couldn't
reasonably be expected to-. The
place for a driver to be looking
is straight ahead.
Bug Expert Wanted
There was a general rumor that
the traffic Director would post
devices warning us where not to
park. The average driver had
in mind these yellow signs dis
played at the curb delivering
their message in fat black let
ters, and telling the world they
were placed there by order OF the
Police Department. The Direc-
tors Tree Of Knowledge stuff
was a little too high-brow for
hoi-polloi, and caught us un-
awares.
But supposing that tin signs
to the scheme Of things, much
wear and tear on the corridor
floors of the Porice Court build
ing could have been saved by
painting those signs some fla
grant color-the familiar yellow
of the Police Department, or, if
there was any prejudice against
that, a bolshevik red-anything
to jolt the eye, and arouse even
a temporary Indignation, or in.
terest of some sort.
No one but a Gypsy moth ex-
pert from the Agriculture Depart
ment would be likely to investi-
gate those trees carefully enough
to discover the reticent green
signs-no one running at twenty
two miles an hour, anyhow.
Tricks i'm All Trades.
If those signs had been done in
some startling color; If they had
carried an intimation Of their Of
ficiaI nature; and If they had been
turned catter-cornered so as part
ly to face onconing traffic, it is
doubtful that there would have
been many cases of violation Of
the new parking rules.
And all that could have been
done at no increased cost to the
authorities and at several hun
dred dollars less cost to the mo-
torists And we hereby humbly
pray, we will even beseech, il
that will help any, that when
again the Director has occasion
to notify US Of impending changes
that he will call into consultation
an advertising man or two.
We don't expect a traffic ex-
pert to know the sign language
but we do expect him to know
that he doesn't know it.