The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-07-16
With The
,Alibi Artists
Effective Way to Check
Up on Speeding Of
lenses Is Needed
Inadequate at Present
By DONALD McDOUGAL.

speeders and gin.drivers are get
ting off with lighter penalties
than Congress intended when the
present traffic law was passed.
Under the law, as approved ty
Congress, no fine greater than
$25 can be imposed for q first
speed offense-whether thar Of
tense was twenty-seven miles an
hour or 1877, SIS Is the most
drastic penalty the court can i'm
pose.
If the court were to shoot all
its ammunition, so to speak, in
the lower grades Of violation,
what would it have in reserve
for the more outrageous cases?
II a $25 fine were imposed for
speed Of, say, forty miles an
hour, what could be done with
the fifty.five and sixty miles an
hour addicts?
Isn't 1t natural enough for the
speeder to say "Well, II / pull
sixty I don't get any bigger fino
than will for forty, and / may
get away at sixty. Here goes"
And he steps on it.
AbSAAA8 ILC PENALTY
on the lower speed violations
would only increase the number
OF higher ones, which are the
most dangerous.
From the bloody laws df Draco
to our own dearly beloved Vol
stead act, legislators have dis
covered time and again that un.
less intelligence and care are en-
Y9lnVn6 IN HfwineY
suit may be the opposite Of what
|, is intended.
Experience all along the line
shows it's the certainty of pun
iShment, not the severity, that
checks law violation.
Twenty-dollar fines imposed on
80 per cent of Washington
speed maniacs would have bet
cent of them.
the judge to determine penalties?
He is familiar with the law, with
the facts in the individual case,
and with hundreds OF other cases
like 1t. Who is in a position to
form a better opinion?
For a second offense against
TIC SROS0 law. SOAS1 csc PIV-
scrfbes a fine of from $25 to 800.
But that penalty cannot be i'm
posed unless the defendant is
charged specifically with a Sec
ond offense. You can't take a
man around to court, charge him
with speeding, and then add cas-
ually, "Oh, by the way, judge,
this is his second offense." He
r. ~ nj hA
with second offense speeding.
Probably more than half the
second offenders are tried as first
offenders. We saw a case the
other day where a man had been
convicted Of speeding three times
in two months, and each time he
was tried for a first offense.
For a third offence the law
p, describes a penalty Of not less
than thirty days nor more than
one year in Jail and revocation Of
permit. That's how dangerous
Congress thinks a third offence OF
speeding is. This man got off
with a SIS or $40 fine only-in
utter disregard Of the law.
Was that the courts fault?
Hardly. The court had no alter.
native but to try the man on the
charge brought against him-a
first offence speed charge. The
court has no right to dictate
what the charge is to be.
That's up to the Corporation
Counsel. He bases the charge on
the affidavit of a witness-usually
a police officer. In this case the
officer had never seen the man
before, did not know that he had
been, convicted before, and had
no practicable means OF knowing
it. A police officer is not a file
clerk. And even IL he was. he
could hardly be expected to go
into a crowded office and wait
his turn among five or six others
for a chance to wade through
fifteen or twenty pags of a court
docket, meanwhile keeping one
eve on an impatient eXDOstulatory
ard perhaps slippery prisoner. 1t
can't be done that way,
The duty of looking up the rec
ords of speeders and reckless
drivers, to know what offence to
charge them with, is clearly the
duty of the traffic directors office.
There is no one else to do 1t.
The records are in the office
of Clerk Frank A. Sebring, cor
rectly kept, and in apple.pie order.
He keeps, too, a special traffic
section of the records, indexed
and cross-referenced, card catalog
fashion, designed by Roy l..
Humphrey, one of Mr.. Sebring's
able assistants.
Such an arrangement installed
III the directors office would pre-
vent second and third offence
speeders and reckless drivers from
masquerading as first offenders.
One man could probably be
spared from chalking the cars OF
overtime parkers to operate such
q device.
' That looks like a better way to
obtain heavy sentences than by
trying to influence the courts to
impose them.
Washington's judges are not
ca siIy influenced