Evening star., 1925-09-01

| "Ea fety first" That old bore Sta
| tistics, drones out his figures proving
| that Americans are not only the most
criminal people In the world, but also
the most reckless in the way of acci-
dents !. The accident death rate IN
America is 1853 per 100000 people
That statement conveys little to the
general reader, but when 1t is stated
that in the World War 81, ,S13 Amerl-
leans were killed in battle or died from
wounds after battle and that last year,
in peace, we killed $1,000 boys and
girls alone, there is something tangi-
BILE for making comparisons. one
third of these children were killed on
| the streets and 5000 were scalded or
burned 10 death. The other 5000 were
killed in miscellaneous ways. The
summing up of the whole matter. is ex-
pressed in one woFd-Carelessne
Somebody has cleverly stated the a
IB-C' of prevention as being merely
| Always be careful. ...-
That prescription, however, is SO OBJ
vious that 1t is too easily forgotten
when the child is oat of sight OF par
ent or guardian, and his ball flies out
! into the street. and he after it, Just
ahead of a swiftly running automo-
| bile. In France, at least in Paris, the
law penalties the father or guardian
Of any child which is hurt in the
street. ANY pedestrian who meets
with a traffic accident is assumed to
! be guilty until he proves his inno-
! cence. 1t is no excuse. that he en-
| joyed jay-walking and had no time TO
! walk to the corner crossing. He was
knocked down-therefore, he was the
ltrespasser.
x y x. -. =;
Returning to Mr.. Statistics, the nui-
sance is that he ends the argument
just when the other side Is ready tto
talk. Statistics points to England,
Scotland and Wales and tells US that
there the rate of death by accidents is
only 1876 per 100000.
There is a London traffic manager
now in America to inspect our regula-
tions of traffic. Almost before he had
tgotten safely down the gangplank OF
Ibis steamer he announced that they
do not have SO many rules in Eng
land: they do things better over there,
| for they trust to peoples good sense TO
get them out of trouble. Here there
are rules for stepping lively and dodg-
| ing, until one is dizzy. a-s -
The London traffic manager cites
| that in England, Scotland and Wales
| they kill only 1876 victims out OF
| 100 900, while we slay 1868. But the
| headlines of their slaughter is not ap.
preciated until it is measured by the
! tools they use. To kill 1876 people
| they use only 642,S53 automobiles,
| for that is the total of passenger and
/ truck vehicles upon the island. 80
| the United Kingdom kills one victim
| annually with 19,4S0 - automobiles,
while in America it Is comparative
| ly 10 times as safe, for here we re
quire Is ,092,17 automobiles. to kill, II
| victims out of each 100000 population,
or 19S,581 automobiles for each victim
per 100000 population.
The problem of traffic handling Is
| recognized as one of the, most puz-
4 zling studies with which modern city
| life is concerned. WaShingtonians
/ sometimes grow impatient to see
wholesale results of accident reduc-
1 ton, while forgetting the brief time
| since serious study of the intricacies
of the situation began-only last
| May g. Railroad traffic is science
which requires many years of expe.
/ rience before a traffic manager be-
comes skilled, and such a man has
| volumes of precedents to guide his
rulings, while automobile traffic COM
| plications were unknown until the
| last few years, and they have been
| studied scientifically but a few
| months. The railroads are safe
guarded with a block system which is
almost fool-proof in minimizing
human unreliability of conduct.
/ Where is there block system which
] controls the speeder. the drunken