Evening star., 1926-10-11
SCHOOLBOY PATROL
TO GUARD CHILDREN
SUCCEEDS IN TEST

continued from First Page
terest in their work by the announce
ment of Director Eldridge of prizes
totaling 500 which he will award Tor
proficiency in patrol duty. An award
Of $50 i'll gold will go to the patrol
man who has served best during the
present school term, prize OF $3O
to the next best patrOlman and ID
third prize of $50 for the boy ad-
judged third best
The initial response to the school
hour ballot plan announced yesterday
by The Star was gratifying to police
and traffic officials, who are urging
a change in school opening hour as
a primary step toward making the
streets safe for school children. In
spector Evans called attention this
morning to the marked decrease In
traffic noted just after 8 o'clock, the
hour at which most office workers
must be at their desks.
Traffic jam Vanishes.
AS if by magic, the jam of passen-
ger vehicles traversing Twelfth street
between $50 and 8 o'clock this morn
ing disappeared seemingly into no
where, and at & inmates after the
children safely within their class
rooms, the thoroughfare that Il few
moments before had been precariously
congested became virtually free OF all
but a few "stragglers."
IF the children had been kept
home a few minutes longer they would
have had no serious traffic problem
with which to contend" Inspector
Evans remarked.
The question of staggering the
school hours in such way as to
avoid the morning and afternoon
automobile rushes was scheduled FOR
consideration by the Washington
Council of Social Agencies at a meet
ing this afternoon at O'CLOCK IN the
Burlington Hotel.
Would Not Add Last Two.
If school hours are moved back to
915 or $50 am, as has been sug-
sested, there will be involved the
further question of letting the stu
dents out of their classes correspond
ingly later and that much nearer to
the peak hour of afternoon traffic.
j. +. Hoover. special assistant to
the attorney general, advanced the
opinion today that the time taken
off in the opening hour should not
be added to the last hour. In letter
ACCOMMODATING his ballot In favor Of
DELAYING classes until $3.50 Mr.. Hoover
says:
ut is my humble judgment that
the time off should not be added. par
ticularly with respect to the first
three primary grades.
Urges 1O-NIile Speed.
Give hours are obviously too much
for children from to years OF age
to be confined in a SchoolrOOm. The
half day. in vogue for generations,
was long enough and worked, l fancy,
very satisfactorily. Besides, in these
modern days, when the automobile
has become such an engine Of destruc-
ton the lives Of the adults. who have
to see the children safely to school,
are likewise increasingly imperiled by
the greater number OF visits which
they are obliged to make to and from
the school"
Grover W. Ayers Of $40 Thirteenth
street wrote on his ballot that he has
been advocating $3.50 as an opening
hour for more than d year. and that
he also favors longer school year
Edward NJ. Van LoOck of 104 Fif.
teenth street northeast suggests on
his ballot that 10 miles an hour be
fixed as a speed limit for automobiles
in all school blocks. with policemen
stationed there to see that the regu-
lation is rigidly enforced.