Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-09
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

What they do not realize is that their
| ears are never shut. Even when they
are asleep their trusty ears are wide
open. And into those ears. whether
they are thinking about 1t or not, pours
| the 1ncessant clamor that mechanical
age has brought into being.
| In addition to those who actually are
hurt by noise, there are millions Of other
persons Who through reason Of sturdy
| strength inherited from their ances-
tors, are as yet not sufferers from the
ceaseless din set up by automobiles,
street cars. trucks, monographs, radios,
milk wagons, 10y riders" to name but
some of the most persistent of the mod
ern noise makers.
Even these tough persons, however,
often find that spell of sickness, or
some other factor, puts them into the
! class of noise sufferers, so that they
begin to realize that those toucfy ones
who kicked against noises especially
at night, had some real ground for
their protests, after all.
v # n
Take but one of the problems cited
by our correspondent, that of the noise
made by the diaries in the delivery of
that finest of foods, in one sense the
only true food, milk.
Surely 1t is a fine thing the Health
Department does to work for the safe
guarding of our milk supply. It's
monthly ratings are highly priced by
those diaries fortunate enough to get
high ones.
Yet sleep is an essential of health,
and nothing has been done by the
Health Department to score diaries on
quiet delivery of their products. This
would seem to be all the more neces-
sary, since milk is delivered in the So
called small hours of the morning,
when practically every other noise has
stopped.
parties" to remain awake long past their
desired bedtime find that no sooner
does sleep begin to indulge in the
Shakespearean job of knitting away on
the torn sleeve of day than here comes
the procession of milk trucks.
Perhaps no one could deliver milk
without making noise, but certainly
something less than the present racket
could be achieved If the Health De-
partment and the diaries themselves
would approach the problem jointly.
The particular phases of the problem
merge in the utter completely of the
whole problem, which is based solidly
on human nature under civilization.
Mankind is ever at the mercy Of him
self For every man who, securing a
certain competence and certain
amount of leisure, handles such boons
in digni1ed essentially manly, man
ner. there will be hundreds-nay, thou
sands-who, given certain sum and
certain leisure, will turn Immediately to
license and the uproar which attends 1t.
Hence the motor car, great gift OF
mechanical age to mankind, is turned
by persons of certain temperanents into
a dangerous. noisy machine on the
roads, a veritable devil without a pur-
pose, since the only desire of the riders
is to hurry when there is absolutely no
need for hurry on their part.
Just how far modern municipality
has the right to go in correcting human
nature Is a problem now before the
American people. Police rules and reg
ulations have for many years done ex-
actly that thing, and no one seemed to
think anything wrong about 1t.
One of the Oldest and most often
enforced regulations is that against
pubic nuisances, particularly in relation
to noise Is it not significant that the
police laws of every city have had on
their books for many years regulations
defending law-abiding citizens against
noise?
When will health departments every
where take hand in this matter?