Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-15
Govern
or Protests ''This
Furious Hurry to
Get Ahead,This
Lack Of Respect
for 9th erS....
Which Make the
Roads L nsaf e
Today"
BY DOUGLAS CHURCH.

Roosevelt summed up the case
against the man who drives car
while under the influence OF in
toxicantS.
Then he proceeded to draw
parallel between the locomotive engineer VINO
is a skilled operator, whose train on rails is
always under the protection OF an elaborate
system of signals, and the driver OF an au-
tomobile who has neither the SUPERVISION OF
the block system the limitation OF rails
eff a railroad engineer" he went on, should
attempt to run his locomotive while drunk or
even under the suspicion of drinking, he would
be Summarily dismissed should he have an ac-
cident while in that condition or have an &C
cident under any circumstances due TO ms
negligence he would face jail.
ION the other hand when some other man
happens to kill person while drunk he only
too often is sympathized with by his frienos
and the Jury alike and has very good
chance of getting off with suspended SEN
tence"
\ ASKED the Governor what his attitude
] would be where q request for executive
clemency was made for one who actually had
been put behind the bars for such an offense
mo man or woman, matter how power
full or rich, can expect from me the least SYM
patty under those conditions. In fact the
higher his position in the world the less I
would be inclined to grant him freedom.
would be much more likely to lend an ear TO
the prayer of some ignorant man who had
violated the law than to that Of q well edu-
Gated, higher-type man who should have known
better but took so little interest in the welfare
of others as to drive while under the influence
Of liquor. He has no excuse
The Governor referred to the report of the
Bureau of Motor Vehicles from January to
August l of this year in which there were
$500 cases of driving while intoxicated in the
State of New York. OF this number 1512 have
had their licenses revoked and 1890 have been
suspended with their cases pending in the
courts. He added that this report only dis
closed those cases where there had been seri-
GUS injury and that the actual number OF per-
sons who violated the law against driving
while intoxicated must be infinitely more.
uTHIS is a disgraceful condition of affairs
Is undoubtedly duplicated throughout the
country, and calls for more than shrug OF
the shoulders from the so-called respectable
elements of society.
"Up to the first of August of this year there
were 2,644 accidents in the State of New York
involving the automobile which resulted In
serious personal injury. This Is a condition
which only public opinion can remedy.
"The public must look at the problem from
q more personal angle, not with the thought
that every man must shift for himself It is
a problem in which every person Is vitality
interested. It is a matter of life and death"
OF Motor Vehicles, he said that during the
first five months of this year 1852 persons
were killed in New York State by automobiles
and more than two-thirds of this number were
killed by passenger cars. During the same
period there were 42,935 accidents reported 70
the bureau
when we stop to consider that during the
first five months of this year there were ap-
proximately less than SO murders in the State
and most of them in the underworld, the num-
Der of people killed by pleasure cars seems
appalling. We do not know accurately the
number Of those engaged in life of crime, so
an exact comparison is impossible, but 1t
would seem to me it many times more
dangerous for the average citizen to drive
out upon the road with his family than for
the gangster and racketeer to ply his trade.
There are literally thousands of men and
women in this country today who have killed
q man. woman or child through their criminal
negligence while driving a car and have never
served one day in jail paid one cent of
damages"
= OV. ROOSEVELT went on to say that we
~ had laws enough to regulate the automo-
BIZ it was their enforcement which was the
problem and it was only through the CO.
operation Of the public that the traffic laws
could be properly enforced.
"A great deal of the trouble lies with the
ease with which almost any one may obtain
n licnncQ IN ho n