The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1932-09-15
By P. STEWART MACAULAY,


apprehensively at the speedometer
when a brown-clad motor cyclist ap-
pears suddenly from around a bend
in the road. And he is an extremely
fortunate driver who never has been
hailed to the side of the highway by
one of these brown figures to receive,
at the very last, word of warning.
But since, as the authorities agree,
most automobile operators are reas-
onably careful and law-abidfng, it is
probable that only few realize the
extent of the power over motorists
which the State Police Force repre-
sents. The force itself is merely an
arm of much larger and more pow
erful agency-the Office presided over
by E. Austin Baughman, Commission
er of Motor Vehicles. And that Office
has become, through successive
amendments to the motor-vehicle
code, virtually the high arbiter of the
highways. 1t prescribes who shall be
permitted to drive cars in the first
instance; it keeps a constant watch
over the army of more than 100000
operators within the State to make
sure that the laws are obeyed, and it
metes out swift and vigorous punish
ment to those who disobey them; it
may take away, for cause, the driving
privileges it has granted.
#*&
Not many of these powers belonged
to the Commissioner of Motor We
hicles when that office was first estab-
lished in 1909. Then it concerned it.
self chiefly with registering automo-
biles and collecting license fees from
their owners. Governor Crothers,
whose creation it was, expressed the
hope that some day the office might
turn over as much as 100000 annu-
ally to the State Treasury. The office
still conducts the routine business of
registration and the collection of fees
(last year it's receipts were nearly
$4,000,000), but to an ever-increasing
extent its police and judicial functions
have been gaining ascendancy. Now
two large subdivisions of the office
concern themselves almost exclusively
with the detection or punishment Of
offenders against the motor vehicles
code.
49,
The most familiar of these sub
divisions, of course, is the State
Police Force, for even the innocent
motorist can scarcely be unaware of
its existence. 1t was organized back
in 1921 and strangely enough, the
most effective arguments used by
those favoring the establishment of
such an organization had nothing to
do with traffic control. In that year
there had been a number of robberies
and other crimes of violence in sew
eral of the rural counties and the cry
went up for Statewide police force
to afford protection to those portions
of the State where local authority was
inadequate. There were some who
feared that such an organization
might develop into band of Coos
sacks" to be utilized for suppressing
labor disturbances and for other ques-
tionable purposes. But the force was
established and it's subsequent evolu-
ton has quoted the fears of many of
its original critics.
go
For those in command point out
that instead of becoming a general
State constabulary, the force, to an
ever-increasing extent, has concen-
trated upon traffice control. At the
outset most of the State troopers were
deputized as peace officers in the coun-
ties in which they served; now they
act in this capacity only in few
counties-chiefly in Western Mary
land, where there are wide-open
spaces in which local authority is al
most non-existent. Capt. Edward
Nick. johnson, the present commander
of the force, discourages its partici-
patton in local police problems and
nowadays, he asserts, the State pa
trolman is called into such cases only
in emergencies or by accident.
Naturally, State policemen are called
upon to look out for wanted criminals
and to cooperate in other ways with
local authorities, but generally speak
ing their province is the highway.
And, Captain johnson says, they do
not confne their activities to the
search for speeders, reckless driving
and other violators of the traffic laws.
A good part of their time is devoted
to providing assistance and guidance
for the large body of innocent motor
lists. AS a matter of routine, the
State patrolman is under instructions
to give aid, information, or advice
whenever it is needed on the road.
When an accident occurs he usually is
present to see that the injured are
cared for, to clear the road Of obstruc-
tons so that other traffic NAV pass