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

ported to headquarters and is duly en-
tered on a card.
The chief of this department of in
vestigation wv. G. Noble is the in
cumbent) is the lord high keeper of
! the records and acts as Mr.. Baugh-
mans deputy in weighing the sins of
the motorist and melting out the ap-
propriate punishment. The daily grist
from the Baltimore Traffic Court and
from the county courts having juris-
diction in such cases come before him
and he sorts them over carefully. The
trivial offenses are passed over if the
offenders previous record is reason
ably clear. Those found guilty of
serious offenses, however, usually are
summoned to appear before Mr.. No
BILE to present reasons, if any, why
their driving permits should not be
revoked or suspended. The hearings
are brief and to the point and, except
where there are extenuating circum-
stances, the nature of the offense it.
self, plus a consideration of the
drivers previous record, usually de-
termins the penalty.
Some of the victims of this system
have complained that too much arbi-
trary power has been vested in the
Commissioner and that his Office is
unduly harsh in it's treatment of those
who come before it. Indeed, in glanc-
ing over the weekly reports of sus-
pensions and revocations, disinter-
ested person might assume that some
of the punishments were out of pro-
portion to the crimes. But Mr. Baugh-
man and Mr.. Noble assert emphatical-
ly that, if they err in their judgments,
it is on the side of leniency rather
than of harshness. The cases which
at first glance appear to involve eX-
IRENE penalties are in reality extreme
cases, they assert.
For example: One motorist has had
his operating license suspended for
thirty days for parking without lights
Most drivers, through carelessness or
accident, have been guilty of the same
offense at one time or another, and to
them the suspension seems entirely
unreasonable. Mr.. Noble produces
the record of this offender to justify
his action. On the mans card are
listed twenty-four separate offenses,
ranging from parking without lights
Ga half dozen times) to participation
in a fatal accident and reckless driv-
ing. The man, according to Mr.. No
BILE, is bad driver and as such is a
menace to all careful drivers. He
has been fined repeatedly in the traffic
court, he has been warned over and
over by representatives of the Com
missioner of Motor Vehicles; but his
bad habits have persisted. Appear
ing before Mr.. Noble on previous
occasion he had been placed on pro.
bation-advised that his next offense
no matter how trivial, would result in
the withdrawal of his driving priv
lege.
Dozens of similar cases might be
dug out of the record books of the
office, Mr.. Noble asserts. Often the
operator can go along for some time
without committing a single act
which, in itself, would warrant his
being kept off the road. Yet study
of his record for this period might
reveal him to be either incompetent OF
incorrigibly reckless. He may have a
dozen or a score of relatively minor
offenses listed against him-so many
that all could not possibly have re-
suited from bad luck or the careless
ness of others. When record of this
sort appears in connection with an
otherwise minor charge, the Commits
sioner believes his duty is clear. The
law places upon him the responsibility
of protecting the law-abiding motor
list and it gives him discretionary
powers to aid in carrying out its man.
date. Carless or reckless drivers may
sometimes be curbed by temporary
suspension of their operators license
outright incompetents and those who
do not respond to milder treatment
must be ruled off the road perma
nently.
Even though it may cause some
motorists a bit of inconvenience Mr.
Noble insists that it is necessary to
keep permanent record even of triv-
ial offenses. Only by this means, he
points out, is the Commissioners office
able to decide whether an individual
motorist is the victim of circumstan-
ces or a weak moment or whether he
is habitual offender against the mo-
tor laws. If driver has been warned
repeatedly for driving with defective
lights, for failing to stop at boule-
ward highways, or for other offenses
of the cort he iS had driver and a