Evening star., 1934-05-13
Head of House Group Hold
ing Hearings on Bill
Explains Views.
ALL DESERVING CLAIMS
PAID, CHAIRMAN SAYS
Cost to Drivers Seen Increasing
City Relief Rolls by Stop
ping Work.

Representative Patman of Texas in
a minority report filed yesterday with
the House on the compulsory taxicab
liability insurance bill, declared as
one of his major reasons for opposing
the bill that there was no real menace
to the public from the operation of
uninsured taxis.
He held that testimony before the
House District subcommittee failed
to disclose a single instance" wherein
any person had been unable to COL
lect from a taxicab owner found liable
for injury or property damage re-
sulting from taxi operation
In handing down decisions on two
important taxi liability cases last
June. Justice William Hitz of the
District Court of Appeals declared,
in part:
THE present methods Of selling mo-
tor cars and licensing public vehicles
lead naturally to the present situation
of cut-throat irresponsibility in pub
lie service of great importance and
daily danger to many persons.
Suggests Changes.
while our duty is to apply the law
as We find it. in this respect we find
it so unsatisfactory that we feel i'm
PEELED to suggest that some change
should be made. either by legislative
enactment or by municipal regulation.
Perhaps an improvement of this
situation can be found in a system of
compulsory insurance. preliminary to
the license and running of the car. in
favor OF any one injured by its negl-
CERT operation under any arrangement
with the licensee. such as many of our
States now have and such as appears
to have covered hackney coaches in
London for hundred years.
For we now have in Washington
hundreds of taxicabs engaged-very
literally-in a public calling; per-
formable only upon the public streets
under public license; holding out to
the public an illusion of incorporated
responsibility which they do not pos
sess; painted. named and numbered
to heighten that illusion; each cab
constituting a potential danger both
to its passengers and to the public;
yet having no financial responsibility
to either beyond an equity Of redemp-
ton in some used motor car"
Protection Seen Adequate.
Representative Patman, in differ
ing from other members of the
House District Committee, declared:
Before any law is enacted an evil
should be shown that will be correct
ed by its passage. There are about
1000 cabs operating in Washington
Most of them are in a position to pay
any deserving claim at this time. This
law would merely cause the injured
person to collect from the insurance
company instead of the owners. 1t
is true that there are accidents grow
ing out of the operation of cabs, but
the testimony before the subcommit-
tee failed to disclose a single instance
where any person had been injured
or had his property injured and had
been unable to collect from the owner
of the cab causing it."
>Patman, who was chairman of the
subcommittee which held hearings on
the bill, charged that enactment of
the measure would create a source
of big business" for ambulance
chasing lawyers; would set up a
taxicab monopoly that likely would be
controlled directly or indirectly by the
street car company.
He declared the cost of the insur-
ance. estimated at 81 100000 a year,
would drive about one-fourth of the
taxicab drivers out of business and on
to the relief rolls and serve to boost
taxi rates.
Patman also made a point of the
fact that one of the District Commis-
sioners had disapproved passage of the
bill although it was favored by the
two other city heads. The opposition
was registered by Commissioner Alien