The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-11-09

q have been more and more im- pressed by the fact that courtesy or the lack of 1t plays Q very important part in our failure or success" said Rev. pr. John o. Walker, pastor of the Second Congregational church in his address yesterday morning.
 Courtesy, like humility, is one of the marks of genuine greatness. Over Q period of years and prin- cipally in connection with Sunday evening services and mass meetings of one sort and another, have had occasion to write to Q great many men and women. Some of these peo. pie were genuinely distinguished. It has been my experience that the great9r the mans achievement and distribution the less chance there is that he will be able to accept your offer of Q speaking engagement but t.: more certain you are to have Q direct, personal, sincere, courteous reply. The most sarcastic letter I think ever received came from minor ofiicial in Q tiny village in New Jersey. I had written. to ask Q favor for Q family in need. An, but in 0 little file upstairs have e collection of letters in another vein. They serve to Illustrate how people like Sir Wilfred Orenfell, Waiter Lippmann, Charming Pol" lock, Toyoh!ke Kagawa, James Truslow Adams, Katherine Mayo, D.. Cadman, Dr. Fosdicl, Walter Damrosch, Admiral Byrd, con any ives" or mo" as the case may be.
 Discourtesy Costly
 '''e don't always stop to realize what Q costly thing discourtesy is, Some seem to think that courtesy in most situations Is like on orchid on an evening dress. Rather nice If you can afford the luxury. But that Isn't the story, that isn't the nalogy at all. Courtesy, and ultimately Christian courtesy, is ono of tho prime necessities of life and not of public life and even international relations.
 The American people are becom- Ing more and more alarmed about the. ghastly toll of human life that B exacted every year by automo- bile accidents. Here too courtesy efi- ters in. Some of Us heard an ad- dress this last week reminding us of the terrific totals In automobile fatalities. In the year 1885, 30,000 people lost their lives c;i our high- ways. Tn round figures 100 were kill- cd every day, 300 were permanently injured, and 5000 received minor cuts and bruises. believe that 1t Is said that we have killed more peo- pl, on our highways in the last ten years than we killed on all our wars In 300 years. And the totals arc still ! mounting. There will Do higher record this year than last, The curve on the graph b still rising.
 Courtesy Makes Safe Driving
 Now of course, taAny factors en- ter this problem. Many solutions are being offered. Something extremely drastic may have to Do don before we are through. Many studies are being made. This past summer the Automobile club of Michigan sent a man to study the trafiic problem In Great Britain and their success In keeping down the percentage of accidents. They think they know some thing about automobiles and highways out in Michigan but they also realize, that they stillr have much to learn. Two things In the report that th.s automobile expert brought back are very signiaant. In the first place he said that we are not to th.ak that Britain has an easy problem because there are few. CT cars. Per square mile of territory, they have more cars than we, their roads arc far less adapted to mod ern trafiic and they have millions of |. people who walk the highways where we have tens of thousands only. Yet this man travelled i,200 miles without seeing Q single acci-