Evening star., 1938-09-11

the lives Of their
school associates from the mounting
toll Of trafic casualties and to develop
a sense Of greater responsibility among
all our citizenry.
Coincident with the ringing of the
September school bell, 8,000,0 school
children from to II years Of age
throughout the length and breadth OF
the United States are being protected
from traffic fatalities and injuries by
their classmates who constitute the
School Safety Patrols of the American
Automobile Association.
Guard 3,250 Communities.
In the some $3.50 communities,
North, South, East and West, where
there is local A. A. A. Motor Club,
from the opening of their schools until
their closing, or on every school day
in the calendar year, this army of
youthful crusaders is safeguarding the
street crossing of Americas school
population at intersections near the
schools.
To attract the attention of the
motorist, their distinguishing insignia
on clear days is the 2-inch-broad
standard Sam Brown white belt upon
which is proudly worn the School
Safety Patrol badge.
For greater motorist visibility on
rainy days here in the District the
patrols wear an enveloping hooded,
bright yellow poncho with the trade
mark Of the American Automobile
Association stamped upon the back.
From the files of the association Rus
sell E. Singer, general manger, drew
forth, with other requested statistics,
letter after letter from chiefs of police,
mayors and safety directors of A. A. A.
motor clubs which read in this unani-
nous vein: There have been fewer
traffic fatalities and practically no
serious traffic injuries in our school
zones since the School Safety Patrols
were organized"
Financed by Association.
This crusade Of life-saving and of
motorist and pedestrian traffic educa-
ton is financed in its entirety by the
association as gift of service to the
school children of America and their
elders. Cooperating with it whole
| heartedly in every instance are the
police departments of Americas vari-
Gus cities and their boards of public
instruction as well as their parochial
| and private schools.
SO successful has the movement
been from national and local stand
polnt,' Mr.. Singer said. that there
Is great rivalry among various cities
and individuals, and a constantly
augmented list of both claiming the
honor and distinction of having inau-
| gurateG the idea and set it in notion -
pioneer in the field of having chill
dren the prime crusaders in saving
themselves, and others, from traffic
perils was H. o. Round, a young police
officer of Detroit
In 1919 the citizens of Detroit, an
acknowledged center of the motor
| industry were both saddened and
appalled, by the number of school
children who were losing their lives
in traffic accidents while going to and
from their schools. Delegated by
| them, Ito do something about it."
Rounds plan, despite its ultimate
success was at first ridiculed as, That
crazy idea of Rounds Whoever heard
OF school children saving themselves
from being run down by automobiles?
| Today, Mr.. Round is safety director
OF the American Automobile Associa-
| ton of Michigan and responsible for
its over $4,000 School Safety Patrols.
Begun in Chicago in 1921.
In 1921. the Chicago Motor Club
OF the A. A. A., as means or reducing
the ghastly death-rate among the city's
5-to-14-year-old school children, in
augurated its system of School Safety
Patrols
So successful was the movement,
that in 1925, the association gave it's
Endorsement to similar ones through
out the United States, wherever it
had a local motor club. This national
| sponsorship it has constantly and
increasingly augmented since that
time.
That same year, in an attempt to
lessen the terrifying death rate of II
school children and of 48S injured
by motor traffic on the streets in
school areas in the Nations Capital,
| the District Division of the three AS
organized Washington's School Safety
Patrols. 1t now includes adjacent
Maryland and Virginia areas.
It's 1o-year cycle of achievement is
an amazing one. In 1885 the death
rate among Washingtons school chill
dren in its schools areas supervised
by its School Safety Patrols had drop
ped from the 1925 high of II to 2.
With motor car registrations in the
District reaching an all time high of
227,648 in 1886, with 81 ,525 white and
colored pupils between the ages of
and IA crossing streets and arterial
highways going to and from school,
there were but five deaths of school
children from motor accidents in
that year.
This was made possible" Washing
ton I. Cleveland, manager of the
District Motor Club of the three AS,
said through the whole-hearted
.o-opcl dVioii VI Vic WdeliileIoi puullC
school authorities and of Maj. Ernest
w. Brown, superintendent of police"
Officers Assigned to Precincts.
Upon Maj. Browns accession to
his present office, one of his first
executive orders was to assign a full
time police officer carefully selected
for his traffic experience to each one
Of the city's 13 precincts.
His duties include weekly confer
ences with the School Safety Patrols
and school authorities in every school
building, white and colored, within
his precinct. He also has frequent
meetings with the general assemblies
of the student bodies in each of these