Show lt Oll S u Us xo To Speed SpeedUp o US J J Up Safety s ero I I t I VER since the advent of the steam engine we weI 1 I EVER have been speeding up and while that speed I has come with inestimable b benefit it has not come comeI I without its measure of attendant harm When the i 1 legislature of New v York was first asked to grant a aI J franchise for eighteen miles of steam railroad the j I ri right ht to build this this' first railroad was not granted i without a bitter jitter opposition which contended that it iti i would be unsafe because the engine would scare scare- so soI I j many horses that an unwarranted toll of death would result 1 The railroad came and those who opposed it were i right in their death toll predictions The engines t did scare the horses There were runaways and what is worse there were wrecks on the rails and an increasing ever-increasing list of accidents have been recorded as the iron ribbed mileage multiplied But But for all this we would not erase the railroads from our maps we would not go back to the days when even a kin king would cry My kingdom for a horse f The thrashing machine has cost many a thrasher an arm But we would not go back to the days when we flayed grain on the floor I Mill fill machinery and foundry furnaces take their human toll But we cannot do without them I We fly sky-high sky and all too often we read of a fallen flyer I It t is the price we pay to learn how with safety to use the swifter way The auto brings its price in limb and lif life We pay it and speed away We have been impatiently seeking speed With I the same impatience we must seek safety The cost of speed has reached such alarming proportions that the Safety First slogan was born I Observe we did not cry Cut it out out nor did we 9 I even plead to Slow down We Ve do n not t want to slacken much less to stop On the contrary we want to speed up That is is progress But we must speed up safety The National Safety Council r reports orts th that t the compiled com com- compiled piled figures of preventable accidents in in 1920 show a death toll of as many many people as live in the State Stat of Nevada In other words in on one year ear we wiped out put by accident one whole State That means that it is time to STOP something It is not speed we should stop We must stop recklessness The man-eating man thrashing machine has gone out of fashion But the fool at the auto anto wheel is is busy Fatalities from reckless auto driving average thirty deaths a day We have speed laws but they are defiantly disobeyed and the violators when arrested are too often dismissed with a modified reprimand or ora ora ora a petty fine To endanger the life of another is not a light or laughing matter We must adjust ourselves selves to the auto as the horse did to the train We W make the train run on schedule limit its speed on curves curves slow down at the sign o or ot caution and come to a full stop at the STOP signal So must we make every auto driver do There is but one way to do it and that is for eve every community to imp impose se drastic penalty for every offender of of- fender and for every community to promptly get rid of an any officer that fails to arrest the offenders and every judge fudge and magistrate that will not impose the full penalty of the crime If K it is a crime to take life it is a crime to endanger life Speed up safety It is the duty of every town au- au and county government to get indignantly busy on this his all important job We cannot spare our people in whole state full lots |