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Show DRASTIC LAWS NEEDED TO CIEHTO THIEF Many Western Localities i Now Waking Up; Northwest North-west Plans Action. With the enactment of drastic laws by many states and cities to curb the activities of the automobile thie.f, there is an apparent awakening of the makers mak-ers of state laws and eaty ordinances to the dire need of placing, once and for all.' a check on the ambitions of this renegade class of citizens. sSalt Lake is apparently Infested wit-more wit-more than its share of "auto sneaks.,J The poH.ce records every month disclose startling facts regarding the theft of cars for joy-riding purposes and also by the real article, the man who steals ears as a business. And it has become a profession a business with many. Aided and abetted by lax laws and the absolute indifference of the automobile owner, as a class, as to whether prosecution prose-cution follows or not, men who have never stolen anything else will unhesitatingly unhesi-tatingly take a chance on skipping out with an automobile. The folowing from a coast paper states the situation concisely: con-cisely: The northwest has awakened to the fact that it must take drastic measures to stop the stealing of motor mo-tor cars. The fact that California has enacted such beneficial laws has made the records of Oregon and "Washington stand out. The police departments of the big cities and the supervisors are now having prepared ordinances and laws along the line of those ! which are in force in this state. William M. Klinger, general agent of the London & Lancashire Insurance companv, who has just returned from conferences with the authorities in Portland. Seattle and Spokane, is most, enthusiastic over the way they have taken up the California laws. ' ' The action taken in Oregon and Washington will make our laws thoroughly effective. As it is now, the arm of the law in California Cali-fornia is only efficient within tho boundaries of the state. We can only control the thief here, for the reason our system of recording motor mo-tor cars does not reach to our sister sis-ter states,'1 says Klinger. "It was for this reason that I made the thirty days' trip through the northwest. In Portland it did not take me long to convince tho authorities and the members of the Oregon Automobile club of the efficiency ef-ficiency of the California license law and laws to stop the stealing of automobiles and accesories." |