OCR Text |
Show 34,750 AUTOS it LICENSED TO MM UTAH Secretary's Report Shows Nearly Half of Families in State Own Motor Cars. Few Persons Evade Law, Ecnnion Says; Supply of 1919 Plates Is Exhausted. I.i'.n.f. pl;,tf lmc i (--il iai)l by S.-.T.tttiry of S!a' Hapten Hiiuion this .;ir t'nr ."51,7.")') automobiles in l.'tnh. While a t'.w :iiilumobihi owners have m:ni;i';r. I u es.-ape the vigilance, or to r.n.l'it li.v lln: l;n 1c of viilnnt:e of peace-ot'fii-i-rn nn. I .t,-:oiih int.trcstcil in t lie -inn.' of k'noil roads in the state, it is no I. Ii.'linvi'il nt the Mate oapilol that llierr inn morn than Mo.UUO automobile:: automo-bile:: ill the slate. Tlir " ' 1 1 1 : 1 1 ion of I'lali is estimated al ir.o.iMiii .tsii!is. At an aviini'n of live persona lo a family thin would mean M'vi'ii aiilomoljilt'M to cv"ry eih-ifii eih-ifii I'a in i lies ill Iht; slate. Tho average aver-age is one automobile to li'ss tlian thirteen thir-teen persons in the state. 'I he Mate obtained licenso plate3 for liiltl numbered ni to .'la.tHJU. This was not qui..' enough, and ill) dates of the 1Mb series have been issued in tho last two or Ihn-e weeks, the. offieers beiii notified Unit, when the numbers on tho I'.ilH iilal.'s are higher than any number num-ber that was issued in that year, they are to regard them as !!'.) plates. Since new plates would bo ood only until Mareh 1, 1H-0, and sinee the weather wea-ther is rather cold t'nr automobilinjj at present wry few apidien t ions aro be-in' be-in' made now for new license plates, and those that are beine; made aro largely on aeeount. of transfers beeauso of the sale of cars, or to repine.! plates that have been lost. Tho IDi'U plates may lie issued and will bo honored at any time after January 1, but atl automobile auto-mobile owners will bo liable to arrest if Ih.'V drive ears after March 1 without, with-out, ha v'mg obta ined tho 1SI20 plates. rifruresv Analyzed. While the numbers on license plates are t heoretieallv ."..1,1111, it. is to be remembered re-membered that, bel'.vivn SUO and 10UO of those numbers aro for transfers or lo replace lost, plates. Tho number of ears ill the state actually carrying licenses, li-censes, tli.'refore, would bo reduced by that amount. On the other hand, the numbers from 1 to '100 havo Jx-en reserved re-served for automobile dealers, and deal-ears' deal-ears' (dates have Iveu issued, numbered from 1 to -OS. Some dealers hnvo obtained ob-tained as hiuli as fliiriy-i'ivo pairs of plates, but. the average is probably around five pairs, which would mean about 1 Di0 ears in the. hands of tho dealers and Iviim used on tho roads for demonstration purposes at any one time. Tho net number of cars being used ou the roads of the state, therefore, with license plat.s, is about as given, o-1,7j0, in round numbers. Complaints have come to tho office of tho secretary of stato frequently to the effect that, large numbers of persons ;ne evading the law goYeming -..! elates. Forms of evasion com-pVi"iccr com-pVi"iccr of- aro many. For example, it is reported that a man owns two ears, one luuh-powered, and the other taking Hie minimum charge, lie purchares a vair.of plates for the low-powered ear Mid uses them both on that ear and nn his high-powered car. It is charged that, persons club to-wetYici'. to-wetYici'. One purchases a pair of plates and gives on.1 of his plates to his neighbor. Kach drives a ear wi'.li only one plate, and if he happens lo bo . called to account about it, professes that the other plate was Most..7' Complaint Com-plaint is sometimes mado that dealers, .n ord.-r to niako a sale, aro permitting customers to use the dealer's plates, thereby depriving the stato of some revenue. rev-enue. Estimates High. l-'stimates made as to tho number of ears not proporly licensed havo run as high as per cent of all the ears in Hie state. Mr. Bennion, however, believes be-lieves that this is entirely too high. While I feel sure." he said, "'that then.' are still some persons in the slate who have managed to evade the law with regard to licenses for automobiles, auto-mobiles, 1 do not feel that tho number of such pors.-ns is .very large. "In the first phu.', every time there has been a complaint as to a partic- uhir person cv;idintr the l:iw, the matter mat-ter lias been checked up at ouee. It is the duty or' the peace officers to do this, and they hnvo been prompt to respond. And let me say here that the police forces of gait Lake City and Otiden have been particularly efficient in the assistance they have rendered in enforcing observance of the law with regard to automobiles. Every complaint that the law is boin violated has been put up-at once to the she rift' of the couhty in which the complaint originated and the matter has been followed fol-lowed up until some report came from the officer nowinr that the alleged violation of the law had been investigated. investi-gated. Frequently the report is accompanied accom-panied by fees for new license plates, or for transfers of plates, or for replacing re-placing lost plates. 'J made a request of the legislature for two speeial deputies to give their attention to this question of violation of the law, and provided that a portion por-tion of the fines imposed should 0 to repay these deputies for their vigilance. vigi-lance. The legislature, however, did not sec the matter as I saw it, and amended it out of the measure. Single Plates Illegal. ' The officers have further been notified no-tified that a sincle plate on a car does not exempt the driver from arrest. ar-rest. Of course in such a case the officer of-ficer can use some judgment. But if T ere in his place i should at least make tho ov.ner of the automobile show that lie had acred in eood faith, and I believe that this is being done bv the officers throughout the state. , It is not very easy for a person to drive a car on the roads much before he is seen bv someone who has enough interest in tho cause of good roads to report it. if the car has no license plate. Automobile dealers themselves appreciate appre-ciate that t hey have an interest in this and t hey have promised mo their heart v cooperation and I bnlievo thev are giving ir. At an assembly of dealers deal-ers held early in the year. I pointed out to them that the license fees go into the motor vehicle fund, which is used for the building of good roads, and that good roads stimulate the sule of automobiles. They saw the point and pledged themselves to assist in enforcing enforc-ing the law. I have received valuable assistance from them. (Tells of Journeys. "Moreover, I hawi traveled the state from, the Idaho to the Arizona line, and from Gold Hill to Jensen, and 1 may say that I am sufficiently interested interest-ed so that no car passes me that I do not notice its license plates. 1 have cheeked up with many persons, but 1 can say that from all my observations I do not believe that thre is any great amount of evasion of the law in tins regard. tlI have observed a few 1916 plates of late, because we are now issuing those plates, since the supply of 1P19 plates has run out. I have seen no 1917 plates. I have found an occasional occasion-al 1 0 1 S plate, but usually have found a 1919 plate beside it ou the ear, tlj owner having simplv failed to remove the 191S plate. ''We have had some trouble with regard to the distinction now drawn between pas.mger cars and those designed de-signed for other service. Particularly is this the case with ears that were originally passenger ears, but have been rebuilt with a body designed for express ex-press or freight service. If the truck license would be higher than the passenger pas-senger 1 i c e use the t en de n cy is for the owner to list his car as still a passenger car. Owners Law Abiding. "(In the whole, I think wo may say that the majority of the people arc fair about it. Generally speaking they obey the law. They realize that after all, the money comes back to them in better roads, and they :ir willing to do their share in paying for this construction construc-tion work. Tli ere are really only a very few instances of continued violation viola-tion of the law. ' ' Perhaps I might moution one instance in-stance which might have given rise to complaint from persons who did not quite understand.- LVialers have come to me with the request that customers from other states be permitted to drive their cars out of the state and not be put to the necessity of purchnsing a Utah license. I have always taken the position that there is nothing in the law which enables me to issue any special permits. I have. however, suggested in such cases, that, if the dealer cares to, he may legitimately permit per-mit his phttes to be used by the customer custo-mer in driving the oar out of the state, collecting, say, the $4 he has paid for the pair of plates. I believe that such a use of the plates would properly be viewed under the law as a demonstration demonstra-tion of the new car. When the customer custo-mer reaches his home he purchases a license in his own state, and returns the pair of dealer's plates, the dealer refunding him the $4. My suggestion has been followed, I know, in some instances. in-stances. ' ' |