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Show Waking Up Officialdom IT SEEMS to be a very good idea for the pciplc to get mad when occasion demands. It lets officialdom know that the community wants more action and less oratory as in the case of accident prevention, now brought sharply before the powers that be in the city hall. Many nice speeches about traffic have been made and many promising programs to overcome problems have been advanced but the dead And the hurt, motorists and pedestrians, continue to strew the streets and highways. Pledges to carry out the E E E (education, engineering, enforcement) policy are subscribed to. burc6ndit!6f.ri!erro1cpr It is an tirflclal responsibility that buck passing cannot remove, but can only confuse. General community sentiment, sen-timent, evidently, has become belligerently determined de-termined to remove the confusion. The B. P. O. Elks and the American Legion, doing their part in a national campaign, the chamber of commerce, civic organizations, roused citizens and, in particular, property owners own-ers and residents along streets where greatest hazards exist, have joined in insistent clamor that better lighting be installed where dim-lit streets have been shown to be death traps. Spurred by a succession of fatalities on Second Sec-ond West street, the police belatedly prepared a map showing where they occurred. As the matter went before the city commission, it was suggested that adequate lighting, as to arterials, should be financed by the state. A state representative repre-sentative remarked that this had never been done before and that the legal poinU involved would have to be further explored. A police traffic department representative has recommended a large number of thoroughfares thor-oughfares where better lighting is needed. A ; chamber of commerce committee chairman has ' stated that lighting all our streets properly is financially out of the question. Public officials without exception have indorsed the drive for ' better highway lighting. The Telegram has only praise for all whose Interest has been drawn to this important part of accident prevention and enlists to do its utmost ut-most towards bringing realization of the objective. objec-tive. The) army of citizens mobilized through the initiative of the Elks, Legionnaires, chamber of commerce and other organizations and individuals in-dividuals earn special commendation. Having done so, it will be resultful only if public servants ser-vants are given neither rest nor peace until a way is found to finance better highway lighting and the lights are put in service. As part of the E E E safety program, proper lighting of traffic ways is part of engineering's preventive Job. It is a confirmed habit of officialdom to let things slide until something approaching a calamity arises to bestir them to action. It has been so in this case. Engineering Engineer-ing anticipates and prepares for eventualities. At any time in the past long range planning would have envisioned the need for this improvement im-provement in street lighting and the plan would have included spreading the cost. Now it looms as forbidding. This is not a sign of progressive, forward-looking forward-looking and efficient public service. This is by no means intended to be nagging. It is not incidental in this safety campaign as apart from other matters arising in the conduct of the city's business back to time beyond memory. Mayor Erwin and the ofher members of the . city commission do the praiseworthy thing in lending prompt attention and earnest interest to the problem as presented. The great hope must be that city-state cooperation or some other practicable means of financing may be worked out We cheer on all these crusaders and officials, offi-cials, but we can only cheer the needed adequate lighting when we can see the lights burning to make life and limb more secure on dim-lit streets where needless slaughter of humans constitutes con-stitutes a toll of neglect. |