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Show Michigan Girl's Essay-in Essay-in Safety Competition Best essayist of more than 400,000 elementary school pupiis, Theodora I'oole, thirteen-year-old school girl of Fontiac, Michigan, now residing at Lansing, Michigan, is announced as winner of the second national safety essay contest conducted under the auspices of the highway education boa rd. As a reward she receives a gold watch and a trip to Washington with all expenses paid, awards offered at the beginning of the contest for the essay winning first naiional honors. Her prizes are the gifts of the National Na-tional Automobile Chamber of Commerce. Com-merce. Miss Poole's essay is as follows : In a game each person has his part to play. Let us think of the task of making a nation safe as a game in which each has his place to fill and his bit to do. One might suppose we children have very little to do with the safety of onr nation, but we are the coming generation genera-tion and in our time shall uphold better bet-ter and safer highways. As in a game, there are rules to follow. fol-low. These things we must do: Always observe traffic before crossing cross-ing a street. When walking on a road keep to tlie left to meet on-coming vehicles. Learn automobile signals to know what a motorist means to do. When alighting from a street car stand until sure cf a safe way to the curb. Help those in need. , Keep close to the curb when riding a bicycle, and give correct signals when turning. Thus we shall spread our safety in-ti-rest and information. Now come the things we must not do, rules just as important if we are to play the safety game. Don't hurry! Most accidents are caused by the desire to save a few seconds. sec-onds. Never play in the streets nor dash before moving vehicles. Never jay-walk. Never steal rides. Never make a blind dash across a thoroughfare. Never stand in the street while waiting wait-ing for a car you are safer on the curb, fine cannot always stand on his rights. A child's part in this safety game is to keep from being "tagged'' by an automobile. In the many automobile accidents in which the driver is blameless, a pitifully large number of children are victims. Then there are always drivers who consider that responsibility ceases with the tooting of the horn. Since we stand less firmly than a telephone pole we had better be out of their May. Our code is a code of honor, Nobody No-body can make us play fair. Our schools foster athletics to encourage clean effort. More important than ordinary or-dinary athletics Is the game In which we save the sorrow of accidents and loss of life. If I could feel that by joining this safety team I had paved one little child, I would consider my effort better spent than If I had won highest honors In athletics. These things children can do. It Is because of the splendid foresight of our elders that we are having these things laid before us while we are of an age when it Is easy to learn. Much time, money, and thought are being spent to teach us safer ways. And If we become men and women who think safety and act sanely we shall have a nation of happier and safer people. "Always Be Careful." |