Show flie ROAD TO THE I 1 when the final and official figures are tabulated it will probably be found that the automobile death toll in 1937 reached a new all time record exceeding the 1936 slaughter with its victims there is no reason for being surprised at the continued increase each year cars are made faster and more powerful and a dangerous percentage of them become the property of drivers who couldn coulden t be trusted to operate a bicycle safely roadways and surfaces are improved thus offering a new temptation to excessive speed and the number of accidents in which john barleycorn is a factor tends to rise steadily this doesn doean t mean that the automobile accident toll cannot be reduced it can be but it is going to take action not words the individual responsibility of each motorist when he slides behind the wheel of a projectile weighing a ton or two and capable of doing eighty miles an hour must be driven home law enforcement must be strengthened the fixer of traffic violations must be eliminated it must be realized that chat driving a car on a public highway is a privilege not a right to be abused and license laws for one thing must be more fully carried out A good stiff fine and order of the car into con fi cation will also help and finally swift and sure punishment for the reckless driver and more than that for the drunken one there are several hundred thousand graves in this coun try all constituting mute testimony to our past laxity the worst part of it no one knows when he himself will not fill one of those graves |