MOTORING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 34, 25 September 1911, Page 6

MOTORING.

SOME OLD WORLD TROUBLES.

A writer in a Home paper duals sadly with some phases of motoring in the big cities of England and America. Ho says:—lf it wore possible to ascertain and compare the average ages of the paid chauffeurs in different countries it is just possible that the figures would shod some light on questions •in which the chauffeur’s personality is a factor. Many of the wilful ways that have rightly been made special legal misdemeanours under motoring legislation have no more awful foundation than the common instincts of youth. Speed-making, joyriding, surreptitious smoking, and so on are, only evils in their special effects. The -actions themselves arc just precocious and juvenile, and it is in America, where great horde's- of comparative youngsters arc turned out by the schools as qualified chauffeurs, that this wild spirit is most in evidence.

It is true that everywhere there arc characters that remain mischievous in

a juvenile way until they become suddenly elderly and innocuous, but the chauffeur is surely not an exception to the general rule that age and wisdom commonly go together. Whether that fully accounts for the grievances which New York has against him can only bo settled by statistics which are not', available, but a reading of some recent proceedings of the Municipal Explosives Commission leaves tin impression that to garage proprietors he is I’enfant terrible, with that character's pat and wilful ans\yer to all admonition. Several quite important clauses of the new garage regulations wore discussed at this public sitting of the Commission, and the evidence of persons likely to be effected was vehement enough but it was only when the, conduct of chauffeurs was cited

that there was spontaneous and unanimous indignation. The statements

which followed from various witnesses and commissioners were interesting as showing how the precocious chauffeurs appear to have humbugged the garage-keepers to a- standstill in a way that quite dwarfs our small complaints against the occasional tyranny of chauffeurs here. “These men,” said cx-Congressman William Willett, jun., “threaten that they will take cars away from the garage the moment anyone attempts to enforce the rules,” and he went on to call them “the most impossible crowd on earth, thugs, thieves, and burglars.” They hide in cov-

erod-bodied cars and under open-bod-isd cars and smoke to their hearts’

delight. The wonder is that they trouble to hide. They taka their mastars’ cars out for joy rides any night

when it suits them, and more serious, for it cannot be put down to sheer

juvenility, they do a pretty good thing

for themselves by “graft.” All in the way of graft is the chauffeur’s stock

threat, “I’ll take my car opt of,.hero” ;

and ho does .if the proprietor doesn’t make it worth his while to stay, either by grant of privilege or commission. It has gone so far without any real resistance that even the inherent liu-

meur of “my” car is lost sight of

The key to the situation is supplied in Mr Willett’s remark that one ar-

rest and prosecution for smoking in a garage would solve the whole trouble, and one might add that, if made

in time, it would quit© possibly have removed the necessity of having these new garage laws, .under which the ga-rage-keepers will surely have to pay for the chauffeurs’ wilfulness. Evidently there has not yet been any prosecution for smoking, and still less any complaint to owners that chauffeurs were joy-riding, stealing oil and petrol, and grafting generally. Probably it is the knowledge that, there is graft to 1)0 done in comparative safety that accounts for the great number of very young men of an undesirable class going through the schools, and willing, when “qualified,” to accept a very moderate wage. The garage-keeper knows the chauffeur as the owner has no chance to, and his misfortunes are largely duo to his own mistake in keeping this knowledge from the person most concerned and without whose money the garage would have to shut. The servant has made himself the master with his threat to take “my” car away. But the murder is now out. THE JUSTICE MILL. Another recent case of imposition in America is of too rare a kind, one hopes, to claim much more than local attention except for the element of humour in it. Mr Justice Fred Beiswaugh, of Niles, Illinois, has long been known among motorists as “the terror of the Milwaukee road.” He levies fines so wildly that the attention of the State Attorney was drawn to him, and his*methods of administering justice were watched. Apparently his refusal to deliver up the records of the proceedings in a certain case when a change of venue was obtained by the defendant led to the discovery. that the charges against this motorist were really—as it is alleged—bogus charges. Further, the Justice is alleged to have hold “court” in a drink- ■, ing saloon, arresting and trying each passing motorist on some trumped-up charge or another, lining them heavily, and neglecting to render an account of the proceedings—and the proceeds. This kind of pleasantry has been heard of before in America, and is known as a “justice mill.” At this distance we may let. it go as a piece of somewhat rueful comedy whose exact importance to us is that it offers some consolation to all English motorists who have been compelled to contribute to tiie exchequer of the country through the till of the local Magistrate. They are at least, sure that their contributions do reach the exchequer. THE ROAD PROBLEM. The current issue of “The Motor” contains, as a supplement, a valuable article on the road problem by Sir John H. A. Macdonald. Although it is an accepted truism among mote-

ists that the word motor car is syn- 1 ominous with rapid change and development, the number of ■ motorists who got out of touch with the'changing times and changing news by neglecting to read journals demoted to their interests must Ibe fairly great. The common plea is that one head really is not big enough to take an interest in the many inventions that come with each week. That is true enough, and it is exasperating to absorb fact after fact each interesting in itself hut leading no nearer to an organised knowledge. On the other hand there are the text hooks, but they are not very livening, and the motoring notes 'of the daily papers, but they are necessarily not at all ample. Articles like this of Sir John Macdonald ejealing comprehensively and rapidly with an important subject should bo welcomed even by motorists who ordinarily read very little and want to read what it is profitable to remember.