A FIGHTER STILL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 194, 15 August 1936, Page 4

A FIGHTER STILL

I GENE TUNNEY UP AGAINST A MOTOR RACKET A small car eased noiselessly on to the main highway from a trunk road in Woodbury, Connecticut, one day recently, half negotiating a right turn without stopping, reports an American paper. There was no traffic light, but, set back from the roadway, unobserved by the driver, stood a “Stop” sign. Piped to an abrupt halt by the shrill blast of a whistle, the driver poked him chubby, round head out at a rural constable walking toward him. “You’re under arrest for rounding that turn without stopping,” the constable snapped. “I know it’s tough, but I gotta give you a ticket. What’s the name?” “James J. Tunney,” the indignant motorist responded. “Major Tunney?” the country policem’an gasped. “Well, I guess we can forget this.” “Not by a darned sight!” said the former heavyweight champion. “This is a cheap speed trap, and we’re going to see about it.” Because Gene Tunney has been an active crusader in the Connecticut Motor Vehicle Commission’s campaign against reckless driving, in addition to being a member of the New England Society, which seeks to stimulate travel, New York newspaper sent staff correspondents north to interview him. “It’s an old game,” he told a NewYork Herald-Tribune man. “It’s the old Army game. A rural constable stands at some obscure crossing and gives tickets by the score for the most trivial violations. He has witnesses with him, and at the end of the day the witnesses, the constable and the iustice of the peace divide up the fines. “I understand the racket, exists in at least two small towns in the State, and I am going through with the case in an attempt to eliminate this foul thing.”