COMMUNICATIONS. "The Insolence of Office."

Philadelphia, Nov. 20.

Editor Horseless Age:

In the test of the regulation of the Fairmount Park Commission

much more is involved than the mere question of

whether or not the park or certain roads of the park shall be

closed to automobiles. The case before us is not one created

intentionally. It was quite accidental and the result of

inadvertence and insufficient knowledge of a rather vague regulation

on one part and on the other part undue, heedless,

indiscreet severity.

The real issue is to restrain the "insolence of office."

Our guards are vested with power necessarily, and by reason

of the very rare appeal from their actions, little by little

they lose the sense of fitness in the enforcement of rules.

More than this, there is involved a resistance to high-handed,

unauthorized, unlawful police violence against the public.

And still deeper there is a laying bare of the ill-considered,

crude legislation from which we suffer so much. The laws

drafted ordinarily, when thev are under fire, are shown up to be

vague, ambiguous and really unenforceable.

Respectfullv yours.

JULES JUNKER.

Temporary Inconvenience and Dangers

Among the recent legal decisions affecting

the rights of automobilists on the public

highways, is the clear and strong opinion

by Judge Sutherland of the Rochester

municipal court, of New York. The conclusions

of the judge, as stated in that

opinion, are undoubtedly good law, and

the breadth of view displayed in that

opinion has been a material aid to the

whole industry. The concluding remarks

In the opinion referred to are as follows:

"The temporary inconvenience and dangers

incident to the introduction of these

modern and practical modes of travel

upon the highway must be subordinate

to the larger and permanent benefits to

the general public resulting from the

adoption of the improvements which science

and inventive skill have perfected."

The Coast is Clear

With the exception of New York State, the coast is apparently

clear for the motor vehicle throughout the United

States. License laws and speed laws are being discussed and

will in some instances be enacted, but from the present outlook

the motor vehicle will not be burdened with adverse

legislation to any great extent, nor for any great length of

time. Speed laws are reasonable and necessary; license laws

are not with the probable exception of some classes of steam

vehicles which may have to be subjected to some kind of

supervision by the authorities.

In point of legal status, therefore, motor vehicle manufacturers

have little cause for complaint and it will be their

own fault if the coast does not remain clear for them.

Dead Letter Laws

As predicted by the editor of The Horseless Age, the park

authorities who have been so injudicious as to exclude motor

vehicles from their confines are offering but a feeble resistance

to violators of their ordinances. Having stirred up a

perfect hornets' nest of criticism from all sides, they are quite

content to save their official dignity by letting the matter

drop as quickly as it will. They had not counted on the popularity

of the motor vehicle, and to public; opinion, must all

publjc servants bow

Want All Motor Vehicles Licensed

The aldermen of Boston are wrestling with an ordinance to

compel the licensing of all motor vehicles. The ordinance introduced

reads as follows :

Nor shall any owner or driver of any vehicle drive it or permit it to be driven on the streets of Boston by power of steam, gas, gasolene, naphtha, compressed air, electricity or combination of any or all without a permit from the Board of Aldermen.

There is no shallow of justification for the licensing of motor

vehicles, unless all vehicles are to be licensed. The motor

vehicle is not a road destroyer like the horse, but a road

maker; it is safer and more manageable than a horse; it will

relieve the congestion of the streets and facilitate travel and

traffic in general. How, then, can it rightly be subject to

restrictions from which horse vehicles are exempt?

This matter was quite fully discussed in our issue of April

11, and it is safe to say now, as was said then, that any such

general ordinance as that cited above would quickly become a

dead letter if the lawmakers are foolish enough to pass it.