—MESSAGE continued...
I wish sometime you would have to go with me to ,t_he scene/of an accident*.
would like to make you stand, as. I've had to do, watch'the pitiful flopping .
of a Wan dying-in the barrow-pit, or help scrape the bits of bone and mangled flesh
of a'whole family;into'baskets at a,grade crossing*. ’
You’d vomit.as .1 have done# But you’d think different the next time you got be
hind the .wheel of an automobile* , •1 - i :• / ’’ i''i"
If some foreign power killed,and wounded as many of ^ur"citizens as our motorists
do each year*., you would be ready ltd take up arms arid fight to-atop litt And: yet a
great many who are responsible for this*terrible loss;of life-.and-limip and life
long suffering are individuals- like yourselffast",:J>fcltr?tt8afj&!* drivers . and-'r
”important"; people iri-'a big-hot .hurry, /.V7 •< ;;
You 'said the officer who gave you the ticket didn't argue with you but'that his
manner was insolent. ’The trouble with you is that you don't recognize sincerity
when you see it, .Our men are under orders not.to argue, but*to be.firm,‘fair and
impartial* I.doubt that he was insolent.,,especially since he didn't argue with
you. He was merely concerned...concerned with your safety and.the safety of the
hundreds of others on the highway. ; ' ' h 1. • •’
k You say you were driving safely? That's what the woman though a few short months
’ ago when she overturned on an icy s.trip on the highway not more than 500 yards
from the point at which you say the patlolman stopped you. ‘
If that patrolman had been there;and cautioned -that woman before she was. hit that
ice patch at 75 miles per hour, she would still be here, her children would have
the affection of their mother and a husband would have been spared unecessary grief
and cost. .■ ... ‘ . .
Maybe- she would have written a ltter df complaint, too, but I wouldn't have cared
It’s only-the dead.ones who donst complain.
Mad & gain? So was, the youngster down' on highway 160, He had some personal reasons
for being mad. "1*11 show you- how mad I can get, ” he told his companions. His
broken^ body-was picked up near the end of 'a- 500 foot skid mark. They found his
head bn the.prairie a hundred feet away.
It’s better to be alive than.madV or alive-and late than deadand still in a
hurry. That was the case When £he salesman a few months ago rounded a curve on
highway §7-85. He was on an important call,- but he never kept his appointment.We
^ picked; his.head off the pavement and •scraped his body together‘from beaneath his
automobile. Are-sales that-, important? You'll never collect the commission that way.
Neither .will your widow.• ,
The. trouble with so -many drivers is ;that they have dual personalities. Too often
a highly respected businessman, a gentleman in his profession and a social leader
in the community, becomes a dangerous egotist behind the wheel. The respect he
normally displays for his fellow-citizens, becomes submerged in a conviction of
superiority arising from his control of two -ion's of'steel and 150 or 200 horse
power • He blows his horn at .pedestrians or drivers who .threaten to'interfere
. with his, lordly progress, «' * • .*
r7hatever lane he chooses is hiS-.exclusive' property,-, and. sometimes he takes part
of. two lanes. He picks any sdeed that suits, his’fancy. He-is too big to be anything
..but contemptous of the traffic officer who questions his. driving ability. His fav-"
orite< retdrt isi 'Mfll haye,ydur job for,this copper." Maybe you're one of these
big shots and that's wjhat-’s. bothering you. -' r*i ...
Or maybe you*"rQ, one (of. the Milquetoasts...the meek-little guy who spends his life
taking orders from the boss but who boco^es.^ tyrant: when, he“'s driving. All he has
to do to get even with,the-world ::is sijcp on the gas. He has. as much right as any
one else and he will assert it even if- it. mdaris-killing himself or the other follow
'• (Continued-next'page) v:- ;