Evening Star Newspaper, June 15, 1930, Page 66

LAW KNOWLEDGE MOTORISTS' BOON Safety and Pleasure Assured by Understanding, Says KA R“Tps.” Citing important provisions of motor ‘vehicle laws with which the Nation's ng caravan should be familiar, the American Automobile Association de- clared in a statement that knowl- edge of them is “of paramount impor- tance from the standpoint of safety and the pleasure of the tour.” Published under the captain “Tips for Tourists,” the A. A. A. summary was W in co-operation with the Al- Russell Erskine bureau of street traffic research at Harvard University. “No car owner” said Thomas P. Henry, president of the A. A. A., “can be expected to know every provision in our welter of motor vehicle laws, but every touring motorist should be fa- miliar with important requirements, such as those covering accidents, regis- tration, speed limits, right of way, over- on hills, passing street cars, dimming of headlights, use of spotlights and stopping at grade crossings.” The A. A. A. summary follows: “The hit-and-run driver who fails %o stop when involved in an accident is| an outlaw everywhere. In every State, whether the accident results in per-| sonal infury or property damage alone, | the driver is required to give his name and other infornation to the driver or occupants of the other car. In the| majority of States a formal report °‘L an accident involving personal injury must be filed with the proper official. THE ,SUNDAY Siaxt, WV ALl U LU, L, O U asis Lo, LUoU—4 Laavd 1Luy . AMERICAN HISTORY BY MOTOR— End and the Beginning of Two Military Careers Washington, Pa. . e g R Coasting down grade in neutral is an- other practice severely dealt with under the laws of 23 States. In 28 States the passing of a street car on the left is strictly prohibited. And the passing of a street car discharging or taking on | passengers also is frowned on, with the result that even where safety zones are established the motorist must exercise| the utmost caution. | Avoiding of Difficulties. | “As regards registration, it can be #ald that in general a motorist who has| complied with the registration and driver's license laws of his own State | will have few difficulties. This applies even to the visitor in those States that require an operator’s license from their own residents. In one of these, namely, Maine, a visitor from a State that does not have a driver’s iicense law must secure & license. A visitor in Maryland ean drive a car registered in Maryland only on condition that he has a license a State that requires an actual demonstration of ability to drive. “While all States grant the visitor the privilege of driving without additional Tegistration for varying periods of time, 10 States require visitors to secure a temporary registration in from 24 hours to 10 days. Colorado and Oregon re- quire immediate registration with the secretary of state or his agents. Wash- ington requires registration within 24 hours. Seven days is the limit in Mon- tana; 10 in Arizona. California, Minne- sota, Nevada, North Carolina and Utah. As a rule there is no charge. “Speed limits vary all the way from 80 miles an hour in Utah to the 20- mile prima facie limit in Massachusetts. Twelve States — namely, Connecticut, Filorida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Tennessee, Vermont, ‘Wisconsin and Wyoming—have discard- ed the fixed speed limit and stipulate a rate of speed that is ‘reasonable and Ehat perthite stopping. withia the tiear t clear distance ahead.’ “As regards right of way, in general ‘wehicles from the right have y. I . however, gives the right of way to cars on State high- ways. Overtaking Prohibited. “Overtaking on hills or curves where view is obstructed is specifically pro- “Ten States—namely, Alabama, Dela ware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louis iana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsyl- vania and Tennessee—require a full stop before crossing railroad tracks at grade, while seven additional States require a full stop at grade crossings where special stops are erected. “Parking on the main traveled por- tion of the highway is a violation of the State code in the majority of cases, while in States where such parking is not definitely prohibited it is required that 15 feet of roadway be left clear. “As regards lighting, the law of 14 States—namely, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, ©Ohio and Oregon—require that lights be dimmed when passing approaching ve- hicles. Oregan requires dimming of lights on wet pavements. Spotlights are prohibited in North Carolina, Okla- homa and Wisconsin and in the cities of Missouri. “Twenty-one States and the District of Columbia ban windshield stickers, except such as are required to show brake inspections, and so forth. “Seven States—namely, Arizona, Cali- fornia, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and South Dakota—have & law against throwing of lighted matches, cigars or cigarettes from cars.” SPARK PLUG. IMPORTANT Responsible for Many Faults of Auto Engines. More depends upon the use of the spark plug than many motorists im- agine. Erratic running, loss of power, oiling up, sooting up and premature firing can all be often attributed to plugs. ‘When new spark plugs are installed, hibited in 33 States and the District of | recommendation charts, which are in Columbia. In many States no other prompt every service station and garage, should be followed strictly, in the interest of sct of carelessness brings action from more State high police. maximum spark: performance. —Ig oadsi‘d? monument 7 located 10 miles east of Union- town, Pa.,marks where Lieut. (ol. George Washington at the age of > fa tanj“gnc hour baas{tle at the of 400 untrained men a&ainst 900 French regulars and 22, f r Indian allies. = runs like a LY render. enemy fire with a grimness -that forefold. other: begin twenhy-two years later. This is the scene of his firstand last sur— (Title registered U. & Patent Offcs) i —BY JAMES W. BROOKS. AT prophetic thread in early American hi; Tn that month and on that day in 1754, and at this‘place Meadows— George Washingf on, then scarcely out of his ©Aveaican Hisuwar Ecucationas Burrau grim duties that weré to (Sketches by Calvin A. Fader.) xls story.. —Qreat boyhood,, faced the ACING the OId 1 near Uniontown Pa. which marks the burial place of General weeks before had ignored the ad- “vice of the youthful Washington. - And to this youth fell the duty of reading the bus this tabled Braddock, who but a few rial service. “Old Dobbin” is gradually passing from the plcture on the Nation's farms, and with nearly one-fourth of the motor vehicles of the country owned y farmers, rural life is now thoroughliy “motorized,” according to the District of Columbia division of the American | Automobile Assoctation. The A. A. A. division pointed out that while the number of motor vehicles on farms has increased 1,345,- 018 within the past five years, the num- ber of horses has decreased 3,044,000. A total of 5677,500 motor vehicles are now farm owned, of which 4,910,300 are passenger cars, 767,200 are trucks, and in addition there are a total of 846,162 tractors. “Motorizing of rural life,” says the statement, “has brought the farmer in closer touch with civic affairs and given him a freedom undreamed of a quarter “Old Dobbin™ Is Passing As Farms Of Nation Are Becoming “Motorized™ | of a century ago. Efficlent motoring | services are now provided in the rural areas through branches of motor clubs and the farmer now joins the annual | caravan of motor vacationists and | learns of efficiency in farm operation | in various sections of the country. | ‘Texas leads in farm-owned motor | vehicles, with Ohio second, INinois | third and Iowa fourth.” The A. A. A. declared that the use of the automobile on the farm has had an important effect on the politi- | cal life of the Nation. “The farmer is no longer content to consider national and local affairs | from the standpoint of others,” the statement continued, “but gets in_ the | car and rides 50 or 100 miles to hear | | candidates for office discuss the issues | in which he is interested, and then | ! makes his own decision.” | 14 KILLED DURING WEEK IN MARYLAND CRASHES Speeders and Road Hogs Blamed for High Toll by Vehicle Commissioner. Special Dispatch to The Star. BALTIMORE, June 14. — Speeding and failure to keep to one's own side of the highway are the main causes of the soaring automobile accident toll in Maryland, which last week reached a peak of 14 deaths, according to E. Austin Baughman, motor vehicle com- ‘missioner. “Speed, coupled with careless disre- gard of even the fundamental require- ments of safe driving is, in my opinion, responsible for the mounting number of fatal automobile accidents,” he sald. “Disregard of the requirement to stay on one’s own side of the highway is another, and probably one of the commonest causes of accidents, so many of which result in deaths.” o Investment in filling stations, $650,~ 000,000. Hundreds of thousands of men and women 3 |AUTOS CROWD CAMEWS IN THE AFRICAN SUDAN| - | Motors in Competition Also With | the Nile as Medium of | Transportation. BERLIN (#).—Automobiles in the | African Sudan are competing with the | camel and the Nile as means of trans- | portation, according to the overseas | periodical Uebersee and Kolonial- Zzeitung. ; _ Motor cars, thanks to improved roads | over long distances, have penetrated far | inland, even beyond the Sudan and the Belgian Kongo. As late as 1926 there were only 819 motors and motor trucks in the whole of Budan, whereas there were 2,128 two years later. | . Automobile roads laid out during the | last two years connect in the east with |the new railway at its junction in | Kasala and continue from there south- ward into Abyssinia. Here other new roads connect with the traffic on the Sudanese Nile. p— Owners of cars pay about 90 per cent of al ation, RECORD-BREAKING CAR IMPROVED - AND LOWER IN PRICE.. To improve the fimmous De Soto Six that broke all salles records for a first-year car—and continued without change for 22 months—is in itself a great feat of engineering. To offer this better car at a lower price is a master stroke of manufacturing and merchandising. § The NEW LOWER PRICES v AUTO INDUSTRY éEEN ‘Popularity of Open and Closed Cars Reversed, “Open Air” Type Losing Out ON PAYING BASIS May Output Expected to Show Little Gain Over April, but Manufacturers Satisfied. DETROIT, Mich, June 15.—With' total May output expected to show lit- | tle if any gain over that of April, cur- rent operations continue on the same conservative basis as have been in ef- fect for nearly 90 days, according to B. H. Cram, industry authority. Production for this week is 27 per cent below that for the corresponding period of a year ago and 12.8 per cent under that for the corresponding week in 1928. It is highly doubtful if out- put will show any further gain ovef | present levels for the remainder of | June, and the probability that the current output represents the season’s | peak is being reconfirmed each week | as manufacturers continue to be satis- fied with the cautious policy that they have so strictly adhered to since the first of the year. Retail sales show only a very slight tendency to decline and are for all practical purposes on a par with those of the past four or fve weeks. Low- | priced cars, as in the past, continue most active, and in this group the sales volume is not far from normal for sev- eral producers, The medium-priced group is by far the weakest and wil] probably show little improvement, al- though used car stocks are on the in- crease. New car stocks are about nor- mal and are not changing to any out- standing degree, | steadily lost ground. How the riding habits of the Nation have changed in 10 years is shown by the reversal of popularity as between open and closed cars. Amos 'n’ Andy to the contrary notwithstanding, the “fresh-alr” type of automobile has In 1919, accord- ing to statistics In Facts and Figures of the Automobile Industry, a publi- cation recently issued by the National Automobile Ohamber of Commerce, only 10 per cent of the passenger cars | produced were closed types, while in 1929 all but 10 per cent were closed. In a sense this is a triumph of utility over beauty for, while all cars have steadily grown better looking, 1t is generally conceded to be impossible to put as much grace of line into closed car bodies as into the open types. That still holds true, for the latest open jobs are the smartest that have ever been seen on the highways. As between the two contenders in the open class, the touring type has gener- ally been preferred to the roadster type, but in 1928 they reached an equal foot- ing, each representing 5'; per cent of the total production. In 1929, however, the roadster forged ahead, for 7 per cent of the cars produced were in that type and 4 per cent touring. The coupe has gained some ground. but that happens to have been just about what the open car has lost, for all other types of closed cars have held pretty close to two-thirds of the produc- tion during the past three years. Among these the 4-door sedan is the outstanding favorite. The 2-door sedan comes next and for the past two years has represented just slightly more than & quarter of the production. While figures are not available to | show the extent of it, increased interest is evident in the convertible types of bodies combining the advantages of both open and closed cars, which sug- gests that the competition between the | two older types may end in a compro- mise. TIRE-MAKING DIFFICULT. Many Ingredients Besides Rubber Are Used by Manufacturers. Many persons are inclined to believe that an automobile tire is just so much rubber thrown into some sort of a mold and with a little cotton mixed in some- where or other. On the contrary, numerous raw materials are employed |In the manufacture of the modern au- | tomobile tire. Automobile tires contain such ele- ments as rubber, cotton, carbon black, zinc oxide, sulphur and various essen- tial ofls. To see that these ingredients are properly mixed and handled in such & way that they are not too dry, too sticky, too stiff or too limber, it is necessary to maintain a mill room lab- oratory and a staff of trained tech- niclans. These facts may serve to acquaint the automobile owner with some of the reasons why his tires today give him such tremendous mileage as compared with the mileage obtained several years 880, One of every eight men in mechani- cal and manufacturing industries is em- ployed in the manufacture of cars. | cated. | within one year and without increase |in taxes KENT GOUNTY MD., - BUILDS GOOD ROADS Rural Community Takes Ad- vantage of State Tax Refund Plan, How a small rural community may make the most of its highway funds is admirably illustrated by Kent County, Md., where recently 51 miles of single- track, hard-surfaced roads were dedi- These pavements were bullt Kent County claims that it has solved its road problem:; and any one who has journeyed through the fertile Del-Mar-Va country knows that the mud and dust there made it a real problem. The solution of the road prob- lem is all the more remarkable because of Kent County's small population of 20,000, Kent County crammed a 15-year road job into one year. At first it seemed that this would be a gigantic task, one beyond the ability of the little com- munity. But, strangely, the only effort involved on the part of taxpayers, aside from arduous planning and educational work on the part of the Kent County Chamber of Commerce, was marking an X on a ballot. Taxpayers won't even be required to pay & cent of additional taxes for the pavements, except that they will do more traveling and, conse- quently, their contribution to the State gasoline tax fund will be somewhat en- larged. At first glance this seems like a bit of Utopia, but in reality it's nothing more than common-sense financing. In | Maryland, as in most States, a portion | of the gasoline tax money is refunded | to counties by the State. Kent County simply capitalized on this assured in- come and issued $900,000 in road bonds for pavements. The pavements were then laid, under supervision of the State highway department. These 51 miles of roads are now to be mam- tained by the State, for they are per- manently surfaced in_accordance with State specifications. In Maryland, as in several other States, the State high- way department maintains all main county roads that have been properly improved. In effect, Kent County has shortened its road problem by 51 miles. Narrow pavements, according to road records, are gaining in popularity throughout the country, with something | ltke 3,000 miles in service. They are | held economical and completely satis- | factory where traffic is light, finances | limited and year-round travel desirable. Gov. Albert C. Ritchie of Maryland declared at the dedication, “This is a | historic occasion, in that Kent County is pointing the way, as a pioneer, in the solution of the local road Eoblom Distributors Stromberg Carburetors Creel Brothers 1811 14th St. N.W, Decatur 4220 CAN DEPEND Roadster, $810; Phaeton, $830; Busi- ness Coupe, $830; De Luxe Coupe, $860; Four-Door Sedan, $875; Convertible Coupe, $945. All prices {. 0. b. factory. performance requisites add the zest and tang that make motor- ing a really pleasurable ex- perience rather than an everyday affair. But even such highly important factors donotoutweightheincomparable qualities of long life and dependability. For, in the final analysis, it is these splendid charac~ teristics which determine value, economy, and permanent satiéfaction. Come take the wheel of an Oldsmobile. Enjoy its thrilling all-round performance yourself. You'll find that it is a beautiful car—a great car to drive. And it's a great car to own, because you can always depend on it, wherever and whenever you drive. finer De Soto Six has, in addition to a bigger and more powerful engine, a new Steelweld Body—a defmite step ahead in modern body construction that provides a greater measure of silence, strength and safety. § By improving a record-breaking car and at the same time lowering the price, De Soto today breaks all six-eylinder records in value. THE FINER COMPANION DISTRICT MOTOR COMPANY (INCORPORATED) 1337 14th St. N.W. Potomac e 1000 Garner Motor Co. Roney Motor Co. Macks Service \ Leonardtown, Md. Frederick, Md. Hyattsville, Md. tell you that dependability through the months and miles is one of the outstanding qualities of this fine car of low price. Naturally, owners admire Oldsmobile’s appearance. For Fisher bodies are quite as famous for their exceptional beauty and style as they are for fine craftsmanship and sturdy, enduring construction. Naturally, they enjoy the supreme com- fort Oldsmobile provides. For wide, deep seat cushions; long, flexible springs; four Lovejoy hydraulic shock absorbers; and properly balanced weight not only make Oldsmobile restful to ride in on rough, bumpy roads, but give it unusual stability and roadability on smooth, level highways. Naturally, owners enthuse a great deal over the brilliant speed, power, and accel- - uv-d‘::"_' eration Oldsmobile delivers. _For these g OLDSMOBILE PRODUUECT OF GENERAL MOTORS Northeast Oldsmobile Pohanka Service ~Wisconsin Motor Co. Simmons Motor Co. Sales & Service N 64 H Street N.E. 1126 20th Street N.W. 726 17th Street N.W, 1515 14th St. N.W. Telephone Metropolitan 5260 Telephone Decatur 0206 Telephone Metropolitan 4314 Phone Pot. 014§ Chevy Chase Motors Woodson Motor Co. J. B. Monroe 6701 Wise. Ave., Chevy Silver Spring, Md. Waldorf, Md. Chase, NV Phone Silver Spring 255 Brandywine 10-F.4 WITH THESE FEATURES Chrysler-designed, high-compression engine, using any grade gasoline. Iso-therm ventilated bridge-type pistons, with piston rings of tongue and groove construction. Internal four-wheel hydraulic brakes, with squeakless, moulded brake lining. Full-pressure lubrication—rubber insuls- tion of emgine— counterweighted crank- ahaft —camshaft driven by silent chain— thermostatic heat control — chromium- piated lamps — fuel pump — fuel filter ~—uir cleaner. Steelweld Body—no joints—utmost solid- ity—a distinct advance in body silence, strength and safety. v CHRYSLER MOTORS PRODPUCT Copyrighi 1930 by Do Sote Moter Corporstion TWO-DOOR SEDAN e estra Consider the Delivered Price well s the Kot price when see 814 EIGHT NATIONAL AUTO SALES CO. O. R. Blanton, Prop. 33 New York Ave. N.E. Metropolitan 9225 W. E. Moncure Quantico, Va. < LOWEST-PRICED L. W. White Norbeck, Md. Moreland Motor Co. Waldorf, Md. YMOUT CANS 1N S WoRID : |