Evening Star Newspaper, January 4, 1937, Page 6

A—6 w»# TRAFFIC THIS YEAR DOOMS THOUSANDS 87,000 Deaths Yearly Higher 3 Than Fatality Rate in World War. What progress has been . the last year in combating * tomobile trafic menace through- out the country? What silill needs to be done? How are sopne cities and States, through en ineering, " law enforcement and efucation, reducing the slaughter pn their streets and highways!| The _ answers to these and other ques- tions are contained in a |series of articles, of which this is fhe first, written by an experiencdd news- ._paper man who visited ¢ mnnb;r of cities to make a compyehensive survey. | made in the au- BY BLAIR MOODY. @pecial Dispatch to The Star. DETROIT, January 4 (NANA) — Thousands of children wijl be killed in the Nation's streets in [this bright new year of 1937; thauslnrh more of mothers and fathers— be irjured nd Multitudes will maimed— The whole course of liv homes will be wrenched ened; it will be a traged, national tragedy- And all the greater tragedy because most of it could be preverjted! If the United States were suddenly plunged into war, shock and horror would sweep the country, pecause war ‘would mean sending thousands of young men to their defths—waste- ps, families, | and dark- , & major THE EVENING Man Blown Through Window 4 ESCAPE DEATH IN STATION BLAST One Badly Burned—Employe " Blown 15 Feet Through Window in Explosion. Four men, one of whom was blown 15 feet through a large window, nar- rowly escaped possible death or serious injury yesterday when an explosion rocked a filling station and tire and |- battery shop at 4601 Fourteenth street. Velmer Green, 32, of 3356 M street, an attendant, was catapulted through the window, but picked himself up on the concrete outside in time to extin- guish flames on the clothing of John T. Williams, 40, of 1312 Gallatin street, and rush him to Garfleld Hospital. Williams, another attendant, was in the basement, where the explosion oc- curred. With his clothing in flames he ran up the basement steps and out the front door. Green seized him and rolled him in the mud along the filling station driveway until the fire in his clothing was put out. Broke All Windows. The blast broke wlmost every win- dow in the filling station and several in nearby homes and temporarily dis- rupted telephone communication in the vicinity. The first floor, of con- crete construction, was broken up. ‘The fire that followed was put out by No. 22 Engine Company. Williams received severe burns and cuts about the body. His condition was described today at Garfleld as " Robbed BOY, 9, IS VICTIM OF COLORED YOUTHS, ROBERT PAYNE, 9-year-old pupil of the 4-A grade at the Thomson School, who was robbed of 20 cents yesterday by a band of five colored boys near Ninth and F streets. Robert said the ages of the “bandits” ranged be- tween 7 and 11. Robert has decided there is nothing to do but just cut down on the candy and sodas until he can raise his financial status again. —Star Staff Photo. the damage. The building was not covered by insurance. The structure was in flames when firemen arrived; according to Lieut. H. STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C; MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1937. T. Davis of No. 32 Engine Company. He believed the explosion was caused by a spark from an air compression motor that igpited gasoline fumes in the basement. The fire was extin- guished quickly. Two 150-gallon storage tanks under the basement floor were not damaged. Green was standing near the large front window when the explosion oc- curred. I felt the floor raise up,” he said. “It pitched me right out through the piate glass window.” “When I got up and looked inside I saw the place was on fire,” Green continued. “Mr. Williams came out the front door, his body blazing, and I rolled him over in the mud to put his clothes out. Then I rushed him to the hospital in my car. After an X-ray had been made of my injured arm I returned to the station.” Green was back at work today, help- ing Rode appraise and repair the damage. Flying glass from one of the windows struck Raleigh Black, 24, attendant at s flling station across the street, on the leg while he was changing a tire. —— LECTURE MED . ‘_l‘he lecture by Rockwell Kent at Trinity College this afternoon has been canceled, it was announced by the school today. The artist was to have | spoken at 4:30 o'clock. Miss Mary Ellen Chase, author, of the Smith College English department will be speaker on the program Janu- ary 12, DENTHOF HIGNS TERNED SUIDE Internal Revenue Bureau Section Chief Victim of Monoxide Gas. A certificate of suicide has been is- sued in the case of James W. Higgins, jr., 43, Internal Revenue Bureau sec- tion chief, and former member of the Maryland House of Delegates, who was found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage behind his home at 537 Quintana place late Sat- urday night. Higgins’ body was found on the front seat of his car by a maid. The engine was runnihg and the doors of the garage were closed, police said. An unfinished note, written by Hig- gins in the garage, was turned over to the homicide squad. Other than to say it was “personal” and directed the disposal of Higgins' effects, police would not reveal its contents. Higgins was head of the assessment and processing section of the Internal Revenue Bureau's Tax Division. He formerly was a member of the Ine telligence Division staff at the bureau. Born in Chaney, Md., he was «t- tending Princeton University when the United States entered the World ;v'nr.cofle enlisted in the Army Avia- lon Corps and serve e structor. pileda D Higgins was elected to the House of Delegates from Calvert County after ;,hr? war. 1-:; ;v:s a member of the nce Frederick (Md. i ) American Surviving are his widow, Mrs. Marie Riordon Higgins; a son, James A, Higgins, 2d; his father, James W. Higgins, sr., of Chaney, Md., and two sisters, Mrs. Louise H. Williams, of Bristol, Md., and Mrs. Robert W. Cook, of Annapolis, Funeral services will be held at the residence tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery with military honors. FINE SHOES 6 8% 09 FORMERLY PRICED UP 1O 18%¢ Velmer Green, 32 (left), filing station attendant, is pic- tured here as he showed his employer, Joseph Rode, 40, how he escaped death yesterday when' an explosion rocked the station at 4601 Fourteenth street. Green is pointing to the window, through which he was blown by the blast. The window is now boarded up. At their feet is the concrete flooring where Green was standing when the explosion occurred. The floor was torn up in several places. L John T. Williams, 40 (inset), was severely burned. Green “fairly good” after a quiet night. Green suffered a wrenched shoulder. Two other men escaped injury. They were Milton Rode, 21, cf 302 BEmerson street, son of Joseph Rode, 40, owner of the fllling station, and Floyd W. Harrison, 28, of 112 Twenty- fourth street, -attendant in a gasoline station across the street. Rode was unable to determine the All shoes from regular stock. For all occasions...North or South. All sales final. No returns, no exchanges, no C.0.D.’s JJ SLATER 1215 CONNECTICUT AVENUE In New York: 415 Fifth Avenuve @ 575 Madison Avenue fully. Yet an army of young men—and old men, women and ‘:;E:dren—wm go to their deaths this ye in traffic because proved methods jof reducing accidents have not been dopted na- tionally—are still hiding their lights under local bushels. In the next 18 monthd, unless the present trend is sharply cfiecked, more SALESMAN To represent us in D. C. Must have car, and be acquainted with the dry goods stores. Real opportunity for the right man. KIDDIE KLOTHES KO. Baltimore, Md. the nostrils.It quickly relieves stuffiness and restores comfort. people will be killed in [traffic than died fighting for Uncle [Sam in the ‘World War. reports the number Kkilld and dead of wounds in|the war at 50,510. The toll of trafif fatalities is at the approximate level of 37,000 8 year 323,016 Dead in 10|Years. In the last 10 years lhE:hlve been d in action killed in traffic 323.016 persons, more than the 244357 who d country in all of our W) Revolutionary War_on. Almost exactly 100 cftizens perish in traffic each day—a litjle more than four an hour—one every 15 minutes. In one wild Christmas|eve carnage, 10 people were killed in ? single night on the streets of Detroit(alone. Property loss from ac¢idents in the Jast year is estimated by| the National Bafety Council at $1,600/000,000. The factory cost of all new | sold in 1936 is estimatd by the in- dustry at $1,840,000,000. Is all this inevitable? automobiles irresponsibld kiilers? Are pedestriany for their rs from the |Are drivers of (16,150 were killed in 1935, 44 per cerjt of the total) | unprotectable nitwits? Obviously not. Yet i to say that nearly as| many people were killed by accidints in their homes (more than 31,000 in 1935). For experience has proved beyond doubt that when & comnjunity becomes aroused at needless killing on its streets, when drivers | are properly educated and pedestriars properly in- structed, when moderE engineering is no answer methods are followed and particularly | when politics is eliminated so that enforcement can be intelligent and made to stick—deaths land accidents are reduced amazingly. | Milwaukee Raie Low. If Detroit, for ejample, could achieve the success of Milwaukee— where fatalities were 11 per 100,000 in traffic last year, as rompared with Detroit’s 18.3—fatal afcidents would be cut over 40 per cerjt in Detroit. Evanston, Ill, by e lightened en- forcement and compon-sense en- gineering, cut its deatlj rate in a few years from 28 to 2.9—( nly two deaths last year. { Milwaukee has reduced deaths 32 per cent since 1932 to an average of 11 per 100,000, For the/first 10 months of 1936 the rate in New York City was only 104. This result was ob- tained merely by givilg the problem | modern | attention methods. Providence, R. I, kul deaths 43 per cent during the fpur-year period of 1932-35 to a rate of 7.8, by two devices—first, abolition of ticket fix- ing and a South law—revoking li- eenses; second, mmj engineering. Syracuse, N. Y., serjt for the “Na- tion’s No. 1 traffic dop.” Frank M. XKreml, from Evanstorj. Kreml's sys- tem reduced Syracuse deaths from 23 in 1934 to 17 in 19%5—a death rate of 7.9, which won éfir Syracuse the juncil's annual National Safety award. Superior, Wis., chany by a per- sistent program of |education, cut deaths in a year from|11 to 3; its rate to 8.3 per 100,000. And the little town of Swissvale, Pa., with 16,900 people and an intelligent saf¢ty program, has had only one traffic| death in four and instglling | Highway. ghways 27,000,- ys to 10 years rs; 127,000,000 miles of high- ars. 27,000,000 Cars There are on the b 000 cars, from & few old; 40,000,000 drivi pedestrians; 3,000,000 way to be made safe/ of which 1,00,- 000 miles are surfaged. There are too many 30-mile-anthour drivers in 80-mile cars on 20-m,Ele roads. What is being doje to solve this + problem? There is no 6ne answer. But for some years practical experts have been finding a vFrmy of answers for a variety of congitions that con- tragedy. These undreds of lives. usands every tribute to traffic answers have saved They could save The War | Department | assenger CArs | , irrepressible | put out the fire on his clothing and rushed him to the hospital. cause of the explosion or to estimate Gives COMFORT Daily University & police officers’ train- ing school, headed by Lieut Kreml, ‘whfl'c cities send officers to leamn latest enforcement methods and—| | methods that work. It slso is send-| ing Kreml and’ his assistants into| | other cities, like Syracuse, Cincinnati end Louisville, to install these methods. | The industry is backing the Inter- national Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Association of Motor | Vehicle Administrators in promoting proper enforcement and uniform laws. It has roused greal interest among i the National Congress of Parents and Teachers with 1,200,000 members and | 26,000 local clubs; the general Federa- | tion of Women's Clubs, with 2,000.0C0 | { members and 16,000 clubs, and the | | American Legion, with membership | | of 1,000,000 former soldiers. May Become New Crusade. The driving force now under way,| | 1t it catches the public imagination, | will sweep the country like & new cru- | | sade. | The year just closed was the nation’s worst from the standpoint of traffic| fatalities, But the estimated tota! of 37500 deaths for 1936 exceeds | the 1935 figure by only 500, or about | 1 per cent. | Gasoline consumption. according to ! R. L. Forney, National Safety Council expert, rose 10 per cent. In other | words, if the rate of auto deaths had kept pace with the increased use of | | cars—and in previous years they did— 3700 citizens now alive would have been killed. On that basis it would seem that the new safety program, with a flow of gold being poured into its veins. is beginning to have its effect. The/ trend is being reversed. | (Copyright, 1937, by the North American Newspaper Alliance Inc.) MRS. R. P. WILLIAMS DIES IN ILLINOIS _— | Wife of Meteorologist at Langley Field Stricken While ‘ on Visit. Mrs. Elizabeth Conroy Williams, | wife of Capt. Randolph P, Wiliams, | meteorologist of the General Head-| quarters Air Force at Langley Field, Va., died Saturday at Belleville, T, | the War Department announced today. | Mrs. Williams had been called to | Ilinois by the death of her father, | Dr J. K. Conroy, and while there was | stricken with a sudden illness. She had been at Langley Field for about two years. She was educated at Ward | Belmont College, Nashville, Tenn., and | at Washington University, St. Louis. | Prior to her marriage she was & prac- | ticing dentist in the office of her | father at Belleville. Surving are her husband and s 2-year-old son, Thomas Williams. Capt. Williams is widely known as the meteorologist of the famous strato- sphere flight of Maj. Stephens and Maj. Anderson near Rapid City, S. Dak. Burial will be in Arlington National | Cemetery at & time to be announced later. | ADVERTISEMENT. [Now You Can Wear FALSE TEETH With Real Comfort | | __PASTEETH, & new, pleasant powder, | keeps teeth ‘firmly set. dorizes. No gummy. gooey. pasty taste or feel- | ing. To eat and lsugh in comfort just | sprinkle a lttie P H_on your B s oay atiPeaples and | Build Modern Walls and Ceilings With e FINER HOTGf?oiz' THE CAPITOL PLAZA FORMAL SHOWING TO PUBLIC—TODAY The Carroll Arms opens to- day, also,its new dining room and cocktail room. Excellent catering in all re- ‘spects will suit your every The Washington Public is invited to the formal showing of the new Carroll Arms Hotel, today. Offering finer hotel facilities for the Capitol Plaza, the Carroll Arms provides comforts and conveniences for a more abundant, a more pleasant, convenient living. Iron Work Elec. Fixtures Linens; Hotel Supplies The following firms furnished and equipped the Carroll Arms: __E. P. Hinkel Co. & Co.. Phila.. Pa. Contract Co. Fred Gichner Building Equipment __Barber & Ross Nathan Goodman Coasl, Oil & Fuel___Griffith Consumers Elec. Contractor Westinghouse Refrigeration ° Edgar Morris Sales Co. W. C. Burgess Venetian Blinds The Shade Shop Kitchen Equipment Oxford Equipment Co. T, "!;lever, until this jlear, did the ex- perts have the money to get the mes- sage of those methods around.- The safety movement needed a catalytic sgents—and an engiite to drive it, on ® national basis. 1t now has gone-rprovided by the sutomobile industry. Adopting a policy jadvocated for 10 gears by Paul G. r:%flm-n, president CELOTEX The Insulating Wallboard. taste in food and drink. CARR oh - e .-~ SEFFERSGN L. 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