Georgia, a twenty-foot crocodile, a twenty-five-foot anaconda, a fully adult male gorilla, a twelve-foot African Elephant, or an adult bull Pacific Walrus. Until the men of the future invent and function with superhuman nets, derricks, and cages, and with human helpers as intelligent and efficient as steam-shovels, the world will just have to be content to play with the babies of the old he-ones named above. In February, 1926, there arrived, and in January, 1927, there lives and functions, in the famous Animal Park of Carl Hagenbeck's Sons at Stellingen, Hamburg, Germany, an astounding male specimen of the great Southern Sea Elephant, from South Georgia. As a zoo inmate, "Goliath" is a unique monster-colossal, amiable, a devastating feeder, and an amazing poseur. He is about 16 feet long, and he weighs now 4,430 pounds. He eats from 250 to 350 pounds of fish per day, and he speaks volumes for the daring and enterprise of the Hagenbeck brothers, in capturing, transporting, and feeding such an unparalleled zoo specimen. May he live long, and prosper! The Letter BY BERNICE KENYON "TAKE of your comfort from this sheet of paper Darkness shuts in-the night is cold-my fingers Has set the feeling of life down, with the writing. I am aware only of what you say— And here you write forever of feasting and fighting And what are they, in this cold?—and what are they? Do you know what this night is like?-But you cannot know. There are dark winds over the world; they are moving and speeding, Forever bringing the cold; and they blow and blow, Rattling my windows, shrilling the air, and sighing; Pursued things-hurt and wild-running and flying I will burn your letter up to get me warm! Here is the candle. . . . Never does flame mount quicker Morons on the Macadam BY HARLAN C. HINES Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Cincinnati I HERE is little in the so infrequently, the plan falls far short of bringing a complete solution. We might even add to those eliminated some who, because of inability to read with reasonable speed and comprehension, or because of disabilities in hearing and sight, drive their motor-cars in ways unexpected Middle Western and unintended, and we have then but State, for example, scratched the surface. when one is permitted to drive he must be at least seventeen years of age, have the sight of one eye, may have no legs if he has two hands, or, if he has two legs, may have no hands, and, if he is above seventeen, it matters not how far above. This laxity in the law is characteristic of the country at large, and it not only has allowed about half of us to engage in driving, with some probability that the other half will join us as soon as possible, but has created the general impression that most of our traffic troubles are caused either by persons who are physically crippled or mentally feeble. As the number of drivers has increased, a cry has gone up for more stringency in granting initial permission to drive, and one meets with the repeated suggestion that a series of standardized tests should be drawn up for the purpose of eliminating those who are likely to be the cause of the more serious traffic problems. One progressive city has already taken steps in this direction. There, when a man applies for a license, he is taken to a small yard dotted with tall cans and ordered to steer an irregular course through them to the opposite side. If he accomplishes this successfully, he is told to repeat his trip in reverse gear. Such a test, if adopted generally, would weed out the lame, halt, and blind, the emotionally unstable, and possibly those who are too young or too old. But, considering the fact that these probably do not constitute more than four per cent of our total population and are found at the driver's wheel The truth of the matter is our traffic difficulties are most often caused by persons who would be able to pass most of the tests so far devised and suggested, and who would be classed as average both physically and mentally. It is they who most frequently cause the moments of peril, and one need only turn to the principal causes for traffic accidents-violation of the right-of-way rule, exceeding the speed-limit, failure to signal, cutting left corners, and driving while intoxicated to see that most of these may be acts of perfectly normal persons suddenly and temporarily bereft of sound judgmenthigh-class morons for the time being. II WHAT is going on in the minds of men who permit themselves to get into traffic difficulties? It is a difficult question and perhaps could be answered best by considering first the restraints that cause people to drive cautiously and alertly. According to a report of the accident-prevention bureau of a large life-insurance company, married men are better drivers than single men "because they have more respect for authority, more mature judgment, and a greater sense of responsibility." This conclusion was based on an intensive study of several thousand highway accidents-single men were involved in more than half of all the accidents investigated. Obviously the mere fact that a man is married does not guarantee that he will become a good driver, but his duties and safeguards are likely to make him cautious in situations where the single man would take a chance. When a man is consistently cautious he is fearful, and the cautious automobiledriver is fearful, first of all, of accidents. He is constantly on guard against collision, against damage to his car and injury to himself or his family, or to any person with whom he may collide. Again he is fearful of the laws governing general traffic. A tendency to drive too fast, he knows, is frequently punished by a term in jail, while failure to obey traffic signals and directions will mean, as a minimum, a citation to court. With these fears are the accompanying apprehensions that arise from defects in his motor-car; and the feeling of uncertainty that he may run out of gasoline, oil, or water, due to his negligence, penuriousness, or poverty, is just as vital while it lasts, for here he comes under the law of survival. If he has purchased his car on the instalment plan, this may also creep in to make him cautious; he is inclined to refrain from driving recklessly and without regard to possibility of damage. And the same is true if he carries no insurance. III If these restraints were constantly present with every driver, there would be few accidents, and these due only to overcrowded highways and the physical impossibility of overcoming the other fellow's poor guessing. But what happens when these restraints are not present? The truck-driver or delivery-boy does not seem to feel them when he drives on the wrong side of the street, nor, in a lesser way, does the man who has never had an accident-he may come to feel that he is inured against them. Many examples might be cited. A man becomes convinced that he is a good driver and that good drivers are fortified against any emergency. Another has learned to depend upon his car to get him out of difficulties, either because of its great size or because it is a good car. Another may have come into sudden prosperity, with a consequent feeling of self-importance, or may have no better excuse for "hogging the road" than the sensation of inner well-being produced by an excellent dinner. Another may be governed by a system of efficiency that demands results regardless of consequences. And still another may throw caution to the winds for the simple reason that he has good roads to travel. Fear of the law may be dissipated through laxity in enforcement. The local police force, for one reason or another, may be making few, if any, arrests. Or the driver may "stand in" with members of the force, or with the men higher up, and has little to fear from them. Again, he may expect the size or brilliancy of his car to absolve him where the man in the tin sulky" would be hailed into courthis car being recognized as one that may belong to some influential citizen of the community with a voice in the control of city politics. Or he may have been arrested so frequently that he has lost fear of the law and its meshes. And, finally, he may be one of a large number of persons who have allowed themselves to generate a disrespect for any law with which they are not in complete agreement. Akin to the feelings that one may be able to drive well, and that he may depend upon his car because it is large or good, is the reaction that comes from full and complete ownership either through cash or credit buying. If a man's home is his castle, where he may do as he pleases, his automobile, when completely paid for, is (almost literally) his house on wheels. Unless he has built up strong habits of caution while making his payments, fear of accidents is not so great, for the car is his to operate as he sees fit. Fear of the law is also lightened through the confidence that comes with ownership or through the elimination of a feeling of inferiority that may have persisted because of inability to buy or inability to pay in full. Insurance, too, is no small factor in eradicating fear. If the car is insured against accident, fire, or theft, there is greater freedom in driving and parking, and if the driver carries liability insurance, he may feel entitled to run down a few pedestrians in order to get his money's worth. Even the knowledge that he carries plenty of ordinary life insurance as a protection for his family may tend to make him a little less careful with himself and car than he would be with no such safeguards. IV BUT these statements account only in a general way for some of the reckless driving to be seen any day in city or country. The cautious man, even in the presence of restraints, will have his lapses, and when, for some reason, he becomes incautious or absent-minded, he drives no better than the intentionally or consciously reckless. He may violate the right-of-way rule, exceed the speed-limit, fail to signal, cut left corners, or take any kind of liberty common to reckless drivers, and there is always some reason, however obscure, for his doing so. To show what the reasons may be, the usual level of his thinking need not be considered; they apply at times to men in all walks of life. Displays of unusual and unwarranted driving as a result of loss of temper are common. Even though he may not be conscious of it, the man who drives an automobile under the conditions of present-day traffic is under a nervous strain, and he may move along quite peacefully and composedly in all other activities, yet, when in the act of driving a car, may wear his nerves as a top-coat. The degree to which he becomes sensitive to his surroundings will depend upon what has happened or what does happen to him. If, upon arising in the morning, the furnace has failed to draw, the eggs have got cold, the coffee is too weak, a suit has not been returned from the cleaner's; if, upon trying to start the car, the battery refuses to function, a tire is down, or the supply of gasoline exhausted; if, once upon the highway, the car is splashed with mud, misses and backfires, or is forced into a collision with some driver in a like frame of mind, these, or any one of them, may explain why he is jeopardizing the lives of pedestrians and making life miserable for others hastening to work. Under the influence of distraught temper men become unnatural; even some of the mildest have been known to resort to oaths they have never before employed or to assume an unrecognizable impatience and pugnacity and, suiting the ac tion to their moods, step on the gas or jam on the brakes in a wholly unexpected manner. Self-consciousness, working in different ways, has much to do with a man's method of driving. In being efficiently self-conscious one is sufficiently cautious, but the extremes of this condition may produce an entirely different attitude. If a man's car presents an unusually good appearance, runs smoothly and quietly and responds to every touch, he is pleasantly aware that things are just as they should be, and by adding to this feeling the knowledge that others do not enjoy these advantages, he may tend to "show off," to drive for purposes of display and, eventually, run into conditions of which, because of his temporary vanity, he is not complete master. But if his car is old and dilapidated, runs poorly and noisily, he may become unpleasantly selfconscious and drive with such apologetic air that he slows up traffic for many blocks behind him. The opposite effects may have been produced in the driver, however. A new car may have a good appearance, run smoothly and quietly, and respond to every touch, yet it may be driven slowly, haltingly, and apologetically for the simple reason that it is new, or because the driver is new at the game. And an old and dilapidated car that runs poorly and noisily may be operated as if the driver had just secured a marriage license or, possibly, a divorce. Again, there are those who are greatly affected by the power and noise of automobile motors. A very insignificant man in ordinary affairs of life may rise to imaginary heights of authority by the simple expedient of mounting to the driver's seat of a powerful automobile. Once there and under way he realizes his own power over the human creatures who scurry and jump when he sounds his terrifying horn or opens his clattering exhaust. It is a power he has always coveted, and he makes full use of it while it lasts. This, together with the fact that he may have an inner urge, long inhibited, to make more noise than those about him, causes him to do some very impressive driving. A man who disposes of an automobile usually purchases another. The second may be a different make, and this introduces new driving problems. Much of the queer automobile operation is due to the attempt to drive a geared car after several years behind the wheel of a car with two speeds, or to manipulate a standard gear-shift after having become accustomed to a non-standard. This type of driver is road-wise and does not have to relearn the fundamentals of steering a proper course, but the effort to get his feet and hands to co-operate in a set of new habits either "keeps him from getting old" or adds a few years to the ages of those within bumping distance. Custom has much to do with the way many people drive, and the automobile has done much to alter custom rapidly. The introduction of the arterial highway or boulevarded street has speeded up traffic, so that one not only tends to move with relatively great speed but, forming new habits through imitation, may not only go too fast on the boulevard but may fail to drive with caution on streets that are not traffic thoroughfares. Here suggestion plays an added part. If one is driving within the speed-limit, he may get tired of having so many cars go around him, and start out to do a little passing on his own account. Others can go fast and not be molested, why not he? With the liberty to pass on either side he finds it easy, unless he encounters some other driver who, without warning, decides to do the same thing. In this connection New York's move to return to the old regulation to permit passing only on the left is highly significant. Then there is the tourist who, racing along country roads, forgets to slow down when within city limits. He has built up a habit of covering as much territory as possible in one day, and he roars and thunders into the city as if the mayor had thrown him the keys at the city gates. Sometimes not until the key to the city jail turns in the lock behind him does he find it possible to slow down. This same suggestion is operating in the mind of the man who, after a running start, has climbed a long, steep hill and fails to resume ordinary speed on the straight-ofway. While considering speed, the man who develops a sudden need to get somewhere must not be overlooked. In some instances there are legitimate reasons for his rate of travel-somebody ill, a train to catch, a speech to make, or an important business deal to put over. At least they are legitimate in his eyes and, although he may find difficulty in justifying them in court, they are the real reasons for his temporary penchant for cutting left corners, crowding in, or driving through caution signals. The man who is inordinately proud of the appearance and performance of his car comes in here in a new light. He is very much perturbed when rival cars go around him, and should he be passed on a hill by a lighter and cheaper make, he must regain his position of supremacy or the day is utterly ruined. The man who revolts against custom should be mentioned in passing. Some of the extremely fast and reckless driving is done by those who have wearied of the established order, who rebel because they are held in a line of slowly moving vehicles, or are caused to change speed or direction on account of crowded streets and complicated traffic conditions. These may not even lose their tempers; they may proceed deliberately to violate law and custom. Finally, there is the individual who, through the monotony of driving long distances on warm days or through loss of sleep, ill health, and other causes for fatigue, smashes his way into police court for no other reason than that his brain has ceased to function. As has been so well stated by a popular cartoonist, "his mind may have left him but it was too weak to travel far." Like the intoxicated driver, his left foot has no way of knowing what his right foot is doing. V ONE seemingly strange phase of this big problem of motor-car operation is that a man seldom is actually sure why he gets into accidents or why he causes moments of peril. Things happen so quickly that, as in sleight of hand, the mind does not grasp the situation in its entirety. For this reason testimony following accidents is markedly unreliable. |