CONFERENCE OF GOVERNORS. 115 



traverse all our New England States. I believe that will be the 

 solution of the whole problem. 



Governor Guild. As I understand the Connecticut law, an auto- 

 mobile running over 25 miles an hour furnishes prima facie evi- 

 dence that it is overspeeding ; that is what I understand by a 

 maximum speed. In Massachusetts it is 30 miles an hour. 



Mr. HuRTUBis. Yes; that is correct. 



Col. Wm. D. Sohiee, Beverly Farms, Member Massachusetts 

 Highway Commission. 



So much has been said on the laws of automobiles that I may 

 only say that each of the States can learn something and get some 

 benefit from the others. Ehode Island requires the licensee to 

 vsrite his name on the license. It requires the court to record the 

 conviction of that licensee on the license, and the next court knows 

 whether there have been one or two previous convictions, and the 

 board that issues that license knows how many times that man 

 has been caught. The automobile laws are like the speed trap; 

 they do not mean anything when you merely read them. Our local 

 regulations here do not mean anything. The selectmen of the 

 towns have come to us, and we have put up a sign. They have then 

 abolished the trap. The sign is put up making the maximum 

 speed 13 miles an hour, and then everybody runs 30 miles, if they 

 wish. There is only one way to regulate automobile travel, and 

 that is to take the reckless, drunken operator off the road. I am 

 glad to hear from the representative of the Bay State and the Na- 

 tional Automobile Association. We drew our laws last year after 

 consultation with these gentlemen, and we got into our laws some 

 things that proved a benefit. 



I would like to know what the other States are doing in that 

 line, — taking the reckless driver off the road. The Highway 

 Commission of Massachusetts has this year considered 143 cases 

 of reckless operation or court cases; it has had 71 hearings; it 

 has investigated 13 deaths ; it has investigated 36 cases of accidents ; 

 and it has had 31 court cases. I have yet to hear that any one has 

 claimed that the Highway Commission has taken away anybody's 

 license improperly. I read in the papers of four people killed in 

 Connecticut, and I wondered what had been done about it. What 

 is done here is, that we suspend the license. We investigate the 

 case, and we revoke that license when the operator has killed any- 

 body, unless the Highway Commission finds affirmatively that the 



