Automobilists or Horsemen - Who Has Most Cussedness?

South Dakota, 1909--

FAULT ON BOTH SIDES

Automobilists Say that Horsemen are Often in the Wrong

Much has been said and written locally of late referring to the carelessness and all around cussedness of automobile owners as a class, but no one has come forward to assert that there was another side to the matter, until this morning when one of the most enthusiastic motorists of the city ventured into the Huronite office and remarked that the chauffeur had his troubles as well as anyone else.

At a recent city council meeting the matter of fast and careless driving was brought to the attention of the city fathers. The complaint was that some of the autoists of the city were in the habit of speeding on First street, and thus endangering the lives of all who dared to put foot on that highway. The chief of police was instructed to obtain the numbers of all who thus violated the city ordinance and to bring them to time, and this was a wise and timely act.

All motorists, however, are not bent on the shedding of human blood along the public thoroughfares, and they in their turn meet with difficulties presented by others on the roads. It is a known fact that a prejudice exists among certain people against automobiles, and that they refuse to give them even the half the road that is their's. They will turn to the left and do other things to inconvenience the drivers of machines. If they acted thus upon meeting another team they would expect sooner or later to have an accident, and there is the same possibility in the case of trying to tease the automobilists. There should be fairness on both sides, and the police should be instructed to look after the irresponsible among horse drivers as well as among auto drivers.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 26, 1909, page 7.