ONT SPEND THE YULE DRIVING LIKE A FOOL
Today's Lesson; Alcohol Compound
r. Baxter o Give eadings
Yule Program Has 25-Year Tradition
Dr. Frank C. Baxter will keep 15-year tradition going when j Je presents two public Christmas j gading programs this week in j ¡tovard Auditorium.
The first of the tree programs rill be given at 3 p.m. tomorrow [nder the sponsorship of the SC jtudent Council on Religion.
He will repeat his readings Thursday at 8 p.m. for the Living far Memorial Scholarship fund jonsored by Trovets. There also rill be no charge for this pro-tram, but the audience will be [sked to contribute whatever it wishes toward a scholarship for he son or daughter of a member If the armed forces who gave his lie in World War II.
Dr. Baxter will read poetry and [rose written about Christmas ,-nich he has collected in recent lears. Selections include “Three »hosts Came Riding By,” Walter |e la Mare; “From Far Away Jnd .Long Ago,” a medieval car-“The Oxen,” Thomas Hardy; jihe Maidservant at the Inn,” |>orothy Parker; “Christ mas Trees,’ Robert Frost; and verse l\ Robert Benchley and Ogden ¡.ash.
One of the mo6t moving bits of »try is by an unknown soldier lith the British 8th Army at To-|ruk, North Africa. The manu-;ript was found after a battle j'ith Marshal Rommel's German [lrika Korps.
Dr. Baxter recently won the lylvania award lor the best local [iucational television program in ae nation, “Shakespeare on TV,” Ihich he teaches over KNXT, pannel 2, every Saturday at 11
KCs, ATOs arol Tonight
Combining 100 voices, Kappa tappa Gamma sorority and Allha Tau Omega fraternity will ;renade the Row and the dorms jnight between 10:15 and midlight in a salute to Christmas.
The carolers, under the direc-|on of ATO George Rodda and ippa Robbie Carroll, will begin me Sigma Nu house and work )wn the Row with •& selection of juie favorites ranging in variety fx)m Jingle Belis to bilent Night. Other songs will include Joy to le World, Deck the Halls, 0 ame All Ye Faithful, and many ther favorites.
ATO Presiaent Dick Moore said believes this to be the first ie in many years a fraternity id sorority have combined to resent this type of program. The group has been practising ice October and plans to make an annual Christmas event.
★ 20th-Century Slaughter
It doesn’t take much brains to show your guts—especially when they’re splattered all over the highway.
Yet college students, America’s so-called intellectuals, must pay the highest insurance premiums because MORE PEOPLE WITHIN THE COLLEGE STUDENT AGE-BRACKET ARE INVOLVED IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS THAN ANY OTHER INSURED GROUP.
During the next five days, the Daily Trojan, in its sixth annual traffic safety campaign, will bombard the students with statistics, editorials, features, news stories, and pictures. The purpose—to scare the living ihell out of the reckless drivers who are responsible for the thousands killed and injured every year.
We tend to shudder when we read of the torturous tribulations that our Biblical ancestors suffered; we cringe when we read of the lions of Rome devouring Christians, alive and raw; we are staggered by the medieval torture chambers, the guillotines of the French Revo-lution, the slaughter of Jews during the Nazi regime— all the horror of deaths by war and disease that have bloodied the pages of history. Yet the daily stories of crushed corpses, broken bones, and bleeding bodies
phase us no more than a chicken’s slaughter would bother a butcher. And that is simply what reckless driving is—nothing but human butchery.
Not until it happens to you or to someone very close to you may you, the reckless driver, learn the meaning of safe and
sane driving. You, the reckless driver, no
matter how educated you may be, you and your stupidity are responsible for the
20th-century slaughter which would make our most blood-thirsty ancestors spin in their graves with horror.
And so this, our sixth campaign, is dedicated to the crippled and the dead as a message to all who are guilty, the careless and the ignorant, the alcoiholic, the speedster—to all of us, for the brand of guilt rests on us immediately after that one careless moment when most accidents happen. It doesn’t take brains to have an
accident.
We will never know just how successful our attempts at promoting safe driving will be, but if we manage to impress just one driver who is well on the road to killing one of his fellow humans because of sheer stupidity, then we will have succeeded.
Organizations Try to Solve Traffic Problems * * * * * ★ ★ Interest Taken in Motorists' Woes
by Sam Feldman
What does the future hold for the millions of Americans who daily drive on the increasingly crowded highways? Since World War II, there has been a great deal of interest in the problem of the U. S. motorist.
Many organizations, both governmental and private, have either assumed or been charged with the responsibility of trying to solve some of the complex problems of our car society.
California and other states have recently initiated driver education in the public schools in the belief that the proper training of young drivers would prevent many accidents in the future.
Other Problems
But what about other problems such as planning freeways, better law enforcement, and uniform safety measures?
On» of the best jobs of focusing attention on some of these problems was done in 1946 and 1949 when President Harry Truman called for a Highway Safety Conference which included national, state, and local officials.
They adopted “Action Program” and set out to curtail the accident rate with a practical plan which called for coordination from all committees and organizations. All 48 states and 27 foreign countries were represented at the conference.
The Public Roads Administration. a division of the Federal Works Agency, takes care of the construction and maintenance of highways as well as safety measures within its jurisdiction.
Important Group
An important organization is the Interstate Commerce Commission which started in 1935 and controls all interstate motor
traffic. It supervises safety of equipment and of operation and is especially concerned with the huge trucking problem.
The U.S. Office of Education, a division of the Federal Security Agency, has been promoting safety in school busses and pupil transportation for several years.
One of the four standing committees created by the President’s Highway Conference, the National Committae on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances has worked on remodeling ^nd bringing up to date vehicle codes and traffic control devices.
Safety Center New York University established a Center for Safety Education in 1938 which has trained teachers and established college courses in safety education. They have also done research on the cause
Official
Notice
Sixth DT
Campaign Begins
WAIVER EXAMINATION, for PE 160 (Health Problems) will be held on the first Wednesday of Spring Semester, FEBRUARY 10, 1954.
Please see Dr. Davis, Room 107, PE department, before signing up.
WAIVER EXAMINATIONS, for PE 101 (Fundamental Skills) and PE 102 (Elementary Swimming) will be held on FEBRUARY 4 and a, 3 to 5 p.m., the practical being given first, and written last.
PLEASE SlGN UP BEFORE FEBRUARY 1st IN ROOM 107, PE Building.
William R. LaPorte, Chairman Physical Education Department.
of accidents and ways to reduce them.
Publishing publications for use by teachers and administrators has been the purpose of the National Education Association. Also influential in this field has been the National Congress of Parents and Teachers.
The National Safety Council covers the whole safety field and serves as a clearing house for information. It compiles accident statistics and conducts safety contests among cities and states.
85 Members
Consisting of 85 cooperating member organizations is the National Committee for Traffic Safety, which is concerned primarily in the effective use of the media of public information such as radio, newspapers, TV, and motion pictures.
The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators consists of officials from various states who have charge of licensing drivers and cars. In recent years it has been working for a higher standard to be set throughout the nation.
One of the most important groups interested in traffic safety is the Association of Casualty and Surety Companies.
Other Groups
There are hundreds of other groups indirectly encourag i n g safer driving such as the American Legion, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Red Cross, Institute of Traffic Engineers, and many others.
But the only one who can really make our highways safer is you, Mr. Average Driver. Until you decide to heed their warning, it won’t make any difference how many organizations work to save your life.
Driving
Caution
Stressed
by Gary Kreutz The Daily Trojan today begins its sixth annual Traffic Safety Campaign, in the hope that it may help curtail the rapidly rising holiday death rate.
This sixth campaign has taken on dramatic, even deadly, significance since it follows on the heels of the traffic death of ex-football coach Jeff Cravath. Further significance lies in the fact that student drivers were the object of loud protests last week by the 32nd Street School Parent-Teachers Association.
Councils Help The DT campaign is being aided by the Letters, Arts and Sciences Council. John Garr, council president, said that mutilated autos will be towed onto campus to serve as object lessons during the week-long drive.
LAS Council members will put Droopert slogans on blackboards in classrooms this week.
Daily Trojan editors and staff members are trying to make the drive successful, with the local PTA members sincerely hoping it—for theirs is a bigger stake.
“Wild Driving” Wednesday afte r n o o n PTA members met in the grammar school across Jefferson and attacked the “wild driving” along University Avenue between Hoover and the Row. Led by Mrs. Lawrence Lieberman, the group requested a crossing guard at 31st Street and • University Avenue, and made a public appeal to the SC student body which headlined Thursday’s Daily Trojan.
The problem of driving is a deadly one—a fact brought out in Friday’s DT story of the untimely death of SC’s former football coach, Jeff Cravath. Cravath died following a traffic accident.
The local mothers have inadvertently uncovered and pointed out the shame of the SC motorists—Many drive recklessly and much too fast.
Deep Concern Mrs. Lieberman stressed the deep concern that the mothers feel about the danger to their children, especially at 31st street and University Ave. intersection.
“There are four boulevard stops at that corner which are completely ignored. We would put a crossing guard there — if we could,” she said.	,
Her attempts to get a crossing guard illustrates the driving hazard which exists all over the city. The police commission turned down her request for a guard because, “Many grammar schools have asked for guards and we haven’t the finances to hire all the guards that are needed.” They also maintained that the area near the school has a low accident rate. Mrs. Lieberman has her own explanation for that.
Watch Children “Most mothers walk back and forth to school four times daily to see that her child gets safely across the street,” she said.
Mrs. Lieberman, mother of a 6-year-old boy, said that the school’s faculty members have added traffic safety to the curriculum and that noy the children even play games where alertness in crossing a street is stressed.
“The only thing we can’t show them,” Mrs. Lieberman said, “is how the driver is going to behave.”
In the past five years, the Dai ly Trojan has won the National Safety Contest four times. How ever, no one can tell just how successful the annual drive has been in saving lives.
Vol. XLV	•	Los	Angeles,	Calif.,	Monday,	Dec.	14,	1953
No. 58
President Fagg Reveals Bolton Appointment
Fred D. Fagg Jr. announced the appointment of Earl C. Bolton as his administrative assistant today.
Bolton, who holds two degrees from SC and formerly was a member of the faculty, has been associate director of admissions and director of high school and college relations for the past year.
He was graduated magna cum laude from SC in 1941 and from the SC School of Law in 1948. In 1950 he worked with high school and junior college counselors on admission of their students to SC, and then was recalled to active duty in the Navy for two years as a Lieutenant Commander. Previously, he had served four years in the Navy as a reserve officer.
Before joining the administrative staff of the university, he «taught political science and business law at SC.
Bolton is a member of the Los Angeles and State Bar Associations and the American Bar Association. He formerly was special consultant to Nelson Rockefeller when the latter was coordinator of Inter-American Affairs in New York and Washington.
Before graduating from Huntington Park High School he was president of the student body and also a debator. In his senior year at SC he was captain of the debate team, and is also a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
JUNKYARD TRIP
Yule Concert To Be Given
The School of Music will present its annual Christmas Festival Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. Admission is free.
Featured number will be Johann Pachelbel’s “Magnificat in C Major” for chorus, soloists,, orchestra, and organ.
“Magnificat” soloists wiU be Marilyn Taylor, soprano; Virginia Lee Morris, contralto; Paul Mayo, tenor; David Hodgson, baritone; and John Sherman, bass.
The program will also include Manfredini’s “Concerto Grosso Per II Sanctissimo Natale” for string orchestra, Bernhard’s solo cantata “Be Not Afraid” for soprano and strings, and Haydn’s “Concerto in D Major” for harpsichord and orchestra.
Alice Ehlers, famed harpsichordist, will solo in Haydn’s concerto. Miss Ehlers, professor emeritus of music, is an authority on 18th century music.
Official Talks At PA Meet
F. Robert Coop, administrative officer of the City of Inglewood, will discuss the problems of managing a city at a meeting of the American Society for Public Administrators tomorrow at noon in the faculty dining room.
The Inglewood official, who received a master’s degree in public administration at SC in 1937, was appointed administrative officer in 1949. He previously served as assistant to the city manager of Pasadena and was a member of the California State Personnel Board.
Autos Co to Die Like Humans Do
by Carolyn McCoy
It didn’t look much like a 1953 Ford. The motor was squeezed against the front seat. The front wheels were pushed back as far as the doors. A driver trying to sit in a normal position would have been able to work the pedals with his hands.
Everything was left as the police first saw the accident except two things—the driver, or what was left of him, and the palm tree he ran into.
“He was a car salesman. Killed instantly,” Joe Sherman, the yard mechanic, said.
“Must have been going at least 60,” an onlooker remarked.
Tangles With Palm Tree “Yeah, he was going 60 and it looks like the palm tree was too. This one rated a picture in the papers.” ,
The All Auto Parts Company, 5089 San Fernando Road, has 450 other cars which show what survivors might remember of their accidents—a much different impression than the final phase of the story which takes up only a few lines on the inside pages of a newspaper.
The company buys wrecked cars, salvages any parts which might prove salable, and then sells the rest as scrap metaL Some days, Sherman says, the firm gets as many as eight wrecked cars, but usually a lower number. The fewer the better, he says, even though business would be better with more salvageable autos.
Not Curious Anymore “You get used to seeing ’em after a while,” he said. “But you get curiosity knocked out of you after the first day. I just don’t want to hear what tne people went through unless I can help it. Sometimes imagining it is worse, though.”
Finally you try to take the attitude that somebody's misfortune is somebody's good fortune. But I’m not even fooling myself on that one.”
All passengers aren’t killed, he said, motionmg to a 1949 green Pontiac which had a broken steering wheel and an L-shaped dashboard.
“If you ever have to collide with someone, pick a wealthy guy like that guy did. He might win a million bucks.”
Another fellow wasn’t so lucky. A famous rumba orchestra leader probably didn’t know he was oging to have an accident a month ago. He doesn’t even know now that he’s had one. He’s still unconscious in the hospital with doctors wondering how he ever sur-
vived. Seeing his new station wagon makes one wonder, too.
Steering Wheel Bent The steering wheel is bent at right angles. A jagged hole is in a window. Hair still sticks to the remaining pieces of glass. The body of the car is twisted and seats are grotesquely misshapen. Quite a bit of blood around.
“It's hard to tear a car like this apart without thinking how the passengers were hurt, “Sherman said. You have to try thinking about something else. Even that doesn’t help.’1 Four people had been killed instantly in the mass of metal that looked nothing like the Cadillac it was meant to be. The highest part was only three feet off the ground.
Sherman explained that a truck ran right over the top of the car after the driver had stopped suddenly for some reason. The passengers, he said, looked just about as bad as the car.
Decapitated on Spot “We just tore apart one 1952 MG whose driver had been speeding. He went under a truck since he couldn’t go around it. Eyewitnesses said he was decapitated on the spot. His head rolled down the street.”
One person had been killed in a 1952 light green .Ford that had just been hauled in. Walking to it from the rear, it didn’t look so bad. But a look at the driver’s side showed an indentation starting from one foot and going as deep as four where the driver’s seat is.
Inside, the seats were squashed literally to half-size. The top rested on the back of the uprooted front seat. An empty coke bottle was on the front seat, and an old shoe was on the floor.
What was once an Oldsmobile had been hit by a train. The driver would explain the train was coming from the right, if he were Jiving. Now there is barely room for passengers with twisted metal filling the other space. Tne steering wheel is crushed against the sun visor, and the left side of the car forms an irregular roof starting at the top of the lowered front seat.
“I used to wonder where the people went in an accident like this,” Sherman said. “I gave up long ago.
Salvage Yard Trip “If people had to spend an hour in a salvage yard as a part of their driver’s test, accidents would be a lot less,” he continued. “But with us, it’s a business, and we have to take the cars or some other yard will.
GRIM EXAMPLE—Someone's careiessness turned this convertible into a coffin. The All Auto Parts salvage yard, one of many around the city, has more than 450 such wrecks,
which accumulate in an amazingly short period. Driver of this car was not up to posing for the pictur§. They buried him in a cemetery just as they bury autos in junkyards.