Legal Snails

In Gary, Indiana, last week, one Al Shaw was arrested for driving his automobile too slowly (15 m.p.h.). The State of Rhode Island, in an effort to speed up traffic, now has a law that passenger cars on open roads must travel at least 35 m.p.h. Indiana and Rhode Island notwithstanding, the legal speed limit of Prague, Czechoslovakia remains a conservative 9 m.p.h. (15 kilometers) where it was fixed by the Bohemian Government in 1910.

Universally disregarded, the nine-mile limit has been a potent weapon for the police to hold over fractious drivers and parties to street accidents. Last week Prague taxi drivers and chauffeurs staged an effective protest.

Moving only at the legal snailpace, Prague automobiles chugged leisurely through the streets. Raging policemen vainly tried to speed them up. Prague chauffeurs stoutly refused to break the law. Travelers missed their trains, traffic tangled in market place, stalled on bridges. The chauffeurs, enjoying themselves hugely, continued to bump slowly over the cobblestones. At nightfall gleeful Prague taxi drivers considered the old speed laws as good as repealed.