Blood Madness by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 29, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 34.

Blood Madness

By Editor

Blood Madness.—In Popular Mechanics magazine for September, Barney Oldfield, one of the greatest automobile drivers in the world, has a strong article against the mad auto races, which almost invariably bring their toll of death. He declares that it is not the "speed madness" that draws the crowds, but the "blood madness;" that in the mere matter of speed they do not care; it is the element of human danger that affects the people; that if there were no probabilities of accident, the people would scarcely take interest in it. He tells us that since 1904 more than two hundred drivers and mechanics have been killed in racing accidents; that Americans criticize the Mexican bull-fight, in which there have not been five deaths among the fighters in as many years, while there were twenty-nine fatal race accidents in the United States last year. He says, "The American grows sentimental about killing cattle; the Mexican prefers cattle to human beings." In any other kind of public work or exhibitions, Mr. Oldfield believes there would be arrests, fines, imprisonments, criminality charges; but the blood madness of the people, and the stereotyped falsehood that it is all in the interest of progress, prevent it. He declares that the "public watch without interest or perception the most skilful and delicate driving; but let a wheel skid, a tire burst, or a machine run into a fence, and they are out of their seats in a moment with the blood cry in their throats and the lust of death in their eyes. It is the call of the Roman arena, of the Spanish bull-ring. It is no more a sport than hanging is sport." He tells us that there is absolutely no need of the racing. It has even ceased to be a proof of perfect cars; that all these contests now are of drivers, tires, and luck, rather than of machines; and the development of a motor-car is no longer even an excuse. And in all this he speaks truly.