UL: Page 1 Editorial: Seatbelts good; Big government force is bad

[KBCraig]

The Man himself signs his name to a front-page editorial. 

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Page+1+Editorial%3a+Seatbelts+good%3b+Big+government+force+is+bad&articleId=4aa52093-85bf-438d-a90f-c2d1604d6624

Page 1 Editorial: Seatbelts good; Big government force is bad

By JOSEPH W. MCQUAID
New Hampshire Union Leader Publisher

Adults who don't bother to use a seatbelt each and every time they enter an automobile are either not thinking clearly or don't have the capacity to think at all.

Elected officials who presume to understand and speak for the Live Free or Die state aren't thinking clearly if they vote to have the government force people to buckle up. That vote is scheduled in the House tomorrow and it looks like it may pass.

Seatbelts are good for you. But you are more likely to die from too much fat in your diet. Why isn't the Legislature telling us what we can and cannot eat? Don't laugh. That may be next.

New Hampshire has shown steady improvement in seatbelt usage and still kept Big Government at bay. That will change tomorrow with this bill, which would allow police to pull you over and fine you if they see that you are not belted up.

Is that the New Hampshire way? Do we want our small government to go down the slippery slope that leads to more and more orders and less and less liberty? That's what this vote is really all about. New Hampshire citizens will be watching it closely.

[aries]

Typical style. I'd like it if someone actually refused to judge the necessity of wearing a seatbelt before arguing against a law for it

[burnthebeautiful]

I suppose that maybe it sounds more credible for someone who isn't effected by a law to argue against it. Like how all the arguments against the smoking ban start with "I am not a smoker and don't visit restaurants that allow smoking". I would like to, if just once, see a letter to the editor saying "I am a smoker, and I refuse to patron restaurants that don't allow smoking".

[Russell Kanning]

yea .... I don't think seatbelts are helpful ... so I don't use them.

[powerchuter]

It is important to note, with respect to the costs of automobiles, that much of it is due to "governmental meddling" such as demanding that all cars have seat belts and airbags from the factory.  Emission "control" devices also add to the costs and keep new builders from ever attempting to start another company here in the states...

It's a shame that the big three used regulation to run the other car builders into the ground.  DeLorean had the right idea, but just like assassinated presidents, he was taken out by the major backstage players...

[error]

Now Daimler(Chrysler) is thinking of selling off Chrysler again...

[Pat McCotter]

We can't have any two-bit upstart think they can build a car that people will buy. Sick the government on 'em!

In 1948 Preston Tucker intended to mass-produce a "car of the future" with advanced safety, styling, and engineering features. The automobile has its engine in the rear, an area where the front passenger can crouch during a collision, and a center headlight that turned with the steering wheel.

The sedan's most striking feature is its avant-garde styling, developed by Alex Tremulis and J. Gordon Lippincott and Company. Its features-- including pop-up tail lights and irregularly shaped windows--give it a futuristic appearance even today. The Tucker never went into actual production because a federal investigation into the company's management practices led to its collapse.

Tucker Automobile Club of America

[powerchuter]

Tucker's Open Letter regarding competing manufacturers inside deals and manipulation through investigation and regulation...

Found at:
http://www.tuckerclub.org/html/openletter.html

And here it is:

An Open Letter from Preston Tucker

This letter appeared in many newspapers in the United States on June 15, 1948.

An Open Letter to The Automobile Industry In The Interests Of The American Motorist By Preston Tucker President, Tucker Corp.

Gentlemen:

As you know, we are building a completely new motorcar?the rear engine Tucker. Being new-comers in the field we have had to start from scratch and work harder and faster than most of you. For example, instead of the 20 months you usually take to produce a new model of conventional design, my engineers have taken less than 10 to perfect a car which I firmly believe opens a new era in motoring.

In this same year, we have completed a nationwide dealer organization, acquired the largest most modern automotive plant in tile world, and cleared the decks for mass production. These things have been done?and well done?in spite of persistent and unfair opposition from within the automobile industry.

Please don?t misunderstand me. Many of you have gone out of your way to be friendly to the Tucker Corporation. It?s true, some of you have not shared our conviction that a rear-engine car is the car of the future, but you have been willing to let the American motorist judge that for himself, in the firm belief that what?s best for the motorist is best for you in the long run.

But there is another group-a very powerful group?which for two years has carried on a carefully organized campaign to prevent the motoring public from ever getting their hands on the wheel of a Tucker. These people have tried to introduce spies into our plant. They have endeavored to bribe and corrupt loyal Tucker employees. Such curiosity about what goes on in the Tucker plant should be highly flattering, I suppose. But they haven?t stopped there.

They even have their spokesmen in high places in Washington. As a direct result of their influence, Tucker dealers all over the country?men of character and standing in their communities?have been harassed and grilled by agents of the government and Congressional Investigating Committees.

My associates and myself and the Tucker Corporation have been investigated and investigated, time and again. Millions of dollars of the taxpayers money have been squandered in an utterly fruitless effort to kill the Tucker, to bar us from needed raw materials, to keep us so busy defending ourselves and our efforts that the motoring public would tire of waiting for a completely new rear-engine car. But they haven?t been able to stop us.

You know, perhaps, that our bid on a government owned steel plant in Cleveland was recently refused. Let me tell you the inside story of that; Sealed bids were called for, in accordance with law. Only two were submitted, one by the steel company operating the plant, the other by the Tucker Corporation. The bids were opened nearly five months ago. The Tucker Corporation?s bid was high. If Tucker?s bid had been accepted, it could have given taxpayers as much as four million dollars more for the plant than the steel company offered.

This plant would provide ample raw materials for volume production of the Tucker and would serve numerous small businesses now starving for steel.

You would think our high bid for the plant would have been accepted long ago. For five months political pressure, ruthless and barefaced, has forced delay after delay. We?re still waiting. We don?t know who is responsible for this. But who do you suppose is getting the raw material from this plant we want for Tucker and small business? None other than some well known - and unfriendly?automotive manufacturers.

Most of the political pressure and investigations we have had to face these last two years can be traced back to one influential individual who is out to "get Tucker." If he acts from honest conviction in his efforts to prolong the motorcar, then I hope he will have the courage to tell the public just that.

But personally we believe he has more obvious motives. Evidence in Tucker files, for example shows the controlling interest in a large sales agency of an automotive corporate subsidiary is in his wife?s name. And when he gave an elaborate party at a Washington hotel a few months ago, who do you suppose paid the bill? None other than an official of an automobile manufacturer?a manufacturer distinctly unfriendly to the Tucker Corporation. Is all this, too, just coincidence?

Now once more we are being investigated. Just at the time we are getting into production on a car that has won the hearts of the million motorists who have seen it, just when the job of making automobiles demands all our time and energy, my associates and I are asked to take time out again and again ever since we had the temerity to suggest America is eager for a completely new car.

What would you think in our place? Would you say it was just coincidence?or would you think it was planned that way?

You wonder, perhaps, why I have made these statements in an open letter. Here?s why: As President of Tucker Corporation, I?m responsible to 1,872 Tucker dealers and distributors and nearly 50,000 Tucker stockholders. These people have put $25,000,000 into the Tucker Corporation. And I am going to protect their interests.

In addition, we have promised American motorists a completely new rear-engine motorcar, and hundreds of thousands have written us that they are ready and waiting to buy it. Every day letters come to us from people who know that in fighting to put the rear-engine Tucker on the road we are, at the same time, fighting for their right as motorists to get the finest engineering American ingenuity can produce.

We are going to justify the support these motorists so generously have given us. We are going to give them the car they want at a price they can afford, and without paying tribute to the Black Market. How this will be done will be announced today.

But in the meantime, I want to register the fact that we have just begun to fight. We have been patient so far, but our patience is wearing thin. We can give names, dates and places to prove our charges of unfair competition, and if necessary we will do it.

When the day comes that anyone can bend our country?s laws and lawmakers to serve selfish, competitive ends, that day democratic government dies. And we?re just optimistic enough to believe that once the facts are on the table, American public opinion will walk in with a big stick.

******************

And thus continues the meddling in business to this day...