Hitch Hikers

Throughout the land 26,501,443 motor vehicles run up and down, back and forth, along highways and byways. Along the thoroughfares march an army of hitchhikers, men, women and children soliciting free rides. Particularly plentiful are hitchhikers in Virginia and North Carolina, on whose fine ribbons of concrete walking is easy for travelers going South for the Winter, North for the Summer. Unlike the walkers of Germany who are out for the sport of pedestrianism and who want no rides, unlike the troops of unemployed in England who move from town to town on foot to get a dole and who shun on automobile, the U. S. hitch-hiker is going places as fast as possible.

Many a motorist has been warned against picking up unknown characters along the road. Wisconsin first passed a law making it an offense not only for a hiker to solicit a hitch but for a motorist to pick him up. Other states with laws aimed only at the hitchhiker: Maine, New Jersey, Minnesota, District of Columbia. Athens, Ga., passed a municipal ordinance to prevent University of Georgia students from begging rides into Atlanta.

Last week in Virginia which has no anti-hitch-hiking law occurred just the sort of thing U. S. motorists have been told may happen if they pick up strangers. Charles Latham of Manhattan, driving out of Knoxville, Tenn., gave a ride to a stranger who said he was a jobless bus operator. Latham let him spell him at the wheel. Suddenly the stranger flipped out a revolver, shot Latham through the side. When Latham attempted to jump from the car, the stranger ordered him back, beat him over the head, drove the car on to Christiansburg, Va., where he escaped. Passing motorists carried Latham to a hospital where, in a dying state, he made his will before being placed on the operating table. Bloodhounds sniffed along the hard Virginia highways in vain.

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