Editor's note: The West Seattle Herald has been covering news here for nearly a century. Robinson Newspapers (which publishes the West Seattle Herald) have a massive news archive of Herald coverage dating back to 1928. What follows are crime reports and public safety issues from 1931. Although reporters’ names were not included with stories at that time, their original words remain intact. As more historical crime reports are compiled there will be more installments of West Seattle All Time Crimes.

February 26, 1931
Editor's note: The Herald had a full-page column titled "City Merchants Unite to Save Lives" on this day in 1931. The following columns were accompanied by advertisements from West Seattle businesses offering vehicle brake replacements, locks for homes and similar public safety services.

Seattle’s Deaths from Carelessness Arouse Citizens; Remedies Discussed by Merchants
A person is safer in the middle of the ocean than he is in the middle of his bath-tub. This simple statement, based on reliable statistics, is offered not as propaganda against the very healthful custom of bathing, but as a commentary on the relation of Safety to Fear.

Facts reveal that what is most feared is not necessarily most dangerous. For instance, there are many persons afraid of crossing the ocean, but only a few are afraid of taking a bath, and those few not at all because they think their lives are imperiled. Yet the chances of slipping on the innocent looking tile are much greater than of being swallowed up by the sea.

Night and Day
This same psychological error extends through a long range of variations. There is an almost universal fear of the night’s darkness. A sort of omnipresent bogey man seems to lurk behind the black curtains.

Again however, the possibility of living through the night and of escaping without physical injury is greater than of passing the day light hours in like good fortune. And the home, rather than the street is the local point of insecurity. In the home one drinks poison, believing it to be cough medicine; one falls down ladders; one lights a match to benzine fumes, and one steps on rusty carpet tacks.

Common Sense is Guide
These various examples lead to a single conclusion; that fear is not essentially an indication of danger, and therefore, that the guide to safety is common sense and the key to safety is caution.

In fairness, the street, as a peril center, must be given its due. Since Old Dobbin first reared up on his hind legs at the sound of an approaching four-wheel monster, the world has resigned itself to speed at any price.

So far this year the price in Seattle alone has been 25 lives, an average of one every other day. We are tempted at first to condemn the automobile and to wish it out of existence. Then we realize that the automobile is in itself a noble means to a fuller life, and that the burden of guilt falls upon man’s abuse of power, upon his sheer carelessness. Are we to shrug our shoulders in the face of so many unnecessary deaths, or have we the imagination to appreciate our own share of the responsibility and to make some effort in the direction of improvement?

Clubs Join in Drive Against Safety Code
Editor's note: The editorial cartoon above was included with this humorous jab at less-than-safe practices of the time.

To see a larger version of the cartoon download the attached file.

Have you an aversion to safety? Then nine clubs invite your membership. Joining any or all of these organizations will provide you with as much sorrow as your capacity permits. The following notes will give you a clearer notion of what you are offered:

The Cold-In-The-Head club was founded by a group of persons who refused to “cover a sneeze” and wished to spread both their colds and their doctrine.

The Take-A-Chance club is composed of auto-driving optimists who are disillusioned when they find that painful accidents actually occur outside of newspapers.

The Incendiary club is a secret society that works beautiful coordination with the fire department. Its motto is: “Throw lighted cigarettes anywhere!”

The Get-Rich-Quick club encourages any financial speculation that promises overwhelming returns and is certain to break its promise.

The Get-Off-Wrong club assures no less than a double fracture to all who practice jumping off backwards from a street car that is still in motion.

The Teapot-Bank club is intended as a league for the development of criminal imagination. Its members hid their savings in a teapot, mattress or stocking, and then let the burglars guess.

The No-Insurance club demands that its members either have infinite faith in their immunity to misfortune or that they be martyrs to false thrift.

The Careless-Housekeeping club is an efficient fly’s welfare society. It promulgates the theory that the fly is too small to be a dangerous disease carrier and that proper refrigeration is unnecessary, trusting in luck that they will always be able to detect spoilage in foods and throw them away.

Faulty-Brake club, the members of which promulgate the theory that the sensation of stepping on the brake pedal and having nothing happen is a fine stimulant. Some members believe in having only one brake working so they will hit objects sideways instead of straight head on.

March 5, 1931
West Seattle Fourth in Safety Campaign
Come on folks, have the brakes adjusted and the lights fixed or West Seattle is going to lose its reputation for winning every inter-community contest. At the present time West Seattle is fourth in the list of communities in the city wide safety campaign.

The police at various garages are checking brakes and defective brakes count as demerits against the community from which that car comes. Any accidents, or failure to abide by traffic rules count as demerits so watch your step and visit some West Seattle garage so you won’t be caught by the police, or perhaps have an accident that would be a great deal worse.