9/20/2011:
Here’s a question for you: It’s anywhere in the United States in 1923. Prohibition became the norm as the 18th Amendment swept into America several years ago, and criminal activity grew as a result. Bootleggers and bank robbers glide throughout communities. Maybe one of them decides to take a different route. He finds a car along the street, perhaps with the keys still in it. It’s too easy to take—but where does he go with it?
If you answered North Dakota, then you are absolutely correct, according to John Tucker, motor vehicle registrar of Illinois. Tucker had recently attended a national safety convention of secretaries of state and motor vehicle registrars, held in Chicago. He believed there were many stolen cars from other states being registered in North Dakota then sold elsewhere. To quote Tucker, “There is no particular danger in the laxity of the law to North Dakota automobile owners, but North Dakota does not want to help automobile thieves.”
So, on this date in 1923, North Dakota regulations for automobile registration were under inspection, with news laws needed to keep the state from being a dumping ground for stolen cars. By North Dakota law, all that was required for registration was a bill of sale or affidavit. Tucker noted that these items could easily be forged. He said the law needed to be changed to require “the most strict proof possible of the previous owners of a used car that is registered.”
These were not the only issues Tucker had with the state’s Motor Vehicle laws, and he mentioned that many North Dakota automobile owners were able to go through the year without paying for their licenses, and that dependence on local authorities to catch this was not sufficient – though he did praise the Fargo and Grand Forks police departments for their vigilance in checking license plates.
In the following state legislative session, in March of 1925, the registration and licensing of motor vehicles was again examined, with some changes enacted…though perhaps not everything John Tucker suggested!
Dakota Datebook written by Sarah Walker
Sources:
Maddock Standard, September 27, 1923, p1
State Law 1925