The term for speeding was "scorching." The tour revealed the major issue of contestants speeding through towns on the route. Was this event to be a tour or some sort of a race during which excessive speeds were necessary? The question posed was clear -- either the Glidden was to be another Gordon Bennett Cup race?
On speed, from Flink, America Adopts the Automobile, 1895-1910, pp. 179 ff.
""Motorists claimed that the same rule tithed governed the speed of horse-drawn vehicles -- that speed on the open road be "reasonable and proper" with respect to road and traffic conditions -- ought to apply unchanged to motor vehicles, and they denounced any additional restrictions on speed as unwarranted "special legislation....
However, "special legislation" involving ,maximum miles-per-hour clauses became increasingly necessary. The top speeds of horse-drawn vehicles ranged from about 8 to 15 miles per hour,... Thelow average and top speeds of horse-drawn vehicles made an established maximum miles-per-hour limit for them superfluous; all that was required for safety with horse-drawn traffic was a general injunction that speed be "reasonable and proper." But motor vehicles were capable of sustained speeds several times in excess of the top speeds of horse-drawn vehicles- speeds that are hazardous on poor roads where slower horse-drawn traffic was predominant. An it was obvious that many motorists were either unwilling or unable adjust their speeds to existing road and traffic conditions, the only possible criterion of rason and propriety....
Public opinion, although overwhelmingly favorable to the new mode of transportation, became aroused bvery early against speeding and reckless driving...By 1901 it was apparent that this fear had been warranted:...."
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