The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-20
NEW HAVEN'SNEW CHARTER
ISCUSsED AT MEETING OF CHAR.
 TER COMMITTEE LAST NIGHT.

Many Amendments lida-
 ton Generally nvored-Narry Leigh
 sugRasts That Police Commission bc
 Composed of Ministers.
 The aldermanic chamber in the city hall was last evening hardly large enough to accommodate the large num- Der of citizehs who assembled in re- sponse to a notice that the committee of the court of common council would give a hearing on the proposed new city charter. As 1t was several hun dred of New Haven's representative citizens were present and all were ap- parently much interested in the pro- ceedings The committee, all of whom were present, is composed of Aldermen Gallagher, chairman, and Russell and Councilmen Belden, Durant and Bishop, The session began promptly at 7:3O o'clock.
 Among those present were: Mayor Sargent, General George H. Ford, ex- City Auditor Edward Mccarthy, A.. McC. Matthewson, Lyman H. Johnson. s. s. Thompson, Charles Kleiner, Charles H. Fowler. Walter Leigh, James N. States, Henry c. White, Eli Whitney. jr.. Harry Leigh, Professor George D. Watrous. L. Wheeler Beecher, s. Harrison Wagner. Captain James Wrinn, Jailor William O'Keefe, A. H. Moulton, Anthony Carroll, Ben jamin R. English, James D. Dewell, Judge Simeon E. Baldwin, William Gay, Jonathan W. Pond, pr. c. A. Lindsley, ex-Judge Joseph Sheldon, Rufus s. Pickett, Major T. Attwater Barnes, Henry A. Newton, Judge Hobart L. Hothckiss, Felix Chilling worth, w. B. Law, Hugh Galbraith, Dr. A. B. Fuller, James T. Moran, Joseph R. Manning, Samuel R. Avis, Town Counsel w. s. Pardee. Morris F. Tyler and E. A. Chatfield.
 James N. States, chairman of the committee on charter revision, was the first speaker of the evening. He re- viewed at length the history of the movement for a new hcarter, from the time the agitation begun in 1890 until the commission was appointed and the new charter submitted two months ago. He also recounted at length the changes embodied in the new charter. He also suggested that if there were to be any amendments made to the charter they should be referred by the special committee of the court of com mon council to the commission instead .of being made by the special commit tee themselves.
 Continuing MT. States said: "Our present system of%municipal govern ment Is clumsy, expensive and ineffi- cient. We recommend redistribution of the wards and a change in time of holding city elections from December to April. We desire to make the mayor more than 8 mere figure head and to
 make the chief financial officer the comptroller who, like the mayor, shall be elected by the people. We want the comptroller to make quarterly reports and we need treasurer, who shall have an office in the city hall.
 "A radical change has been made in uniting the boards of aldermen and councilmen into one body and reducing the membership toif1fteen. This course is now being followed in other cities The proposition that twenty citizens may at any time bring any city official to trial to secure his removal from of- flee for reprehensible act is a wise i%1 S,,% ho justified New Haven needs new as- sessment bill badly and we cordially recommend such bill. We believe that 1t will pass on it's merits"
 Major T. Attwater Barnes stated that he had received number of postal cards from citizens in praise of the charter as revised. About twenty of these he read. Among them was one from Dr. J. E. stetson, who wrote: 1T strongly favor revision" Among the others were cards or letters from Da- vid Strouse, who wrote: T favor the abolition of the two boards of the court of common council" From William s. Wells: "The commission deserves great credit for doing good work" From John T. Sloan: "The proposed charter is great advance toward business government" ..~
 Other postal cards, all praising the work of the commission, were read from Professor W. H. Brewer, w. w. Pond, S. H. Bond, J. H. Post c. s. Warehouse, ex-Mayor Peck and a num- Der of others. The latter wrote that the proposed new charter, in his opin- ion, fixed the responsibility and was long step in the right direction.
 Professor Greuner of Yale university was the next speaker He said: "Three great changes are to be considered the change in the date of the city cleo tions, the consolidation of the town, city and school governments and the giving of greater power to the mayor. Where there are three branches of gov- ernment there can be no economy. Why, just think of cofporatjye or a large business concern being managed in any such way as that. There is but one thing to do-consolidate the three governments"
 Ex-Judge Rufus S. Pickett-This Is the sixth time in thirty-five years that the city charter has been entirely re- placed by another, ora charter revised so that it practically becomes new one. In 1857, in 1868, in 1870, in 1871 and in 1881 there were practically complete revisions, and the present charter, which has stood the, test for thirteen years, has proved better than any of the previous ones. It acts like a bal- ance wheel, and all the different de- partments serve as an effective check A