The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-29
FAVOR OF CONSOLIDATION.
MANY ARGUMENTS ADVANCED BE-
 FORE CHARTER COMMITTEES.

rUhE ChAh1Eh COMMlIlGGs
 Town, City and School Governments
 Should be Consolidated on Business
 Principles-Remarks by Judge Baldwin,
 &. $. Thompson and Ex-Mayor Peck.
 The consolidation of the city, town and school governments was the all important subject of consideration at the meeting last night of the special committee of the court of common coun- ell. which Is hearing the arguments of the citizens on the proposed revised charter as recommended by the special committee appointed by the legislature. All the members of the committee were present, and the aldermanic chamber was we'll filled with prominent citizens and taxpayers.
 Shortly after the meeting had been called to order Attorney Charles Kleiner arose and read a number of letters from Prof. H. E. Newton of Yale,, F. c. Lum, Prof. Fairbanks, A. B. Hill, Harry
 w. Asher, Rev. Dr. Newman Smyth,
 w. T. Fields, Septimus c. Fleetwood, and others. All expressed themselves as heartily in favor of the consolidation of the present three headed government, and endorsed in the main the principal features of the proposed new charter.
 When Attorney Kliener had finished reading the letters Prof. Fisher of Yale arose and in a few brief but able re- marks favored the consolidation of the city, town and school governments,and recommended the adoption of the new
 charter in it's entirety, as proposed by
 the legislative committee.
 L.Wheeler Beecher of Westville stated
 that in his opinion the proposed plan of
 consolidation was the most equitable and desirable of any that had yet been
 suggested. He said that even though
 there were few minor defects in the plan as proposed, still in the main he approved of consolidation under the
 terms of the new charter. This from
 MT. Beecher was all the more surpris- ing, owing to the fact that he has al-
 ways been strong opponent of any
 plan of consolidation.
 Judge Hobart l.. Hotchkiss of the common pleas court was the next speak CT of the evening. Judge Hotchkiss re- sides in Westville. He said: Under the present charter there Is the greatest possible amount of Responsibility and
 laxity. Every official is amenable to no
 one. and crookedness, were there any, in the several departments would be extremely hard to detect. The present system of collecting taxes Is notoriously l defective, and the, only reason that | money enough to start a bank has not been stolen from the city government is in consequence of the honesty of the tax officials" Judge Hotchkiss also ar- gued against a new assessment and strongly favored having the assistant
 judge of the city court appointed by the judge himself. In reply to question by Attorney F. s. Bishop as to whether or not he thought the tax rate too high in the districts the judge stated emphatically that he did.
 Ex-Alderman w. B. Chandler stren-
 uousy opposed giving the mayor as much power as is recommended by the proposed charter and argued that the power should be distributed and not
 centralized. In support of his position he cited the case of the city of Chica- go, which, he said, had been made near
 ly bankrupt by following a plan sim
 liar in many respects to that proposed
 by the new charter. He, however, en- dorsed the proposed plan of g. common.
 board of finance for the city, town and l school districts, the appointment of a
 comptroller and new assessment Ex-Mayor Henry F. D Peck said:
 Fault has been found with the new 1 charter because it gives too much pow
 CT to an official With increased re- sponsibility of each voter better men ! will be put on guard, and if there is no provision for bringing derelict, and dis
 honest officials to justice, they will be impeached before the courts. asg Joel A. Sperry also expressed himself as strongly in favor of consolidation. He acknowledged that the proposed new charter was not perfect in every re- spect, still it was, in his opinion, a step in the right direction, and the ma- jority of the provisions were excellent. Charles G. Kimberly also favored consolidation, but did not think the tax rate could be successfully made less than four mills. He strongly favored a reassessment and was of the opinion that the. residents of outlying districts, who wanted to pay taxes only for roads and bridges, would not be paying their. share. s4Sk5sss
 General E. E. Bradley favored the
 consolidation of the three-headed gov-
 ernment and the adoption of tho pro- posed new charter. He argued that
 the present municipal machinery was too intricate and that the new charter held officials directly responsible and could be brought to trial quickly. Said he: "The new charter is a long step in the right direction. We, demand honest and economical government and
 the more we divorce local from nation al elections the better of we shall be- I am heartily in favor of putting the date of the municipal elections of until spring of the year. He also favored giving the mayor more power.
 At. this point Professor Chandler called General Bradley's attention to