Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-01-24
RELIEF MEASURES.
Opinions of Citizens Prominent in the
MOVement.

Opinions of Citizens Prominent in the
Movement.
At the meeting of the water supply &C m
mittee Friday evening City Engineer
Cairns will present plans for at once re-
Stunning work, and it is expected that the
committee will recommend the immediate
employment of as many men as can be
accommodated. Pending such action
nothing will be done toward calling a town
meeting to appropriate So, 900 to give work
to unemployed poor. Some of the signers
of the petition for this purpose, which is
now in the hands of the selectmen, have
withdrawn their names. If the water
committee should fail to take action that
will bring relief, at the meeting Friday
night another petition for town meeting
will be Immediately drawn up.
A member of the committee of three
that assisted the selectmen in the work on
the Naugatuck turnpike, who stated the
other day that the town had not realized
more than twenty-five per cent on the in
vestment, is quoted as saying that another
appropriation would bring better results,
because of the experience of the commit
tee. Fraud could be more easily detected
and the work given to those who actually
needed it.
Another gentleman, who has been a
leader in the relief movement, declares
that the men should be paid in orders on
the relief bureau and that only four stand
ard articles of necessity be glven-coaI
flour, sugar and coffee. 1t is known that
many of the orders given under the recent
appropriation were exchanged for
liquor.
That the appropriation of $4,000 re-
lieved much distress no one will deny. 1t
kept many, who otherwise would have
been without means of support, from be-
coming town paupers-men who would
rather starve than apply to the relief bu-
reau for aid.
The relief bureau, too, has saved many
from actual want and perhaps crime. Like
the work on the highway many thugs in
connection with the bureau are open to
criticism, owing more to the lack of eX-
perience of the managers than anything
else. The aim of the bureau is to aid
women and children who are in want and
who receive no benefit from the special
appropriation for public work. All who
can afford it it should contribute some
thing, however small, to the bureau.
Speaking of how and where road i'm
provements might be made a we'll known
citizen said to-day:
Some four or five years ago a large
number of the residents of the eastern sec
ton of the town presented petition, nu-
merously signed, for a new layout of the
old highway running from Harper's Ferry
TO East Mountain. A special town meet
ing was called and Engineer William G..
Smith, under the direction of the select
men, prepared map of the new layout.
1t showed while the maximum pitch in the
Prospect road, up East Mountain, was
seventeen feet in one hundred,
the highest grade by the new
route would be but eleven feet.
Another point in favor of the new road was
that it would run by the gate of the new
distributing reservoir SO that in case of a
fire or any emergency a team could be
driven to the gate and full force of water
turned on-while now a messenger must
hitch his team Mt Harper's ferry and pro-
coed on foot to the gate. A delay in
this matter of even ten or fifteen minutes
may some time ctuse the city many
thousand dollars in fire loss. The town
meeting voted not to accept the new
layout and the matter was dropped
| think this Is a very good time
to revive the project. 1t is near enough
to the center SO that workmen could easily
reach the spot without teams and the road
would be a public benefit to that section
and the people of Prospect as well. The
East mountain district Is about to erect
new school house and there are several
families who conld send their children to
school then with only about one half the
distance. the children must now travel to
reach the school. Some of those who then
opposed the project now favor it and this
seems an opportune time to agitate the
matter agains it would furnish labor
for the unemployed. 1t would cost probably
not more than ten or fifteen hundred dol
lars and the money would be well spent.