The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-23

necessary to go back to the one mar
 power. never heard any objections tC
 the provisions of the charter as we have
 it to-day until pretended reformers un.
 dertook to reform backwards. Show
 me- if you can, any wrong there was, ol is, with the board of education. The
 school committee of the district work heartily and we'll, without pay, anc they uphold the best interests of oul
 schools. They are among the very best
 men to direct the schools. They have the respect and confidence of the city
 of New Haven. We have but one
 school district in New Haven, and the
 district elects the school commissioners
 A certain number of them goes out ey-
 cry year. I do not know of what misde.
 meanor, I do not know of any robbery
 committed under the present charter
 You would never have heard of this
 charter except for this one man power
 That is what it is, stripped of all its
 covering. It is one man power, or non-
 partisan government. There is only
 one thing I would urge if we are to have
 a change; let the city commissioners, if
 you please, be elected in the same way
 
 Let each party nominate one or two
 men to serve as commissioners. The
 people will see that you have the prop
 CT men. The method is now by the
 board of aldermen. I would give 1t to
 the people. You cannot stand by one
 man power to any extent, but you can
 stand by the people and their will. If
 you will give us that there will be no
 further trouble in relation to it.
 am not going over the charter de-
 tail by detail, for I am not wholly in-
 formed in regard to it. I have looked
 it over and have investigated it, but I
 cannot say am an expert I am here
 to give my opinion as a man who has
 lived in New Haven fifty years, and we have never had better government than
 we have there to-day.
 I was a little surprised to hear the re- mark made by my good friend Mayor York before your committee the other day. In one of his speeches before the chamber of commerce in New Haven, he said, if remember correctly, that no city was better governed than New Ha- ven, so far as his experience extended, none where the taxation was so low, and it was his boast to the people of New Haven that it's taxation was lower, its morals better, and so far as the public was concerned, none were better served, Now it is said that the city of Washington is the best governed city on our continent, and that is by com mission, gentleman, a commission of six. Now, If I was going to make a charter myself, would take the old town as a basis, as they do in England. If you please, have the town council men, which would be an enlargement of the board of selectmen. Leave these matters to them and you would then have one government and would be able to fix the responsibility of fifteen or twenty whereas now in New Haven we have 50 or 75 to put the responsibility upon. I think of all forms of govern ment ever invented by man to govern a a form of city government is the worst. If you will remember it was Jefferson who said the cities were sores, great sores on the body polite. If you will remember that De 'Toque- vile Brice and J. s. Fawcett state, in substance, that of all forms of govern ment for a community, that of the city is the worst. It is very seldom that you hear of a town officer going wrong, very seldom you hear of a town officer 1efaulting or robbing. Of course some times there may be a man so inherently bad that he will go wrong anyway, but It is not the fault of the town, and I say to the representatives of country towns here presented, be careful, be very careful, how you let go your rights as ! town. Now, I was pleased when a year or two ago the good city of Willi- mantle, then town, wanted to change her form of government. Take the great city of London, it is governed by l commission. It is true there is the, ord mayor who presides in a way, over ! few blocks, and turns out once a year with feathers, and has a parade, etc, ,ut even now parliament is trying to ake his fuss and feathers" away from Jim. Why, it is said the little town if Willimantic is too large for town, md yet we have the great town of Manchester, and other places in Eng and governed by a town council. And -ou will find but six or seven cities in England that are governed by a mayor. 7hey have learned something over there bout town governments, for they have I ived longer than we. I have said I ! ras in favor of consolidation. If you con- olidate under Q town you can have con- l olidation in fact, but if you consolidate | nder a city you have got to keep upi wo forms of government. Why the | ther day I met two good citizens com- ng from the town meeting. They had | oted for Consolidation, they said. | Then you want two governments" I | sked them. ''No, we want but one | overnment." When I explained that | here was no other system whereby | len could acquire the right of suffrage nd citizenship, except through the owns; that it was the selectmen who lade the voters, they saw it in differ mt light. Every such act as this you re asked to give New Haven, if not understood, tends to degrade the liberty l nd dignity of the people. Professor
 ivermore says that the town of New raven, the town government of New -aven was the germ of the national re- ublic. Yet here are people to-day who re ready to destroy that government 1 ,hich Professor Livermore says was le germ of the government of the
 nited States. Governor Harrison told ou in his speech that you could not astroy the towns, that the towns were
 ' AI..a l1,s,