The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-03-16
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.
RAILROADS AND THE FREIGHT DE.
 MURRAGE SUBJECT.

MURR1GE SUBJECTs
 Judge Gager, MT. Cowles of Pennington,
 MT. Pardee of This City, Hon. II. c. Rob
 inson, MT. Goodwin and Others Heard
 Judge Elmer and His Probable Successor
 as Judiciary Committee Chairman-Mar-
 riage Ceremony Legality in Certain Cases
 Other Matters.
 Hartford, March 15.-There was a hearing before the committee on rail roads this afternoon, and James L.. Cowles of Harrington introduced a substitute bill concerning demurrage on freight, It provides that the time for holding cars shall be only twenty four hours instead of week, and pro- vides a penalty.
 Judge Gager of Derby appearing for the street railway interests spoke in behalf of the bill changing the time for making annual returns of street rail ways; also on bill concerning publica- tions of returns of such roads and another bill concerning what these re- turns shall be. He offered a substitute for these bills, embodying all the mat ters in one bill It provides that re- turns for the fiscal year ending Sep tenber 30 of any year shall be made on or before November 15 and 1t shall apply in method the same as for steam roads under the interstate commerce act. He added that he did not wish to be heard on the measure until he could consult with the railroad commission CTS, so as to see that the bill would be- acceptable.
 James L. Cowles of Pennington fa- vored having the fiscal year end with the year of the steam roads, June 30,
 MT. Gager objected. He said he did not want the bill chopped up, It was not fair to the steam roads, for they wished just what was embodied in the bill. The fiscal year having been de- fined by law; it should not be changed.
 D. L. Goodwin of East Hartford spoke in behalf of his substitute bill providing that the returns should be made uniform with the fiscal year of the steam roads.
 MT. Cowles spoke again in approval of the bill
 There are now three substitute bills pending on this one matter of railroad returns.
 Mir Cowles said that it was desirable to know just where the, stock of these electric roads is owned. He wanted to know who the widows and orphans were. Such list should be lodged with the railroad commissioners.
 W. B. Pardee of New Haven, who drew the bill concerning the publication of returns, said he was willing that his bill should be set aside if the de- tails were embodied in the substitute | bill of Judge Gager.
 Hon. Henry c. Robinson, represent | ing the Consolidated road, came to the capitol to be heard on the demurrage bill, but the hearing having been de- ferre5, he had nothing to say on any of the other bills.
 Mr Goodwin wanted to be heard on several bills. They are out of the hands of the committee, the hearings having been held. House Chairman Smith ex- plained the situation to MT. Goodwin, but said he was willing to hear what he had to say.
 MT. Goodwin then spoke on the bill concerning guard rails He said there was already provision that such rails shall be laid on steam roads and they should be provided on ungraded and dangerous places on street railways. Tn East Hartford the electric cars had beenl thrown from the tracks three times the past year and in one case 9 car went down steep embankment and it required one day to replace it.
 He also spoke in favor of the bill car rying a penalty for street roads ob- structing sidewalks when snow is swept from the tracks by the electric sweepers.
 Mir. Goodwin called attention to the act providing for the making of any change of grade of street railway. He said the spirit of the law had been vio- lated in East Hartford, where the rail road tracks were changed, thus damag- ing his sidewalks. There should be a penalty provided where street railroad grade was changed without the consent of the selectmen. The law needed amending, and all the authority in the matter should rest with the selectmen.
 A BRIDGEPORT BONDING BILL.
 The committee on finance considered the petition of Judge Beers of Bridge port for the issue of $250,O0 in bonds for permanent improvements in that city. The measure is evidently not very popular as Judge Beers was the only one in favor of the bill and several spoke in opposition. There is a desire to issue $70, 900 in bonds for school build ings and substitute will probably be introduced.
 HOUSE.
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