The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-29
The Constitutional Convention.

| To the Editor of the Journal and Courier: Some time after the election when
 the vote was declared and 1t was found
 that more than three-fourths of the
 towns had voted for no convention the
 writer made some comments upon the
 results, which were printed in the East
 Haddam Advertiser, New Era of Deep
 River, the Connecticut Farmer, and
 other journals around the State and | elsewhere. These comments fell into the hands of my worthy friend MT. Os- | born of the New Haven Register, who has been the ringleader of this aggres- sive movement for many years, and he gave me a column or more of advice or otherwise, for which l sincerely thank him. He and his followers take somewhat different view of the case from what do, He lives In the largest city in the State. It is an independent republic. They have an independent charter or constitution. They set up for themselves a great many years ago and are nearly as independent of the State of Connecticut as though they were located in South Africa, and the same is true of all other cities in the State We, the towns of the State, have not interfered with their government at all We have no desire to. We love them, but we do not love to have them try to run our affairs. The cities are all right if they will attend to their own business, but they will not be allowed to attend to ours. The country towns can take care of their own. God knows that the towns are bad enough off al- ready. Why should the cities want to crush them? I do not believe they do. But, however that may be, we, the towns, will not allow 1t. We will pre- sent the solid front of 13o strong in that convention against 1t. The cities with their sympathlzers will have 36 and we think we can protect ourselves We want to use the minority fairly but we do not intend to be wiped off the face of the earth by the few city edl- tors. We know that the strong, con servative, thinking men in the cities do not wish it. Tn Hartford county there are 8 towns that are for the con- vention and 21 against it. In New Haven county there are 9 for and 15 against it. In New London county there are 4 for and 17 against 1t. In Fairfield county there are for and 13 against it. In Windham county every | town is against the convention. In l Iitchfeld there are but towns for it | and 23 against it. The Governor and | Boss Fyler by direct management were | able to get out of 26. Middlesex was able to get towns for con- yention and 13 against it, and Holland l none for it.
 Not a county in the State voted for the convention, It Is not the towns that want this convention, but the cities who have forced 1t upon the towns by popular vote. The cities want to control the towns! That is the story when all told The question now is, whether the towns will allow it. If my figures are correct there are. 36 towns in the State that voted for a convention and 132 that voted for no convention. This covers the facts. Why don't the city papers come out and state these facts? No! they are as dumb as an oyster, The noes have a majority of 96. Some of the city Journals try to draw comfort put of the fact that there are some in- 5tructions in the bill that creates They now know, all will ind out when that coIlNeHtioi coiieo together that they will be law unto themselves, the same as all other con- stitutonal conventions have been from he beginning of time. They will act IS they think best, and then refer back Q the people, not to the general assem- ply. It is all bosh to talk about pre- yious general assemblies controlling hat convention, for when it assemblies t will then be the people and their delegates who will be in command
 Hence, the absolute necessity of ap- pointing the very best most reliable, .onsst and truest thinking men in the owns to that convention, We should II bear in mind that this is in no sense
 party question. Many of the towns re holding union caucuses.
 George M. Clark Higganum, Conn.,, October 21, 1901.