Waterbury Democrat., 1901-10-16
PREPARED FOR CONVENTION.
New Years Day is the Date Fixed for
 Its Opening

vention, says the Hartford Times.
 But such is the provision of the bill
 calling the convention, for it names
 the first Wednesday of January,
 somewhat short of three months from l today Three weeks from this time, the first Tuesday in November, the l delegates are to be chosen.
 Other than by providing that the
 convention shall assemble in Hartford
 on the date named, the bill leaves the delegates free to arrange their organ- ization, method of procedure, etc, as
 they may choose. The place named
 is the capitol, and, while Comptroller Chamberlain is not instructed by law to provide for the convention, he will assume that the organization has prac- l tically the same standing as the gen. I eral assembly,, so far as his relations l toward it are concerned. He will pre- nare the hall of the house and make such other arrangements as are nee | essary for the comfort of the mem 1 bers.
 Although the bill providing for the l convention lacks any instructions Ill l the matter, the secretary of state will l doubtless prepare, as he does for the general assembly. a roll of those elect ed There is nothing in the bill either, 1 providing for calling the convention to l order on the opening day. The house of representatives is ordinarily called 1 to order by the speaker of the proceed ing house or, in his absence, by the
 member of the house who is senior in term of service. No qualifications of
 similar nature attaching to any mem
 Der of the convention, and the bill pro- yiding for the convention being silent
 on the point, it might properly come
 within the line of duty of the secretary of state to call the convention to order
 The hour of the assembling of the convention is not provided for 1n the
 bill. Probably it will be at 10 a. m.,
 or such other hour as may be decided
 upon formally by the delegates. A temporary organization according
 to ordinary parliamentary usages
 might follow, including calling of the
 roll. to be followed by the election of
 president of the convention from
 among the delegates. This could be
 settled by meeting of all the dele
 gates the night before the opening of
 the convention.
 The bill gives the delegates to the
 convention a free hand in appointing
 all of their own officials as section 6
 reads that the delegates, after appoint
 ing president, may appoint such
 other officers as they may deem neces
 sary for the convenient transaction of their business, and they may deter mine what shall be the duties and compensation of such other officers respectively" No partisan feeling should influence the delegates in mak- ing such appointments as are neces- sary.
 One of the earliest problems which the state comptroller will have to de eide will be that of the seats. There are 254 desks and chairs in the hall, and the convention will have only 16S members to provide seats for on the floor, or, more accurately speaking, only 167, as the presiding officer, who will be one of the members, will occu py the speakers desk.
 Whether to leave the unnecessary seats for the use of spectators or whether to remove them, and if so, how the remaining seats are to be ar ranged to present the best appearance are problems which the comptroller and his assistants more immediately charged with these duties, superin- tendent Stevenson and Mir Wilson, will have to solve. The 254 seats are ar ranged from front to rear in seven rows, varying from twenty to forty six seats each, with two additional short rows of ten seats each in the extreme corners of the hall-the lat ter quite undesirable owing to diffi- culty of hearing the chairman or clerk. The first five rows. counting back from the speakers desk, have 164 seats, or three short of the required number Six rows would give 200 The two cen tral sections have only 142, even with a dozen undesirable seats in the ex- treme rear. An arrangement which | would be still better would be to use the seats in two rows ? to z inclusive | around about two thirds of the way | from the center aisle in each direction, | and take out the short front row so | as to allow more space in front of | the speakers desk. This plan would | give ITO seats, and would leave space at each side for chairs for spectators, the desks being removed. These chairs might be separated from the part of | the hall allotted to the members by a | light railing. The effect of this plan would be to make a compact body and the members from the spec tators. The desks in the hall being | rather crowded at present, still an other arrangement for the convention might be to remove all excepting the 167 needed and give each desk more space while preserving the present general arrangement.
 It is probable that the seats will be | allotted by drawing, as usual in the l opening days of a legislative session.
 Some arrangement will need to be made for increased accommodations for the representatives of the news papers. The present six desks and the few inconveniently placed chairs fitted with arms for writing purposes will be quite insufficient.
 Whether the convention will follow the usual legislative plan of appointing to consider the more i'm portant propositions offered is an open question It is thought, however, that the committee feature will appear in some form or other, as hearings in com- mittee would afford opportunities for the presentation of arguments by gen. tlemen who, not being delegates, could