The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-14
SAVING THE SHORE.
Scheme for Public Reservations in Con-
 necticut.

nectlcuLs
 A movement has gained considerable headway in Connecticut, initiated by Judge Harry W. Doolittle, of Branford, to reserve for public use certain sec tions of shore front. The agitation is timely, for private owners are fast buying all available land and shutting out the public. A petition for a seawall to the Connecticut legislature last year happened to fall under the eye of a resident in the locality, who protested against the state granting to the petl- tioner the additional land involved. This served to bring up the larger question of shore monopolization; and an unottl- cial investigation revealed the fact that very little of the Connecticut shore is open on any terms to the citizens of the state.
 "The public should demand consider ation," says Judge Doolittle. Connect icut has already more than 100000 people. It has, and will continue to have, but one seashore and from near ly all of that the public, even now, is excluded"
 Bridgeport's Seaside park is referred to as an example of what the state could do to transform the malarious swamps along the shore front that re- main unappropriated by private own CTS. Draining and grading have driv- en the mosquitoes out of the salt marshes, and as result malaria has disappeared. .., ~..
 Shore parks, it is found, attract many | more holiday makers and nearby resi- dents in search of a breathing place than any inland reservation. This is ! not strange; and yet far more atten- ton has been paid to the saving of for est tracts and to interior town parks. ! The Metropolitan park commission of i Massachusetts never made a wiser use l of money and energy than in fitting Revere Beach for the enjoyment of the public. -,. s....5... ..-
 The case of the shore front owners has not attracted wide attention be- cause holdings have been comparatively small, and a comfortable feeling that some sea beach could be reached has caused the natives to regard these summer villas as fads-mere tempor- \ ary inconveniences. It was not so long I ago, however, that New Rochelle was Waging an earnest fight for an outlet to the shore-and MT. Iselin's gift Of :, water front park settled what prom ised to be difficult problem. The people are being crowded back by the Fnew 'baronial rnillionaires,' whose mon- j ey enables them to shut out the world from land that has been free to the passage of all.P Thus the case is put I by one critic. s.13 r.. < sS3.- < 5.. l Judge Doolittle and those who have taken the matter up with him are point ing cut that what the state has neg
 lected to do corporations are doing tc
 their own profit. Trolley companies
 know that a seaside ''resort" will draw I crowds from May to October. A Coney l Island in the Westchester hills would . be inconceivab1e. Something less giddJ d than Coney Island, not so purely com
 mercial as trolley park" and not sc
 exclusive as to pagoda bath-house or {
 private yacht landing, is what the statt is asked to provide. At this time it i'
 not considered improbable that a move H ment started by the Connecticut gen eral assembly will meet with hearty GO .l operation from the owners of short
 property In Massachusetts and Maine the problem is simpler, and along thu , coast 100 miles south of New York it i
 hardly more than a matter of choosing
 the sites-land is still cheap, and ther'
 is no scramble for it.-New York Even ing Post.