Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-08
LAREIN's LITTLE HUFF.
Dsafd sf rascasieA AsstiaS Subject
 sf csnsidstshle Cossip.

Commissioner Larkin is good offi-
 cial and while he often gets on tic
 wrong side of questions 1t Is admit
 ted that he aims to do the right thing
 on all occasions. so that while people
 may not be able to look at everything
 from his standpoint nobody doubts
 his honesty of purpose. But the com
 missioner is very sensitive and can
 not brook much opposition as was evi-
 denced Tuesday night when he took
 offense at not being able to carry
 motion in which he, had a deep in-
 terest and after seeing his pet scheme delayed. if not knocked In the head al-
 togetber, he picked up his hat and
 headed for home before a third of the
 business had been transacted. and he
 would have carried out his intention had 1t not been for the persuasive powers of Commissioner Chapman.
 who headed him off and prevailed
 upon him not to kick in the traces
 while there was still so much to do.
 This. and an admission on the part of Commissioner Mcdonald that Mir
 LarkiRs case would come up later. appeased the anger of the commission CT. and he finally rolled up his sleeves and went to work again. condltlOnally, of course. the understanding being that in the end he would have his own
 way. MT IArkin may have been right. but right or wrong the question that comes to the mindt of people Is what would the commissioner do If he belonged to the minority represen- tation and was not even consulted about salaries or anythinR else. Sup posing the department of education recommended certain charter amend ments and after they had passed the board few sharp fellows in the ma 1ority got their heads together and doctored them up to suit themselves and their friends. what would Mir Larkin think of 1t? But that Is exact ly what has been done in the alder manic chamber. and if the minority say word against such tactics they are told they are talking to the gal leries. If they show bad temper and leave. nobody tries to pat them on the shoulder and coax them to remain but on the contrary somebody invariably charges them with heinz "thin skin- ned" and in many instances the i'm pntations have been much worse than that.
 As republican and working with the majority. Mir Larkin is like a great many other fine gentlemen who come into public life from time to time and cut quite figure while they stay. As democrat and counted with the minority. Mir Larkin with all his ability and good intentions. would he an utter failure. as an official. be- cause the other fellows would show him scant consideration. and if he didn't like how things were being done he would have no alternative hut simply swallow his indignation. To he sure. if permitted to do 90 by the chair. he might leave the meeting, but he would not have made many steps toward the doorway before he would hear the voices of the remain ing forces expressing disapproyal of his conduct. But Mfr I.arkin is some thing of strategist. and for all any body knows. probably he was not out of sorts at all when he made a break for the door, but took this way of clubbing his opponents into submis- sion. If this be so 1t puts the com missioner in better light and shows mt lie does not consider himself beaten when .eloquepre fails, to win over people to his way. He can em- ploy other methods. which in this case at least. proved more effective than speech. Mir Larkln is bound that
 ss Finch shall not receive less than s1 800 year. Probably she is worth it, and if so there should he no ob- iection to making 1t that amount. but Mir Pbelan doesn't want any female teacher to have higher salary than Miss Croft. who is listed at S1.4OO. Why can't they straighten out this by giving Miss Croft an increase of few dollars and then the two and the two commissioners will he happy. What difference does lt make whether the public is satis- fled or not. whether the salaries of one pr both teachers are higher than they ought to he. For peace sake. if noth- Ing else. let the payroll be made rifle larger no matter who pays the e,o; ;~l,