Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-28
|STANLEY'S SPEECH
 WAS AN EYE OPENER.
He Cave His Republican Colleagues We'll as the he- bers of Other Boards Broadsider for the Slip. shod Way Business is Transacted-Looks as Thoueh His Time is Up in the Republican Political Field

1 The remarks of Alderman Stanley in the aldermanic chamber Monday night | created a sort of sensation among peO- pie who like to read reports of munich pal meetings, and, unfortunately, the number is too few, nearly all of whom were little surprised to hear that the board acts favorably upon big projects without knowing all the particulars.
 There is nothing wonderful in this, and if Mir Stanley had been permitted to explain, as spectators thought he should have been, he would have men, tioned few cases where an injustice had been done to private citizens and to the public, although he and others voted in good faith when they voted on the questions. It is pretty hard to avoid this, for the aldermen haven't the time to familiarize themselves with the why and the wherefore of everything that comes before them and as a result in nine cases out of ten they know little or nothing about what they are doing.
 While it is but fair to conclude that the boards from which the several recommendations emanate do the right thing according to the light they have of such matters as come before them, still it is not unreasonable to take the ground that where so much is left to one or two men there is great danger of abuse, for no matter how well dis posed man may be he is still a vic tim of his own conceits and frequently errs when he aims to be fair to all. This is more or less true of all men, but unfortunately instead of trying to remedy the evil the tendency allover the country is towards the centralization of power and the shutting out from a Knowledge of what is going on from the public until projects have reached point where even the aggrieved par ties would hardly suggest some other course because of the expense incurred and also on account of the fact that the general body has in some way committed itself to what is under con sideration. This is the situation in the aldermanic chamber. A recommenda- ton comes to the board to do some- thing and it is passed along without much comment, usually none at all. Later on when it comes back in fin ished form the full meaning of what they did dawns upon them and they would like to retrace their steps, but in too many instances they have gone too far and they hate to turn back It frequently happens that the boar. never realizes the mischief they have done at the preliminary step simply because they often go out of office be fore the work comes up for final ac- ton and the new board feels in duty bound 10 cOmplete such unfinished business as was in the works when they assumed the reins of government. It is only the men who are on deck all the time that can be depended upon to push projects through successive boards of aldermen, so that after all the aldermen don't cut much figure in municipal government.
 It takes bright man and one who has lots of time and willing to devote it to that class of work to keep in touch with what is going on in all the boards without feeling when he looks back over his record that he had made some grave mistakes through lack of proper information. Considering that so much is entrusted to few it is a wonder that more blunders do not oc- eur, and on the whole Waterbury is as free from abuses in this line as any other town in the state, although it is said that there is not a municipality in New England where the heads of departments wield the power they do here.
 Mir Stanley sounded warning 10 would-be aldermen, and his remarks were probably the most timely that have been uttered in that board in many years.