Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-06-24
LET THE TRUTH BE
 TOLD ABOUT |. F. BURPEEI
Statements Made at Hartford Are Far From It That Protest is Called For-Throwng Mud at This City and Its Officials Will Not Help the Cause of the Judge at This Time.


 about the city boards than they do with reference to the city court can not understand why anybody at all familiar with the work of the city officials could appear before the gen eral assembly and state that the books of the city are in tangle and that glaring inaccuracies have been dis covered in them. It may be all right for man to fight into the last ditch to save friend, but it never was con- sidered the part of good manhood to hold one person up by pulling down another, especially when the one who suffers by being brought into a snarl as wholly blameless. When the pres ent city administration assumed the reins of office it was generally SUD- posed that things were in a bad mess, and the first step taken was to bring in experts to look over the accounts and report the situation to the board of finance. The man who examined the records in the town clerks office found the books in excellent condi- tion and regretted that the records of all the towns in the state were not like them. All he had to recommend was that the city spend few dollars fitting up vault to save these neatly kept records in case of fire. Mir Man. vile of New York took squint at the books in the comptrollers and city clerks office and considered the sys- tenn up to date, so much so that he had nothing to recommend. This re- port was made to the department of finance by Commissioner NOrthrop, and after hearing 1t Mayor Elton said he was delighted to know that this was so. Mir Blakeslee who is a mem- Der of the board of commissioners of finance, was at the meeting when all this happened, and that is one reason why people familiar with the facts in this case cannot understand why he persists in claiming that the records have not been kept in a proper man. her.
 The reference he makes to the ac- counts of the late c. J. Griggs, for many years collector of taxes, looks like joke. A few abatements made by the aldermen and properly recorded in the journal, were not credited to the collector, but whose fault was that? As matter of fact there was nobody at fault. The petitions were filed by the collector and when he wanted to find out what became of them, all he had to do was to look at the journal and he found full particulars there. This is the part of the row that citi- zens who have no particular objection to Judge Burpee don't like. Mir Blakes- lee declared that he has been connected with the board of aldermen for five years and one would think by the way he followed this up that at every ses- sion a communication was read from Colonel Burpee demanding an investi- gation into that back assessment question, while as matter of fact nobody even hinted that there was such thing underfoot until mem- Der of the minority representation called for the report on this matter. prepared year previously, and stow ed away in the keeping of board of which Mir Blakeslee is a member. Can Mir Blakeslee point to any com municatIon forwarded to the alder men on this matter or any visit made by him to that body to say he desired an investigation? Reappoint Judge Burpee, if you want to, gentlemen of the general assembly. but for heavens sake don't be making statements and sending them broadcast which more than half the people know to be un- true.
 Speaking on this question yesterday one of the senators said he believed the senate would adopt the report of the judiciary committee recommend ing the reappointment of Judge Bur pee. He said that the remarks of Representative Blakeslee had aroused a good deal of indignation in certain quarters and that many had come forward to deny the truth of his state ments, but even at that what the sena- tor could not understand was why the thing should have been allowed to drag along for ten or twelve years un- less the city was afraid to show its hand. If Colonel Burpee," he said. ''is behind with his accounts to the amount of S10.000 or S15,000. and that this had been known right along. doesn't it seem strange that the city never took action against him? Any other municipality wouldn't let 1t go a day without taking hold of the offender. and it looks to me that Wat erbury wouldn't have stood for it either. If the officials were afraid to take it up. I think there are lots of public spirited citizens here who would rise to the occasion and compel the colonel to come forward and explain Reasoning in this way. I can see a great deal in Mir Blakeslee's conten- tion and while I have not talked it over with any of the senators I feel confident that a majority of them will look at it as l do Another very noticeable thing in this whole matter is that notwithstanding all the public utterances regarding the condition of the city'S books. nobody has come for ward to dispute these statements. don't know. but 1t looks to me. as though Colonel Burpee has the better side of the argument. If not l don't see what all your mayors. city attor- news. boards of finance and aldermen have to say for themselves for letting that run along until it got So oh that few knew much about if. A thing like that would be cleared up in one day where I live. If the allegations turn ed out fo he true the city would get the money if such thing were pos sibIe: hut In any case the eficial who had mfssppropristei 1t woubi have to move pretty quickly to get out of the way. and on the contrary If there vss nothing to it we would be in a position fo ssv SO