Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-03-27


 corporations lobby had felt called on to take steps. It was an omnibus bill put forth as substitute for the ex- isting law defining the status of for eign corporations. It had originated in the governors office-a fact which Kent had ferreted out within "A hours of it's first reading and for that req son he had procured printed copy, searching it diligently for the hidden menace he was sure it embodied.
 When the search proved fruitless. he had seen the bill pass the house by a safe majority, had followed 1t to the senate, and in cunningly worded amendment tackled on in the upper house had found what he was seeking. Under the existing law foreign corpor- ations were subject to state super vision, and were dealt with as pre- sumably. unfriendly aliens. But; the senate amendment to House Bill Twenty-nine fairly swept the inter- state corporations, as such, out of ex- istence. by making 1t obligatory upon them to acquire the standing of local corporations Charters were to be re- filed with the secretary of state; resi- dent directories and operating head quarters were to be established with in the boundaries of the state; in short, the state proposed, by the terms of the new law, to deal only with creatures of its own creation. Kent saw, or thought he saw, the fine hand of the junto in all this. It was a still hunt in which the long est way around was the shortest way home. Like all new-country codes, the organic law of the state favored local corporations, and it might be urged that bill placing the foreign compa- nies on a purely local footing was an unmixed blessing to the aliens. But on the other hand, an unprincipled ex- ecutive might easily make the new law an engine of extortion. To go no further into the matter than the re- quired refiling of charters: the state constitution gave the secretary of state quasi-judicial powers. It was within his province to pass upon the applica- tions for chartered rights. and to deny them if the question pro bono publico were involved.
 Kent put two and two together, saw the wide door of exactions which might be opened, and passed the word of warning among his associates; after which he had watched the course of the amended House Bill Twenty nine with interest sharp-set, planning meanwhile with Hildreth, the editor of the Daily Argus, an expose which should make plain the immense pos abilities for corruption opened up by the proposed law; journalistic salvo of publicity to be fired as last re- sort.
 The measure as amended had passed the senate without debate, and had gene back to the house. Here, after the second reading, and in the very hour when the Argus editorial was getting itself cast in the lino- types, there was a hitch. The mem Der from the Rio Blanco, favoring the measure in all its parts, and fearful only lest corporation gold might find {. a technical flaw in it, moved that it be referred to the committee on ju- dietary for report on its constitution ality; and, accordingly, to the com- mittee on judiciary it had gone.
 Kent recalled the passing of the crisis, remembering how he had has, tened q telephone the Argus editor to kill the expose at the last moment. The incident was now month in the past, and the committee had not yet reported; would never report, Kent imagined. He knew the personnel of the committee on judiciary; knew that at least three members of 1t were down on the list, made up at the be- ginning of the session by his col leagues in the army of observation, as "approachables. Also, he knew by, inference at least, that these three men had been approached, not with out success. and that House Bill Twenty-nine, with its fee-gathering amendment was safely shelved.
 Its an ill-smelling muck-heap!" he drowned, recalling the incidents of the crisis at the suggestion let fall by the two outgoing lobbyists. And so much of this dog-watch as isn't sick eningly demoralizing is deadly dull, as Crenshawe puts it. If I had any, where to go, I'd cut the galleries for tonight"
 He was returning the newspaper to his pocket when it occurred to him that his object in buying it had been to note the stock quotations; a daily duty which. for Elinor's sake, he had never omitted. whereupon he re- opened it and ran his eye down the lists. There was a decided upward tendency in westerns. Overland Short Line had gained two points; and Western Pacific
 He held the paper under the near est electric globe to make sure: Western Pacific, preferred. was quoted at 5sia. which was one point and half above the Brentwood purchase price.
 One minute later an excited life saver was shut in the box of the pub lie telephone. gritting his teeth at the inanity of the central operator who insisted on giving him "A-12z4" instead of "A-1234," the Hotel Well lington-
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