Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-12-08
BUSY BOARD hIEIIBERS
listened 10 0vertaxed Individuals
 Men Who Dodge Renls.

The board of equalization is wrestling with property owners who come and want to have a heart to heart talk with the gentlemen who constitute that board regarding the value set upon their holdinEs. One caller said to-day that there was no use looking for redress un- til We have horizontal change in state politics which will result in giving us n legislature that will have keener conception of the dif- ficulty that besets owners of city property than can be expected from a legislature made up largely of reps resentatives from the country dis. tricts who don't know anything Of the hardships inflicted upon city rate payers by the continuance of laws which enable tenants to occupy homes owned by others and then move out when they get good and ready leaving big rent bills unpaid. That's the fault of the landlords'' replied one of the officials. Any. body renting house these times and neglects to collect in advance is be- hind the times. for it is an age of deception and downright dishon- esty and large number will not pay anything unless they have to. The rent jumper is about the lowest specimen of beat in the market, but everybody ought to be aware of him. You may say that the man who re- fuses to pay for the roof that shell ters his wife and children is a bad citizen, which Is true, but the butch er,. the grocer and everybody else that he can get into for a dollar has the same story to tell. admit that we have too many farmers in the general assembly. but if you have noticed there is tendency to keep them out, not because they are dis honest, but owing to the fact that they are wholly ignorant of the con- ditions that prevail In city life. Ev-. erything that effects the farmers Is we'll looked after in the legislature. because they have men there famil- far with the needs of those who live by tilling the soil, but 1t is quite different with city folks and as a re- suit you find people dealing in tene. ment property at great disadvan- tage. The law as 1t now stands in- stead of protecting man in his right makes 1t almost common prop erty, and people who don't intend to pay know just how far they can go and not leave themselves liable de- ny that the republican party is any more responsible for this condition of affairs than the democrats. I think if you visit the capitol next year you will find more democrats clamoring for laws that tend to give people chance to get out of paying their honest debts than republicans. If do not mistake the enactment that gives a man the right to move out and take his things with him while at the same time being in arfears for rent. was forced through the legislature by democratic influence"
 The visitors thought that if this were true the legislators at Hartford must be pretty easy. "If not" he ask. "how do you explain that such vicious measure could have been railroaded through the house and senate and receive the signature of the governor when the democrats are not in 1t when it comes to counting heads?"
 At this juncture two or three oth- CT victims entered and their pres- ence brought the discussion to an abrupt termination.