Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-24
THE COMMISSIONERS
A Bill in Sight 10 Have Them
 Elected By the People.

Though Waterbury's delegation in
 the legislature is, with one exception.
 of the same political complexion as
 Governor Woodruff himself, 1t is not in sympathy with his efforts to give
 him the authority to nominate the twenty-four county commissioners of
 the state. And these efforts of the | governor to clothe himself with more
 power and authority may possibly
 result in the enactment of, g bin
 which shall place the selection of
 county commissioners in the hands
 of the people, just as the selection of governor is. In fact, a bill with
 that purpose as its object has already
 been introduced in the house by
 Representative Noone of Rockville. There are twenty-four county com-
 missioners Tn the state and none
 know better than they themselves
 what a snap they have. And because
 of that they are said to be already at
 work blocking the progress of Repre- sentative Noone's bill to have the commissioners elected by the people
 instead of by the present method a caucus of the representatives of each county.
 A majority of the members of the judiciary committee favor the cleo ton of county commissioners by the people and are opposed very strongly to giving the governor authority to select them. They say around the lobby in the Capitol that 1t would give the governor too much power and would not help matters by any means. It would not tend to clarify politics, but only tend to befog things more. Quite a number of the members of the legislature seem to think that Governor Woodruff is something of the caliber of President Roosevelt in that he has set out to centralize authority in himself. for not only does the governor want the power to appoint county commis- sioners, but also the judges of the petty courts.
 Republicans as we'll as democrats in the legislature say that such a tendency is all wrong. Instead of giving the power to the people Gov ernor Woodruff would take 1t from them, according to his attitude in this matter of county commissioners and petty judges.
 Quite a number of the members of the judiciary committee are unani- nous in agreeing that officials who wield such power as county commis- sioners should be made responsible to some one and that some one ought to be the people. At present what the commissioners of any county in the state do or say, goes. and that is usually the end of 1t. The people of Waterbury had an experience of this some years ago when a commissioner of this county refused to state the residence of some children that had been taken from the county home and placed on farm. But in the end he disclosed the residence of the chill dren. because he deemed 1t advisable for his own popularity to do SO. not that he was made to do 90. because there is no power or authority by which he could be made to tell if it did not please him.
 This matter was brought to the it Is said. of some of the of the judiciary committee and they seemed to think that ofi- cials yielding such despotic author ity should be made responsible to some one.
 The commissioners of every county see danger ahead and they are work ing to keep it of. It Is the judiciary that shall report on the proposition to endow the governor with the power he has requested and also with Representative Noone's bill to have county commissioner elect cd by the people. and it is expected that the committee will De ready to report early next wesk-