Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-05-04
Governor at Chamber of Com
 merce Meeting.
SCORCHES STANCHFIELD IN SPEECH
Senate's Refusal to Remove Otto Kelsey From Office Was Referred to as We'll as the Public
 Utilities Bill.

extent the text Of GoVefnOr Hughes
 comments upon the pending bill for
 the creation of the proposed public
 service commissions at the chamber
 of commerce meeting here last night.
 Among the speakers who preceded
 the governor was John B. Stanchtield,
 who made an attack on the public util- ities bill. The governors speech was a
 vigorous rejoinder to Stanchtield and created the greatest enthusiasm of the evening. The governor literally fiayed the Elmira attorney and his argument,
 and the audience enjoyed the scene i'm
 mensely. Mir. Hughes said in part:
 Now, I didn't come here to join in a
 debate. It is entirely true that I had
 proposed to say some things in regard
 to the very measure of which my friend, MT. Stanchfield. has spoken, and
 l shall not say any less, but perhaps
 something more In distinction from
 my learned friend I am here under a
 retainer. I am here, retained by the
 people of the state of New York, to see
 that justice is done and with no dispo-
 sition to injure any investment, with every desire to give the fullest oppor-
 tunity to enterprise and with every
 purpose to shield and protect every just property interest
 'I stand for the people of the state of New York against extortion against favoritism, against financial scandal and against everything that goes to corrupt our politics by interference with the freedom of our legislatures and administrations. I stand for hon. est government and effective regula- ton by the state of public service cor porations
 Now, I am fully conscious. as is every one who professes to have a modicum of intelligence, of the tremen- dous advantages which the country and every community in it has derived from the extension of our railroad fa- cilities.
 Yet it is said that despite the pros perity of the country and the great benefits that have been derived from the extension of our transportation ia. cilities there is a state of unrest; that there is a general condition of discon- tent throughout the country. Why? Is 1t because of extension of means of communication? Will any one suggest to an intelligent audience that Ameri- can citizens are in revolt against their own prosperity? What they revolt against is dishonest finance.
 What they are in rebellion against is favoritism which gives d chance to one man to move his goods and not to another. which gives one man one set of terms and another set to his rival. which makes one man rich by giving him access to the seaboard and drives another man into bankruptcy or into with his more successful competitor.
 Tt is a revolt against all the influ- ences which have grown out of an un- licensed freedom and of failure to recognize that these great privileges so necessary for public welfare have been created by the public for the public benefit and not primarily for private 
 Eighteen months ago the country was shocked by the revelations made in connection with the insurance in- vestigation. Those ill whom the great est confidence had been reposed, men Of the highest standing in the commu- nifty, were found to have betrayed their trust, and hundreds of thousands of policy holders through the state found that their interests had been dis regarded. Vast funds contributed by them. imposing the most sacred obli- gatiOns upon directors and executive officers, had been used for improper and corrupt purposes. Accounts had been manipulated and improper meth Ods of vOuchering resorted to in order to conceal extravaganza and corruption.
 Yet all this was done in a business under state control. All these transac- tions took place when q department of the state professed to have subjected the companies engaged therein to the most rigid examination. The state held them forth accredited to the world as models of honest enterprises.
 Yet seven or eight months after the of the law which resulted from this investigation when L as- sumed office found the insurance de- partment in substantially the same condition iu which It was at the time of the investigation. Those who had been grossly dcrelict in their duty and whose neglect or connivance alone the abuses tD which I have re- ferred had been made possible were still retained in relations of trust and and were regarded as suit able channels for the information in with which the state au- thOrity was to be exercised.
 That was a condition which no busi- ness manager would have tolerated in any private undertaking. It was a con- diti0n which I could not tolerate. And after an intellectual attempt 10 have the matter disposed of without a form al and official proceeding I rec0mmend- ed to the senate the removal of the present superintendent After a long delay il has finally been decided that the recommendation shall not be com piled with
 The people of tie state knew and the gT5unds Of the recon They still know and aP prove gf them