The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-05-25
CONNECTICUT NOT 50 BAD AS NEW YORK STATE Horace D. Taft, Editor of Publicity, Talks on
 Reform.
HOUSE OF CORRUPTION
Head of Taft's School Sets
 Forth How to Purge
It.

Horace D, Taft, the head of the Taft School at Watertown. brother of Sec retary of War William Howard Taft, and one of the editors of Publicity" addressed a fair sized audience in the parlor of the Congregational church in Bristol Thursday night. on Some Needs of Connecticut Politics" Among those present were Senator George H. Hall, ex-Senator Adrian J. Muzzy, Judge Epaphroditus Peck, ex-Repre- sentative Henry E. Wilcox and Will Han B. Sessions, a member of the last republican state convention.
 MT Taft said in part:
 "The government of Connecticut is not corrupt as compared to New York, Pennsylvania or some other, but if a business man compares the govern ment with what it should be, they could see where it could be greatly inn proved
 Only within few years has there been much criticism, and there is q feeling of reform about the state which means there is a decided awakening The first question is how are we 10 mend things. The lobbyists do not de- pend.on the wicked men. They depend on you and me who stay aI home, In Watertown we get about 10 per cent to attend the caucus, and then in the morning we say over our coffee This thing ought not to be. Suppose we start in to change things, The thing that makes 1t hard to bring our ideas of reform to pass, is the extraordn- any bad habit of Connecticut men not to re-elect a good man to the general assembly Imagine a banker or school principle running his business that way,
 Another great thing that hampers reform Is the inability to get light on what is going on. Newspapers and others have the greatest difficulty in finding out what is being done i'll com mittees. Another thing that hampers reform is the machine. The Connecti- cut machine is made different from the machines of other states. You doubtless are surprised when you hear far ahead of state convention that John smith will be nominated for governor. You know there is not popu- lar demand for smith but you see him nominated. Newspapers are run by business men, and you wonder why an editor doesn't now and then come out for certain things Editors will tell you when you tackle them about their Y silence that they are running their newspaper as a business proposition 1 and not as a philanthropic organ.
 If the people would organize and get to work they could accomplish a great deal The question is what arc we going to do? In one state they fried a peoples lobby hired lawyers to watch legislation, but it didn't succeed Numerous attempt have been made, but one effort to reform things through the aid of Publicity, was first to arouse people, and then let in the light as much as possible. We want to give candidates records. what is being done in the committees, and everything hat is of interest at the legislature to the people who make it.
 "A platform setting forth reform measures should come up before every caucus and be thoroughly discussed Whether this would be practical or not is a matter of question All one can dc is to make a start and bring about a state of affairs so that the citizens and voters of the state can find out what their representatives are doing"