Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-05-02
MAYOR IN BROOKLYN
Talked on Municipal Affairs 10
 Improvement Society.

MayOf William ". IHohs pio'Su
 again last evening that he is very
 interesting talker on municipal af-
 fairs and held the attention of about 200 residents of Brooklyn, who as-
 sembled in the Lyceum to hear him
 deliver an address on improvements,
 especially in Brooklyn. The mayor
 was the guest of the Brooklyn ln- 1 proyement society and so well ! pleased the members as well as thelr | visitors that to-day he is undoubted- 1 ly more popular than ever in the section across the bridge. A few @uestions were asked the mayor af- l ter his address and he answered them quickly and without any "taf- | fy.' He told the members just what | he thought concerning the ma ters | asked about.
 It was about S:30 when the meet ing was called to order The usual
 routine was dispersed with and
 committee consisting of Attorney James M. Lynch, Alderman John II. i Malone and Benjamin R. Kelsey cs- ! corsed the mayor to the room He
 was introduced by President Jere-
 miah Devine after which he spoke h
 part as follows:
 T have been a long time in keep ing my promise to come over here to , talk to you on Brooklyn improve ments, but I assure you that 1 am glad of this opportunity. Mos of you I know personally and l think I know how you feel on these mat ters which touch you so closely. But
 I suppose there are few of you who
 realize what big job it is to carry out any scheme of public improve
 ment. I know I never did until I
 gos on the inside of the city govern ment. The machinery is much more intricate than you have any idea.
 How many of you realize that the city employs nearly 1000 men and collects and expends nearly a million and half dollars each year, all of which requires an immense expendi- ture- of forethought and anxious care. in order to make things go smoothly.
 ITO give you an example of the inability of the city to satisfy every one. You all remember one cold day a short time ago I looked at the thermometer and saw that 1t registered 2S degrees, so I told the city clerk that we'd better not let the street spr.nklers go out for the
 water would freeze and make it slippery. We'll, I sat in my office, while inside of an hour or so. not less than 1 , merck ants on Bank street and elsewhere, called me up by telephone and wanted to know why the sprinklers were not run ming. I told them. but they said. Never mind that, the dust is worse than the ice. So jus before noon we had the sprinklers out. They'd hardly started before another batch of 15 or 20 merchants were franti- eally ringing me up to find out what fools were running the city govern ment 10 allow sprinklers out on such a day to make a skating rink of the city streets. Isn't it easy to run the government and satisfy everybody"
 The mayor said it was not an easy thing to raise money for improve ments and at the same time to keep the tax rate within reasonable lim- it's. In his opinion Town Plot with. in 20 years will be one of the best residential sections of the city and with it's main thoroughfares of easy grades. the district was bound to grow. As it grew it would look for and receive improvements which are in every well populated section. He touched upon the Liberty street extension and referred to it as one of tho crying needs of the locality. According 10 the mayor Waterbury before many years will become county seat and said he had person. ally seen the city grow from 15,000 in population to 70,000. He knew of no other ely east of the Missis- sippi situated as Waterbury which had made such rapid progress.
 We can count off in the next de- cade where we shall be obliged to spend $1,000,000 in improvements outside the regular expenditures. Yet we do not want the tax rate to go mp to 25 mills. No one wants to see the rate go much higher than cent and half. Hartford is the wealth.est city of is size in the United States. That city has just comnleted a magnificent bridge.
 lf Waterbury attempted any scheme of similar magnitude it would he as necessary to appoint a conservator over us as well as over the board of edueation.''
 In closing he advised the members to meet often and endeavor to work in harmony with the city govern ment. The first ques ion asked tho mayor was information on the James street injunction got out by Baker Thomas Kelly. He said tha. the matter would have to be fought out in the courts but had no doubt hu, the city would win and James street. so feet wide, would he one of ihe principal streets to Town Plo-.
 The next unizzer was whether the city could compel the trolley com pany to lay the promised line a Town Plot. the agreement. thought to he>existine. having expired Dc cember I. 1907. The mayor replied that tho city could not force the company to art the work hut h. had recently talked with James s. Elton and the latter assured him the work would ba done when inc city had completed .ts work in the vicin- ity.
 The third wss concerning John Henderson nroperty. which VII he effected hy the Clark street cxsen- sion. The mayor said that as far ss he kneS the only trouble was the amount of damages to be paid Nr Henderson and he felt sure that this