Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-09-26
ROBERTSON NOTIFIED
aIs Speech of Acceptance Wal
 fer Pays Respects 10 Lllley.


 crats last night enthusiastically opened their state campaign. The Hyperion theater, where the rally was held, was crowded to the doors and along the line of march of the parade there were thousands of people.
 The meeting was the formal notifi- cation of Judge A. Heaton Robertson, and the other members of the state ticket that they had been nominated by the democrats for the coming fall election. Former Mayor Ignatius A. Sullivan of Hartford, chairman of the notification committee, broke the news gently to the nominees and amid tremendous burst of applause predicted democratic victory in the state and the nation this fall. Judge Robertson responded as follows:
 MT Chairman and Fellow Citizens
 Unsolicited, and l might almost say, unexpected, for the second time l have been nominated as the stan- dard-bearer of the democratic party in the state of Connecticut.
 In behalf of myself and my asso- ciates on the ticket, accept the stan ard of the democratic party in Con- necticut, and with 1t that standard of the greater democracy of humanity, and pledge my loyal support to na- tional and state ticket, and my best efforts of heart and head to secure the success of the entire ticket.
 "The platform adopted by the dem- ocratIc party at Hartford meets my approval. believe that our platform and the principles of democracy could best be carried out by the direct primary, the secret ballot, the fur nishing of the ticket by the state, and such ticket that each man could vote for such candidate as his con- science dictated. Connecticut gave the first written constitution to the world, constitu- tion whose fundamental principles have been followed by every state in the union, the cornerstone of which constitution, was that the freedom should elect their own officers un- trammeled, and that each community, as far as possible, should be indepen- dent and manage its own local af- fairs.
 These are the fundamental prin- ciples of that broad democracy that knows no party. These are the prin- ciples which I believe have been sub verted and in their place the republi- can party has substituted in Connec- ticut a government by commission, which not only takes from the repre- sentatives of the people their right to govern, but tends to the building up of machine which takes away all their free action. AS the result of this substitution, Connecticut, as much as any state in the union, is controlled by machine. It is drift ing toward those same principles of oligarchy, or government by few, which has destroyed the vital prin- ciples of free government in every country in the world, and 1t is for us gentlemen of the democratic party to turn back this tendency to ma chine government into the old chan nels of government by the people un- trammeled.
 When the people, in a district, elect their representatives,, then all that our platform demands will come. To bring about this end is the duty not only of every democrat but every man who loves his country and his state and believes in free government.
 'We have been, during the last few months, through business depres- sion, one which Connecticut has felt, owing to its large business and cor porate interests, as much as any state in the union, for when one member of the body polite is sick the whole body suffers, and any state of affairs that brings forth distress and unrest to the business interests of the com munity works not only disastrously to that interest but to all who direct ly or indirectly depend upon 1t for a livelihood.
 What we need In this country and in Connecticut is such administration of the laws that free and exact jus tice shall be administered to all, whether the individual or the collec- tion of individuals; so that confidence so easily destroyed, shall flourish again, and our spindles, our looms, our workshops and our various hives of industry shall echo once more with the busy hum of machinery and the wheels of commerce turn as they did few years ago; so that once more public enterprises can resume work, and public corporations expend their money for improvements for the benefit of the various communities. Thus shall each man feel the return of prosperous times and the dinner pail of every man shall be full to overf1owing
 Nothing tends more to bring about this result than that the chos- en representatives of the people shall be their representatives in the best sense of the term and not the puppets of political machines.
 'I have lived in Connecticut for more than 50 years, as my father did before me. It Is small state and you all know my strength and my weakness. If by their suffragists the people of Connecticut deem me wor- thy to hold the highest office within the gift of my native staSe, an office held by so many distinguished sons of Connecticut, with all humility, knowing whose servant I am, shall accept the office, and in the admins tration of the laws of the state of Connecticut shall know neither rich nor poor but shall do my duty with