The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-28
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

altogether unknown to fame. is re- sponsible for a fresh discussion as to the usefulness of the New Haven Chamber of Commerce At meeting of the Chamber Tuesday evening con siderable business was brought to the attention of the body, resulting in the passage of three memorials addressed to the congress of the United States, When the third memorial was put up on it's passage, Colonel Ullman ob- jected upon the ground that memor- ials to congress constitute waste of vital energy; that the Chamber of Commerce is body designed to fur ther the interests of the municipality.
 Whether Colonel Ullman's point is we'll taken will remain more or less in controversy. It is not new point. nor is it as old as the hills. but it is squarely debatable The common view Nl DOQlCS Ol Lnc Cl1dId dCltI Ol tlr NEW Haven Chamber of Commerce is that they are designed to serve no particu- lar service in the community but to serve every purpose which can be said to concern the people of that com munity at any moment To undertake to restrict its usefulness Is like under taking to restrict the usefulness of an individual member of society who may at any moment be called upon to do work for the good of his fellows. Dur ing the dark and troublous days of 1898, when the clouds of an impend- ing war darkened the heavens, Presi- dent Mckinley did not hesitate to ask quietly the boards of trade of the country, including the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, to deprecate the spread of the gospel of war and to uphold the hands of the chief ex- ecutivc in his endeavors to reach a compromise of the dispute with Spain by diplomatic intercourse. It would have been wicked at that time for the New Haven Chamber of Commerce to refuse to add its voice to the general voice of the business men of the coun- try, and 1t would have beea especially wicked to ground that refusal upon the narrow principle that the local board of trade was In existence 10 only consider local matters The very title under which the New Haven Chamber of Commerce continues it's existence suggests that it stands ready at all times and in all seasons to add its influence to the more intel ligent ironing. out of public matters at issue
 It may be agreed that it is we'll for the Chamber not to undertake to do too much memorializing at one time. There is forge In the suggestion that to have too many irons in the fire is to weaken the effect of the heat by distributing it over too large sui :. face, but 1t was a coincidence that a the meeting of the Chamber Tuesday evening three separate memorials were presented for consideration Each was, however, important and related to urgent matters. The fate of the Appalachian irres: bill concerns the prosperity jf the manufactures of New England. Ii was, too, the tonic of the evening and was given, as it should have been gwen. the right of way The reason that the Connecticut delegation ' v sl-ees ss heard So little of this bill from the people of the State Is that until now sspe did not realize how close it's purpose lies to their own welfare. Inc b,ll to subject all census employees to a civil service examination in order that the work of gathering statistics may be done by competent men, ana net bv men appointed solely for political req sons, is an important measure and should be supported by the cepgrc. sional delegation from this State. The action of the Chamber at it's last meeting upon this subject was forced by the necessities of the case and not by 8 feverisn desire to meddln; as Col onel Ullman's protest would suggest The horn on Sperry light might have been left over for future considera- tion, but even the introduction of that matter does not affect unpIeasantly the general proposition we are laying down. If we are not mistaken, Colonel Ullnan has been more or less active in politics. If he will kindly grow retrospective for a moment he will re- call the fact that the stock excuse given by the servants of the people, when they are criticised for failing to vote in g certain way upon specified matters, is that they had never been