Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-01-18

The dispute regarding the in
 creased salaries of the city attorney
 the mayor and others is not bothering
 those who are the beneficiaries in the
 matter. Some of the republican al
 dermen of the old board have said
 that it was their intention the vote
 to increase the salaries should not
 take effect until this month. The
 men who have made this statement
 would be the first to mock such words
 had they come from other directions
 on the board of aldermen. They
 would be considered as silly in the
 extreme by these aldermen for they
 are well aware that what is intended
 and what is done are entirely two different things in every respect and every circumstance.
 Judge Burpee of the city court to- day stated that it made no difference
 whether or not City Attorney John
 P. Kellogg added to the vote to in-
 crease the salaries that the vote
 should be immediate in it's effect, for
 that would have been the result any
 way unless otherwise stated.
 Legislators ought to be aware that
 all private acts differ from. public acts in that they are immediate in effect, so that it was entirely un- necessary for anyone to add that stip- ulation to the vote.
 Postmaster Filling, who was chair man of the board of aldermen when the vote was passed asking the gen. eral assembly to increase the salaries of certain officials has been inter- viewed on the back salary question and is quoted as stating that inas- much as the charter expressly pro- hibited the raising of an officials salary while he was in office, no one supposed that the increases voted last year would date from any other time than January 1, 1908. Some of the other aldermen have been in- terviewed, too, and point to the charter provision which MT Filling claims was his guiding star. If these statements be true the aldermen have good ground to stand upon, but if not they owe an apology to the officials directly concerned in this thing and also to the public for the amount of transformation they have given on a very important matter. The city charter is not a very big book and yet many claim they cannot find anything in it which prohibite the aldermen from tacking on dol lar or more to an officials salary if they SO desire. Will Mir Filling please mention the page and section of the charter which he says he and others had in mind when the increases were passed upon? If tn" postmaster is toe busy, probably MT Spain will turn on the light so thp folks who don't pretend to bel familiar with the charter may know where they are at.
 It is generally believed that the aldermen cannot make good on the contention that they didn't think iii necessary to fix a time for the ad- vances to take effect So long as thel charter covered that point, and tho those who are saying so are hurting their own case and helping the othe fellows. But really this does not amount to much anyway. It has al ways been understood that it was risky to raise the salary of an official while he was in the harness, and in order to defeat the purpose Of the law boards managed to have those whom thev daSi~"a n ho'n get out of office while the good work was going on. For example, William H. Wright was chief engineer of the Waterbury, Fire department for few hours and during that short period substantial increase was made to the salary. After this had been done MT Wright resigned and Chief Snagg was reelected to his old berth. In like manner when Engineer Cairns was declared worthy of more pay he sent his resignation to the board of aldermen. It was accepted and Mrl Lowndes was chosen to fill the vacancy. Then about 5000 a year was added to the salary of the en- gineer whereupon MT Lowndes threw up the job and Mir Cairns asked to be given back his old position and he got it. All this happened at the same meeting and didn't take up more than ten minutes time, so that the charter provision which the aldermen claim they leaned upon exists or not it is fact that all boards realized that there was some thing about this sort of business that was not quite clear to the ordinary mind. and this belief continued until after the decision regarding increases in salaries for certain court officials. all of which was we'll known last May. and could not possibly have es- ,aped the notice of all the members of the board of aldermen.
 Tn any case the hold up section in the charter is asked for and if it ir in the book nobody should be bashful about trotting 1t out.
 Mayor ThOms's Opinion.
 After reading Mr Filings state ment and MT Sherwood's somewhat epistle. think that they must have read section 21 of the charter and formed the opinion that It's provision forbidding the board to increase or diminish salaries during m official term applied to officers elected by the people. It does not: .hey are excepted by its very terms. It's purpose Is to prevent the aldermen from raising the salaries of their own appointees during their official ierms. and there Is no rule of law In this state preventing the general assembly from raising the salaries If public officials at it's pleasure.
 The last session of the general as- iembly raised the salaries of a great many public officers. including Judge Peasley and County Commissioner ieddes. and they have drawn their