The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-12-06
 ATTEMPTS REPLY
 TO AID. MEYER

The following open letter was ad-
 dressedN to Alderman Eugene l. Meyer
 this afternoon by M E. Brewster Greene. who incidentally refers to
 Lynn w. Wilson as clumsy and un-
 civil' and to Alderman Meyer, by
 implication, as a mouse" The let
 ter follows: Dear Sir:-
 While am only acting secretary for the taxpayers league and not ev-
 en taxpayer in this city. I am nov
 ed to reply to your letter of the 3rd,
 inst, addressed to the league
 Certainly the Taxpayers. league will
 have accomplished much if it can in
 duce frank and careful discussion and consideration of municipal questions Of general interest. In your case 1t Is gratifying to observe that it breaks
 party lines so far as to cause "The gether.
 But where have you been frank?
 unfortunately you have made your letter reyolve around a scheme of MT. Lynn w Wilson which with the aid of the Bridgeport Farmer, was written in the last Democratic plat form Still fresh in the minds of many IS his clumsy and uncivil attempt to force the same scheme into the 'plat- form of a Non-Political League of Taxpayers.
 I ought to be surprised at some of the deliberate misstatements and per versions of fact in your letter. It doesn't seem to occur to you that a wage scale in New York by every line of reasoning will be naturally higher than in a smaller city. Rather you choose to misapply relative pop ulation on the basis of wage per IT, 900. Take the figures submitted by you as representing the increased cost of living. Unchal1enged they ap- pear formidable. Why did your in- formant give you only a half truth, 1 VI hn tell you that he selected the lowest rate in a period of nearly forty years, induced by q period of great depression, as a basis of comparison? | The same table shows that the cost Of living advanced 4 per cent, be | tween 1902 and 1906, at whichi time Bridgeport firemen were advanced Is | per cent That Is per cent will be- persist in your. disregard of the best interests of this city.
 Again you state that the league ad- | vocates the purchase of $500, 0,000.0 % in bonds That is not true. It mere ly used the figures for purposes of | arguing that if the alder men were unmoved in their intention | to add mill or two to the tax rate | form of permanent improvement than to stir up discontent on the part of every employe of the city until he or she had obtained raise"
 You waste much maudlIn sympathy for the prisoner firemen. They are | laughing at you in their sleeves. Pri- soners they are-by sweet choice. They go to prison with their eyes wide | open. choosing that Imprisonment from a dozen openings for their ser vices They. don't care about the in- surance man-they get a pension, and | don't have to die to win. They are also Ion duty 24 hours day. except | For five days off. But what other jobs pay while you sleep?" Nor are they 'up' at hard labor. Their fire duty In Bridgeport, for the first six months of the current year. amounted to ex- actly two minutes and fifty seven sec 0nds per day, exclusive of No. 1 chem- cal. which averaged ten minutes and 'orte-two seconds per day. The bal ance. of the 24 hours Is spent largely | md very little routine. Do you won Ter that free workmen everywhere Ire anxious to exchange their free iom with these poor underpaid fire nen?"
 Your statement about the firemen 'eing threatened with punishment for attempting to better their position is If you have knowledge 'f such threat and do not make it , public. you are liable to impeach-1 nent. n
 You may vote for the increase. but Bridgeport is waking. up, and destiny Iwafts you just around the corner.
 Signed
 M E. BREwsTER-GREEN
 CARPENTERS EYE CUT. |.
 John J. Haggerty, a carpenter liv- i'm In1l fCfa Infs ~t.sr I