The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-11-04
BEDDING MAY
 DEMAND AN
 INVESTIGATION
Dissatisfaction Over Methods Employed
 in SqueIching Original Inquiry.
SUPPRESSION POLICY UNPOPULAR

Bedding, Nov. 4.-Some who attend ed last Wednesdays town meeting and many who did not. are disposed to even the movement which was then temporarily squelched. Whether this disposition will take form in a peti- tion for another town meeting or pro- ceed along different lines, or whether 1t will materialize at all, remains to
 be seen. There is no denying that the last meeting left distinctly bad inn
 pression on the public mind not only
 because 1t had evidently been packed
 in the interest of the "smothering
 policy and because the spokesmen for
 this policy were mostly former officials,
 but because of the rancorous feeling
 manifested towards those not in ac-
 cord with the suppression idea These
 gag rule tactics and this bitterness
 found partial expression in the cut
 ting short of George S. Banks before
 he had finished the statement invited
 from him and in the suppression Dy
 Chairman w. H. Lounsbury of several
 resolutions relating to subjects com
 prised in the warning and which had
 been placed in his Lands for submis-
 sion to the meeting The disinteresteu
 open minded part of the public are
 asking Why this bitterness and these
 fiutterings of extreme trepidation if
 everything is all right?' Everyone
 can understand that while an innocent
 person naturally feels indignant at De-
 ing unjustly accused he would at the same time quite as naturally insist
 on a full disclosure of the facts in or
 der that accusations and suspicious
 might be swept away and a real vim
 dication afforded And from this point
 of view it is wondered how former officials who might feel menaced by an
 investigation can be content with that
 sort of a vindication which comes from concealment. At the meeting J. B.
 Sanford expressed deep regret over the newspaper publicity given the agita-
 ton for an inquiry. because of the
 cloud thereby cast upon the towns
 fair fame. The comment of another citizen on this was that if there had previously been a cloud. the doings or
 the meeting made the cloud gooo
 deal bigger and blacker.
 Representatives of the smothering
 policy justify it largely by the claim that former First Selectman Banks
 was actuate6 by spite towards Town Clerk Nickerson and consequently was
 discredited. Others say that admitting
 an element of personal animus the
 charges should have been dealt with
 on their merits. Specific accusations
 lined one and was ready with others
 but sat down with his statement un-
 finished owing to interruptions ana tne bitterly hostile temper shown him. IT the request for the advancement or
 
 1, consistent course would have been to order an inquiry into the particular thing brought forward. This was the charge that the Town Clerk had fail ed to account for money paid him Tor dog licenses and defied the selectmen in their effort to secure such an ac- counting.
 As to the spite phrase of the case
 it has been locally a matter or com mon knowledge that there has been enmity, originating in politics. between Mr. Banks and MT. Nickerson for a long time. The degree Of enmity on | the latter's part Is well evidenced py a weirdly curious letter written oy him last fall to State Attorney Jud- son regarding Mr. Banks and the
 Mark Twain burglary case. In this case as may be recalled. Deputy Sher-
 iff Banks had done brilliant piece of work by capturing the burglars from a clue furnished by their heel prints which he made out by lantern | light and was himself shot in lire
 and death struggle with one or the | criminals Of the two belligerent pas
 sages between the parties. one may be | likened to a blow in the dark ana the other to an attack in the open About the political feud the average citizen
 cares nothing except for the lndirec. effect 1t may have of putting unworthy
 men in office, keeping fit men out lor | office or shielding officials from the
 just consequences of improper acts.
 Some blame MT. Banks for not hay ing taken immediate legal action | against the Town Clerk in the matter | of dog license receipts according to the advice of the Attorney General in- l stead of making the case, the pasls
 for an attempted probing of all the | departments. As to this MT. Banks Il says that in providing for general | investigation he was following plan | approved by many citizens and further | from a willingness to have h1s own ! ewNeA Q
 strongly inclined, as the writer knows
 to include the proposal for an invesu- | gation in the warning for one or the ] special town meetings held before the | election, but hesitated because he thought this course would Joe con- | strued into an attempt to keep MT. Nickerson off the ticket and his un- derstanding then was that MT Nicker-
 son would not try for another term. So much for the personal side Of the controversy and now as to the proof os correctness in the public accounts furnished by the attestation or the Town Auditors from year to year. Ev- | eryone who knows is aware that tnis
 auditing examination being nasty and superficial practically amounts to it- tle or nothing. The Auditors ma that the fottings of columns of figures sup mitted' to them are correct but what ! lies behind this apparent correctness
 they do not know and in the case Of | orders representing payments Tor un- Iitemized bills it. would be difficult for them or even for an investigation committee to find out Occasionally they do spot something which seems | to be wrong A few years ago Auditor T Henry Duncan refused to sign the usual certificate of correctness because of apparent discrepancies which were not explained to his satisfaction. More recently he found that justice Of inc peace had received two payments of identical amounts for costs in what were entered as two criminal cases he had tried. The justice. when asked to explain was sure the entries were right but could name only one case to correspond. As MT. Duncan, in his ca | pacity of grand juror, had issued all | the criminal processes brought that wear he refused to pass the second item and 1t was removed, Treasurer Hill promising to see that the money | erroneously paid was returned. Pre- sunably reimbursement was made but the auditor did not follow up the mat mat fer to make sure. In another auditing session. Mir. Duncan asked MT HI