The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-20
WEDNESDAY. JANUARY zo. 1909.
\. COMPROMISE WHICH 'r'4'i'
 DOES NOT COMPROMISE

In discussing the harbor line Ques- lion. as acted upon by the board of Aldermen Monday night, such matters as the divisions upon both sides of the board, the overriding of the mayors decisions, etc., may be omitted as or minor importance and as having no material bearing upon the merits of the real issue.
 That real issue was between gov ernment-railroad line which absorbed some eleven acres of harbor area for the railroads benefit and threatened to so damage certain anchorage basins as to render them practically value less. and city line which hugged quite closely the present dock front. Both might be called extreme lines, and common sense would have sug- 1ested some 'ehappy medium between them.
 The board of Aldermen, by a close vote, discontinued the city line, and while refusing to accept the railroad line, established a. new line so close thereto that a microscope is almost needed to discern the difference. It saves to the harbor a triangular space. the apex of which Is at the Nau- gatuck wharf and which spreads to width of about 30 feet at the base it's area about one acre. That is, the new city line saves about one-eleventh of the area threatened by the railroad line, or not enough gain to materially benefit the harbor, and not enough loss t omaterially damage the road. It does not abate any of the objections to the railroad line. but in these respects leaves the situation substantially as before.
 It is, by courtesy alone, called compromise In difference adjust ments classed as compromises, the us- ual procedure is for each side to make concessions until some happy me- dium'' is reached. Tn this case, all the concessions are made / upon the one side, though it must be said that the arrangement does leaves the, oppor- unity for one concession by the other. side, viz, the abandonment of tri- angular slice which is ridiculously dis proportionate to the entire area in question. It is compromise which 00CB ilOI SOiiPAO OAA1A5S HAe~SsASAAS ~ surrender.
 There are no conditions attached-no provision for the requirement of wharfage south of the Stratford ave- nue bridge, no stipulation that the Naugatuck wharf shall be removed and the area hereunder dredged, in fact nothing whatever is asked for the gift of some ten acres of harbor area, gave perhaps the continued existence of Bridgeport harbor upon paper" It Is tho most jug-handled arrangement ever dignified under the name of a compromise. It is better, microsco- pically better, than Mayor Lees plan which was for a full and abject sur render. As the Chinese say, the city "saves it's face" under the Aldermanic compromise; under the Mayors plan, not even the face was to be saved
 It is urged that under existing con- ditions nothing better was attainable, and that the saving of one acre was better than to lose the entire eleven. The Farmer has believed that a steady, determined insistence upon the city line would bring about an adjust ment satisfactory to the city, for the road was asking for more than it needed, with the evident purpose of eventually accepting reasonable and real compromise.