Norwich bulletin., 1909-02-20
Petitions for New Street Railway Franchises
 and the Extension of Old Ones
CONSIDERATION OF TROLLEY MEASURES
By the Joint Committee Rairoads-Promulgatio of Three Rules for the Guidance of the General Assembly
 Connecticut Company Have Their Usual Blanket Measures In-What the Promulgated Rules Require.
Not So Easy Now to Sneak Things
 Through the Legislature.

1 Not So Easy Now to Sneak Things Through the Legislature. | The third rule calls for all the de- l tails in the cases of blanket renewals, so that there shall be no grouping un- der a single head all sorts of privil- l eges and numerous charters. It has been the case in former sessions that number of charters have been re- newed simply by name, where there had been mergers or purchases, and the committee proposes to have any such made very plain this time. This is an especially good rule and ought to make for the benefit of everybody concerned. The time has passed when it is easy to sneak things through the legislature. anyway, and there is no such desire to do this on the part of the larger corporations as has some times been attributed to them, what ever may have been the cast in the past.
 While there is not enough trolley legislation before this legislature to makes these rules anything like the cessation they would have been in 1905 or 1907, there is yet enough to make it possible for some considerable conten- tions to arise in the house and senate on the basis of them. This session will not be devoid of interest along the line
 
 of trolley fights, any more than it will be along many another line which has been more or less overlooked in the general lackadaisical atmosphere which has existed thus far in the session.
 Labor Legislation.
 The joint committee on labor is not this time made up of labor members of whom, pure and simple, there are this session none in either house, to
 
 labor sympathizers, but 1t is not to be allowed to handle the labor legislation, for all that. That is, the important la bor legislation. The employers liabil- ity bill will be handled by the judiciary committee, and after a difference of opinion between the two houses, during which Senator Fem, chairman of the labor committee. stood up manfully for his committee. the measure which re- peals the conspiracy law goes to the judiciary. The senate first sent it to labor, but that was rectifed in the house. This provides that any act which 1t is lawful for one person to do alone shall not be unlawful if par ticipated in by two or more. It doesn't need much thought to see how compre- hensive this is. It wipes out our con- spiracy statute.
 General Pairing of Appropriations.
 The state is poor-though on that basis there is no general purpose to pass the substitute S7,000,0 900 bond is sue of the state tax, either, and it looks bad for the latter-and there is no thought on the part of the appro- priations committee to let that fact be overlooked when the appropriation asked for is something which can be done without. This was made plain in the case of the unfavorable report of the bill providing for the purchase of the Eldridge collection of civil war lel- ics. It is understood that there will be a general pairing of appropriations wherever possible. though it is well known that Senator Blakeslee, the chairman of this committee, has no thought of being niggardly in the mat ter.