The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-15

Warner to Mayor Lee, explaining tn
 views of my father and myself upo
 the 20 year water contract and tn
 movement for it's extinction, is tn
 first distinctly human note in the bit
 ter fight made by the Bridgeport lily
 draulic Company to obtain the con
 tract and to preserve it after it's e2
 ecution was accomplished.
 It appears that some corporations o'
 have souls inasmuch as campaign:
 waged against wrongful corporate act'
 have in certain eases at least, power t'
 awaken in individuals connected witt
 such corporations the sense of respon'
 sibility. and the feeling that they, as
 Individuals. are held to moral account
 ing by the public, In the same way as men are held accountable who dc
 wrongful acts in their own persons.
 The human quality in MT. Warmers letter is that it is mainly an attempt to justify two individuals, my father and myself" in course of conduc which has met with public cOndemna- tion but which has never been charg- ed against MT. Warner, either father or son.
 True, it has been generally known that 'tny father and myself were the executive officers of the Bridgeport lily draulic Company, but there has been until now, no certainty that they were the active executive officers, and mo- body has been certain that they were the active authors of a line of action that might have~been the product o1 too zealous servants, such as large cor porations frequently have.
 The letter to Mayor Lee is plainly the letter of men who recognize the existence of public opinion that is condemnatory, who regret that sucf sire to modify it, less for the financial benefits that modification would bring, than to feel that they are re- habilitated in public esteem.
 The almost world wide agitation against the aggressions of special-priv- 1lege wealth, which in this country has hsen lead by President Roosevelt, has developed nothing so remarkable as the fact that those whom the presi- dent has described as the criminal uich', are less sensitive to the dimin- 1Ition of their revenues through the activity of an awakened public con- science, than to the loss of the regard and affection of their fellow creatures.
 The "reminiscences of MT. Rockefel- Ger, now running in one of. the period acals, are devoted to proving that he is just an ordinary man with heart Ifilled with love for his fellow creat- aIres, who has made mistakes, but by a too great zeal, rather than out of a hnere sordid desire to pile up riches. 1 Many men, events, laws, prosecu- hions and threats of a sterner public judgment have brought home to the administrators of monopolies the truth khat Midas had asses' ears. The lead tng teachers have been Roosevelt, Bryan, Hughes, Folk of Missouri, Heney of San Francisco and LaFollette sof Wisconsin.
 ! The agitation against which ''my father and myself" protest, which we lind so difficult to endure, is not a To- calized thing. It is merely typical of a form of protest that is moving fhrospghout the world. Its object is mot MT. Rockefeller, it is not ''my father and myself but it's object is fo halt system which amounts to Theft of the public wealth under the forms of law, and to show that this ks a country, in which neither a Rocke- Teller, a Hartman, or a father and myself" are entitled to special privil- eges under the law.
 MT. Warmers letter is well enough as an explanation of the motives of him. self and his father It was entirely proper that they should consider what hhe future will need in the way of water supply.
 If they did not consider it, and pro- vide for it. their charter says that all Hheir rights. powers and privileges shall forthwith cease and terminate.
 The city did not need a twenty year contract to insure the performance of that obligation.
 The exclusive right to sell @ com- 1nodity, that is an absolute necessity, to 100000 people and soon to be 2O0,- 900 people, is not one that "my father co1f 0rfn fnif lxnn in O as they do something of the difficulties that beset a competitive business, in which nobody has exclusive rights to sell to anybody.
 It is also true that business men d1now the necessity of contracts, as MT Warner says in his letter to the mayor. But they do not know the ne cessity of 20 year contracts, and it is exceedingly doubtful if there can be found in the city of Bridgeport a bus iness man who has entered, or will en- ter into a contract to take a given commodity at given price through a period one-fifth of a century in dura- fion.
 Again if '.my father and myself had a contract with some person, to supply MS with some commodity, "at the low est market rate,' would we substitute tn place of it a contract in which we agreed to pay for 20 years price that is higher than the lowest market rate?
 It issnot strictly true that the people of Bridgeport are entitled to a supply of water of the Bridgeport Hydraulic Company at reasonable price. They are entitled to this, and to supply of water at as cheap a rate as any other city, shall be supplied by a private corporation.
 They are also entitled to such reve- nues as may be obtained from the tax alton of the property of the Bridge port Hydraulic company at it's full value.
 They are also entitled to have the hydrants furnished and kept always in order and supplied with water ready for use.''
 Thus saith the charter of the com pany. Thus has said the city attor- ney now in office and a long line of his predecessors.
 A reasonable rate is not such a rate as my father and myself'' may elect to charge. It is such a, rate as yyill yield a fair dividend upon the ac- tuaI investment in our property.
 It is such rate as the Supreme Court of the United States has de-