Norwich bulletin., 1909-05-29
ANOTHER WEEK CONE,
 NOTHING, ACCOMPLISHED.
The Slow Going Connecticut Lesisla- ture-The Billiard Company Resolu- -tion-Friday Sessions-Adiournment in the Early Fall.
Special to The Bulletin.)

N~EOO@N~@ Hartford, May 2S.-For three days the senate and four days the house have been in session this week, and not a single thing accomplished; and here it is the first of June. To be sure the session of Thursday amounted to noth
 ing in the way of transaction of busi- ness, but the house got nowhere on the
 other days and the senate has got to a
 point where few measures are on it's calendar and it is--well, not exactly waiting on the house, but undoubtedly slowed down because of the delay in the lower body. Any talk of an effort or the part of the senate to get the
 house to hurry or any action looking to bring the house up with a sharp turn is nonsense, however.
 It is out of the question that this should be done, especially as there Is
 no practical way of doing 1t. The house can dilly -dally as long as it wishes and the senate will merely have to grin | and bear it. Governor Weeks is like ly to send in a special message ere long, asking the house to try to ex-
 pedite matters a bit, for the chief ex-
 ecutive is getting weary of the way affairs are going, but 1t is question ale how much good that would do. The trouble is that the house is more thoroughly unorganized than has been the case in any session in re- cent years. There is no machine and TO real leadership. Since it has tast- ed blood by way of turning down the judiciary committees reports and found it possible defeat the wishes Of Leader Burnes, there seems to be a huge delight in running away with the recognized house leaders and do- ing about as the whim of the moment dictates.
 Take this Billiard company resolu- ton, which the house debated for more than an hour on Wednesday, added a couple of amendments to and finally made the order of the day for next Thursday during the pendency of an- other amendment. This matter is in nocent enough. It is desired to incor- pcrate company to hold the stock in the Boston & Maine road, now held by John l.. Billiard, the controlling in- terest in this northern New England railroad Everybody knows that the real motive behind 1t all is to get the control of this road entirely out of the hands of Massachusetts and merge it eventually with the New Haven, which would be a profitable thing for all New England, for if there is a badly run road on earth today, it is the Boston & Maine. l know, for I've used it lot.
 Everybody who stops to ponder over
 
 the purpose of Massachusetts to get control of the New Haven and have it's head offices moved to Boston, if pos sible. There is, then, tacit con- fiict between Connecticut. which de- sires to keep what 1t has and get more, and Massachuset ;, which desires to regain somethin' it had and get more, mixed up in the matter. But the house, many of whose members are very fa- r1fIiav rrrffh oil flfe ufr ,vzyr with the bill and starts amending it into a condition where the man who drew it wouldn't recognize it. And all the time the Billiard company could incorporate under the general law and get everything it will get under this charter without, any of these restric- tiCnsi
 The reason 1t wishes a special char ter is that it sounds better to say so when it's officials go to bankers to talk finances and 1t is to do business in several states. It seems silly to haggle over this matter, though cer- tainly the amendment limiting the amount of capital stock, bonds and other evidences of indebtedness to a specified sum is proper. The charter should not be left wide open so that a Hartman or a 26 Broadway could come in and build tremendous trust on the basis of it.
 The house is, however, ready to fol- low Bishop of New Haven. whom it has found sincere, and for the mo- ment he is the house leader. Chand Ter got on the unpopular side of this question, and Henry Hall hasn't taken sides on it. Right here I want to say one thing of moment, which is worthy of having pin stuck in it. There is a much larger number of grafters ir the house than has been the case in some years and it is only by these fellows voting with the Insurgents" in the house that the independents win in these corporation matters. The grafters vote against the corporations simly as a holdup device. There Is little of this in every legislature, but the present is the worst since that of 1901 and one of the worst in many years for this sort of thing.
 Then, too, the house and it's nomi- nal leaders are reaping the whirlwind from the wind sown by Speaker Banks in January when he made up the com mittees. It Is the first house in his tcry to absolutely turn down the Fri day session and refuse to sit more than three days a week, by a direct vote. Other houses have nullified the Friday session by not attending and caused it to be given up; this refused to have anything to do with 1t. Its uluepenuent Splr1t was shown right here. No one can tell when it will end or what 1t win end in. When the house meets next week there will be something like. hundred matters on its calendar starred for action. At the very outside, not over forty of these can be acted on without fight-and every fight is likely to develop a pro- lcnged contention.
 You can see what it means, especial ly when l say that most of these mat ters haven't yet been in the senate and will cause fights there, too, though that body is not as dis isputatious as last session. It means that final ad- journment before August is out of the question and some mighty good judges are already saying September 1. shall not be surprised if they are right. Ii means annual sessions; that's what 1t means.
 To leave that subject 1t is not true