The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-29

thrnss against an an,er dn1enr requirin
 submission of charter changes to tn < people.
 Ths vote being tie, Mayor Lee de
 sclared it lost.
 The argument against giving tn people a voice in making the funda
 mental law of the city was led by th' ! snayor. The argument on the other
 side was led by Former Alderman J M. 1orrissey, although City Attorney srhomas M. Cullinan, participated now sAnd again.
 The contest was precipitated by MT < Morrissey who offered as an amend
 Inent to the draft prepared by the com.
 lnittee, section identical with Sec
 a49 of the present charter which was s .Au omitted to the voters,by order of the slegisiature, in spite of the opposition sspf the mayors predecessor in office.
 To meet the mayors objection that eSthere are number of amendments of 20 trivial a nature that the people
 would not be interested in them, MT.
 Morriseey withdrew his resolution in
 favor nf a blanket referendum, and
 substituted another. the principal feat uer of which, is the provision, which
 enables five per cent. of the voters
 to petition for the submission of any
 section of the new charter, which is
 not then to become effective unless a
 majority of the electors vote for it.
 ''ThtE business of tacking the refer
 endum on to all Of the charter amend
 inents is the biggest humbug I ever
 heard of declared Mayor Lee.
 The mayor said that the town and
 city governments of this city and sev-
 eral other places in the state had been
 consciidated wi hout any referendum
 and in each case the action was a suc- cess, and there were places where the
 ernments had been put to the people
 and 1t had been turned dov.,.
 The mayor declared he would fight against the referendum clause and tha+ there should be no referendum attach "a to any of the amendments proposed by him. MT. Morrissey then said to the mayor that both the mayor. and the Common Council had gone on rec ord as favoring the referendum, and he read from the council proceedings of September 8. 1908. showing that a re- port of the Miscellaneous committee had been adopted as follows:
 Resolved: That it is the sense of the Common Council of the city of Bridge port that no charter amendment should be proposed to the General Assembly with fhc approval of the body unless there is iI1closed with the said proposed amendments provision for the'r sub mission to the voters; and it is further means shoul1 be taken by which the General Assembly may be apprised from time to time that it is the opinion of the Common Council that no amend ment should be made to the charter of the city without a provision for it's submission"
 'sI never signed the report on that resolution" protested the mayor. a4'Tt became law at the end of 35 days without me signing it.'
 But you had a. chance to veto it if you were against it." replied MT. Nor rissey. t#
 There were 15 Democratic aldermen in the council at that time,'' said the mayor.
 z Mr. Morriesey read section 149 of the city charter, showing that when it was passed by the legislature it was with the provision that it be approved by the voters of Bridgeport before becom- ing operative.
 The mayor replied that there were some important matters in the ent re charter, but there was nothing in tho which he had presented which was serious enough to require the vote of the people upon them. ' MT. Morrissey said he did not think the referendum would be necessary up- on the question of the mayor appoint 1 ing the city attorney and few of the other minor changes. but he thought 1 the creation of four year terms for the | members of the Board of Relief and the creation of a public works commits l sion should be referred to the people,
 City Attorney Cullinan was of the | opinion that there should be way for the people to express themselves on the charter amendments. The revision | committee did not know what else l would be submitted to the legislature. l other than the matters already before | lt. He said that there might be ob legislation which would get through, as it had done before. a He thought that plan tA allow the 1 people to petition for the referendum upon certain question was all right. | s7The city attorney did not think it was asking too much to give the voters sn opportunity to single out legislation they did not like. and after a sufficient number had petitioned for the refer sndum. to give the voters a. chance to vote on 1t.
 The mayor said this might be all light. if there was anything requiring [ large expenditure of money. "Any- .fing there is here. is just as liable to ,es voted down as it is to be accepted" Alderman Primrose agreed with the mayor. saying, That is really SO Now ake the average voter here-ths is a C1ty-ne IS not really with the affairs of the gov 
 These are problems which we have o4think out as mature minds have to mink things out for children. 'frSo very few people take an interest n these matters that l believe we <, ,ught to think them out to the best of snr ability and go ahead as the repre- sentatjves of the people.
 The mayor raised the bunch or type written copies of his amendments and declared that he would not be respon- ' 'ible for any amendments outside of ' hose which he had referred to the committee 1
 alderman Tague said everyone knew vnar botch the present charter is; nar IL IS evident that many changes were made in it after it left the coun- H. The mayor said he knew about ne present charter, and that he would leyer have favored the changing of i he entire charter as the old one would I rave been good enough with amend r nents. f
 "It need not have cost the city a 1 t ent. replied the mavor "All the t amendments which I have ever pre- E ented to the Legislature have been h rawn by MT. Heating. He drew s hose putting the offices of town clerk |, nd fax collector upon salary basis. h