The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-05
Park Commissioner George M. Flames Declares that Lo
 >comobie Company Can Fill In Twenty Acres
History of Little Joker Legislation Under Which City Will Be Obliged to Pay Damages
Mellen Writes Letter Withdrawing Damages Sui
 Which Railroad Had Brought Against City

1 Which Railroad Had By vote of 15 to the aldermen | last night. confirmed the grant of IF l acres of harbor to the New Haven
 railroad company. This part of the
 long and bitterly contested harbor l fight is probably at an end. The city, bound hand and foot by legislation 1 has abandoned under the direction of
 faithless and treacherous servants all | of it's rights.
 But new harbor fight has opened
 which will be waged largely by the Park Commissioners fpr the protection
 of Seaside Park.
 l The aldermen last night, repealed all harbor lines in front of the property
 of the Locomobile Company. This gives the company a clear and ind1S-
 puted right to fill in a large part of the area of the water front in the neighborhood of Seaside Park. This
 is the same area for the possession of which the city fought before the legis- latur in 1907. George M. Eames. presi- dent of the Board of Park Commfs- sioners, estimated the amount of har- Dor that the Locomobile company can fill in at 20 acres. and this estimate is very conservative.
 The matter came up on report from the board of appraisers. to whom
 the whole harbor line had been re- ferred for an assessment of benefits and damages. The appraisers pointed out that twos lines had been laid in front of the property of the Locomo-
 bile company, making the matter so
 vague and ipdeterminate that they
 were unable to perform their duty
 with respect to it.
 The harbor committee, whose chair man Alderman John H. Tague was especially selected by Mayor Lee, to ported a new line. exactly ideEticat with the United States government, or railroad line, to the center Of the inner breakwater1 Beyond this point no line was recommended. or laid.
 The vote in favor of this report was
 Yeas. Aldermen Wilson. Gould, Wilder. Bertilson. Fletcher. Bullard, OConnell. Hartley. Primrose, Feyrer, Zink, Cassidy, Near, Brock, Tague. 15
 Nays. Aldermen Griffin. Meyer. Mo Murray, Mahoney. Carroll and Thom- as 6.
 Aldermen o'Neill. Conner and Finlan were absent.
 Alderman Mahoney was the only member of the harbor committee op- posed. He maintained his attitude of hostility to the grab, which he has consistently presented. Alderman Mo Murray led the fight against the grab. Alderman Never was the only Repub- lican who voted against it.
 The line as now established will be again considered by the members of the board of Appraisal of Benefits and Damages.
 Alderman Gould presented a letter from President Mellen, of the New Haven Railroad. in which the com pany agrees to withdraw it's suit against the city without costs.
 In order to protect Seaside Park the city will have to pay large damages to the Locomobile Company.
 This is because of an amendment to the charter of the city. which has re- peatedly been exposed by the Farmer as the Little Joker amendment. Prior to the passage of this legislation the city had the same right to lay harbor lines to protect navigation that the state had. The powers of the state over navigab1e waters and the lands beneath such waters are not only equal to the powers of the Fed era1 government, but much greater.
 It will be remembered that the har- Dor grab had it's beginning when Major Harry Taylor, at the sole request of the New Haven Railroad company recommended to the Federal govern ment a change in the Federal harbor line This recommendation was ac- cepted. The change had the effect of giving the New Haven Railroad com pdny the T1SnI to Ill III a large DOT tion of the water front. The city, to prevent this. immediately exercised it's own right to lay harbor 1ines by plac- ing line much nearer the shore than the railroad line.
 Then the Consolidated railroad brought suit against the city, claiming damages for the destruction of it's riparian rights. which consisted essen tially in Ntha right to wharf out.
 But the suit lay idle in the courts, ho &I,0 @I,
 thorized the state to lay harbor lines without paying damages for riparian rights.
 The state of Connecticut owns all the soil under the beds of navigable streams It may grant this soil to in dividuals. It did so grant 40 acres of such soil to the LocomobiIe company in 1905. although a large portion of the grant was repealed in 1907.
 That is in 1905 the state made the odd acres of harbor and in 1907 it took back more than half the gift
 But those who own property along a, navigable water may wharf out to state has laid. or caused, or permitted a harbor line to be paid to protect naviga ton.
 The state had authorized the city of Bridgeport to lay harbor lines in the Pequonnock river, the same as the state itself could lay them, or as the United States Government could lay them, without paying persons who were prevented from wharfing out
 But in the last session of the legis- lature an amendment to the charter was prepared. which compelled the city in laying harbor lines to pay damages. This Little Joker'' was first discovered among the batch of charter amendments proposed byMay- or Lee. It was given to the news papers by the mayors stenogra pher. It was promptly exhibited by the Farmer in it's true colors. and Mayor Lee explained it as "a clerical error" $ A few days later the identical Lit tie Joker" appeared at Hartford. It was introduced by Representative Fayette C. Clark. Again it's true na- ture was exposed by the Farmer Har- Dor Master Charles H. Morris also addressed to each representative a letter explaining the nature of the bill Representative Clark subsequently disclaimed the bill. and it afterwards became known that it had been pre- pared by counsel for the New Haven