Norwich bulletin., 1910-12-03

k other matters of municipal interest the annual reports of the standing com- mitteeS of the court of common council. { including that of the health commit tee in connection with the report of pr. J. Torrington Black, the health of- 1 ficer, who is responsible for making the health department one of the most important in the city. No one be- grudges the legitimate expenses that are necessary to safeguard the inter- ests of the city and for proper con- duct of the health department, but there are some objectors to the in curing of unnecessary expense even 1D the health department.
 Although the report of the health de- partment was made at the October meeting of the court of common coun- cil, in common with the reports of the other committees, and published in the local newspapers, still the committee has issued a nicely printed book of thirty pages embracing this same report, and which is also to be printed in the annual Year Book.
 It is this specially printed book that gives basis for objection and which establishes @ precedent that would be quite expensive if adopted by the other committees of the court of common council. The book is g. typographical gem, printed on heavily coated paper and illustrated with subjects foreign to the health department work and pduUSu IC duu lV US SSuSId1 CppSOA ance.
 One page is devoted wholly to the official seal of the city and another to the John Winthrop monument, and still another to the names of the mem- bers of the committee on health and that of Dr. Black, the health officer. Other full page illustrations are the ! Maypole dance on Williams park, the Memorial hospital, the New London public library, Morton F. Plants yacht Iolanda, Shaw's cove, view of New London harbor, Ocean Beach, the Man ual Training school, Fort Trumbull, Lake Konomoc, and a little girl at the seashore. There are three blank pages \ exclusive of the covers, and a page devoted to city statistics of a general nature, and twenty of the thirty-six pages are devoted to the actual report \ of the committee, which will occupy about half that space as printed in the ! Year Book. It Is 8 nice job of printing and if the cost for five hundred copies | is less than $150 the printer did not \ make the ordinary commercial profit. Just what the expensive illustrations have to do with the report of the com \ mittee on health is not clear to those who are dull of comprehension and il l is just trifie difficult to determine 1 the necessity for the printing of spe- cial book for the report of the health committee. It may be that the healtf | committee proposes to cut loose iron I the other committees and place itself l III the same category as the board of l school visitors and the water and sew ! CT department, and have their report printed separate from the other coun I cil reports. If this be so it is a. pre- ! sumption that should receive the con ! sideration of the court of common l council and a check put upon the waste
 l of the public's good money.
 ] Pastor McNaiiy of the First Baptist l church has way of saying things that
 l hit hard and sometimes hurt, and he 1 is not backward about crysalizing his l sayings in print. One of the local l papers quoted the pastor as saying that
 1 there were public officials who spent
 ] their time in clubroOms with open bars
 l and sat at tables in games of chance [ in public places or words to that eff
 l feet, This the good pastor promptly
 1 denied, claiming that he had been
 grossly misquoted. The statement was ] credited to him in connection with his
 . announcement of the coming Of an { evangelist to New London. Rev MT. l McNally states that he made no allu- 1 sion to public officials, but did say:
 ! 'Is it not time to wake up and give l God the right of way? Religious indo-
 1 lence means low grade morals. When
 E many of the leading citizens in city
 l like ours forsake the institutions of
 I religion for clubs with their open bars,
 I and other places Of resort where the | glass and the table of chance are the
 | bond of fellowship, then truly are the 1 conditions most unhappy. The ideals | and life of a city rise no higher than 1 the life of it's leaders. Men of New 1 London, awake! God is ready to move 1 upon the city with a power of 9 divine 1 righteousness. If you are willing to
 1 be His host, show it. Give God the
 1 right of way in your life
 1 True, Pastor McNally did not specify
 1 public officials" but now, on the
 1 quiet in reading of 'leadl ng citizens"
 ! and leaders of the city. would it not be
 ! natural to take public officials under l consideration? If there are clubrooms
 l with open bars doing business at a
 ! time when the customers could be at l religious institutions, and if there is l gambling and drinking going on at the X same time, it is well that an evangelist
 | is coming and that Pastor AIcNally has 1 given the announcement. Then will be 1 the opportune time for the good pastor
 I to spread the good work by putting a 1 stop to the evils that he says exists and of which he must have personal
 | knowledge, for as a rule gentlemen of
 1 the cloth know whereof they speak, l and are not dispensers of idle words.
 1 There may be clubs with open bars ! operated upon Sundays and other
 1 places where the glass and the tables
 | of chance are the bond of fellowship.
 l and the reform gentlemen who have
 l
 i places should place the proof with the
 1 police department and thereby in a
 1 way compel those leading citizens to
 | give God the right of way in their
 I lives. Sometimes it is just as effective
 | to report violations of the law to the
 | police as to proclaim and let it go a
 i that. The police are ready to act in 1 just such cases and upon short notice
 l whenever justifiable but must have
 l something more substantial than hear 1 say evidence, which Is not always ad
 l missa ble in courts of law.
 Capt. William H. Champiin, who has
 l retired from steamboat service between
 New London and Now York, where he
 | has been employed for the past quarter
 l of a century as pilot on the boats of
 1 the Central Vermont railway and the
 1 New England Navigation company,
 1 did not earn the title of captain in the
 1 steamboat service He is an old time 1 sailor and for many years was captain
 l of the brig George, owned by the J. M. l Huntington company of Norwich, and 1 engaged in trade in the West Indies 1 carrying cargoes of mulasses and su- 1 gar, bay rum, etc. to New London and
 { Thamesville. where the Huntington ! firm had bonded warehouses and the 1 cargoes were placed in bond and sub ] jecL to withdrawal under the direction of officials of the New London custom