The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-08-25
Charles F. Thayer, in Letter to Hartford Central Labor Union, Tells How to Pass Public Utili- ties Bill
Pass it First and Amend it After ward-Let Courts Say What is Unconstitutional, Not Cor p0rati0n Lawyers
Continued from Page -one.)

C6ntrat LabOr Union:
 Through the mail there has come to me a set of resolutions adopted by you August 3, 1910, together with a circular letter dated August 10, the latter addressed "To Organized Labor of Connecticut"
 The fact that the last of the reso- lutions includes an instruction to your secretary ito communicate with can didates and request a statement of their attitude" on certain bills men tioned in the preamble, leads me to believe that you intend that should respond as a candidate.
 During the vacation period, l, Q lawyer, am also engaged as professor of democracy in the Thayer summer correspondence school of politics. Now, l have genuine interest in or ganized labor, unorganized labor, dis kind under the sun. The laborers constitute the plain people whom Lin coin loved; and I love them too, in spite of their apparent inclination to vote and act constantly against their own interests. Had they acted up to elected governor once-but that is another story which I was spared the reading. Because of my interest will, in your case, consolidate my pTofessorships of law and democracy, and without fee or hope of pecuniary
 
 lessen in applied politics.
 The State Business Mems Associa- tion is following the teaching of our school. and to its questions to cand1- dates, the answers of those statesmen which have come under my notice to be fairly open and straightforward and as favoring the Associations pub lie utilities bill. But the Association will not be fooled so easily by the willy politician as the latter thinks; and am going to put you wise to are out to do the utilities bill.
 Dos you find one of them that walks right up to the dough dish and eats from it with. relish. as if he was right hu1g oos for n puGliS st eva utilities eSs feed and walk around the dish, like these duckings that the old hen hatch, used to do, when their crops were full of rose bugs? Read their replies over, once more. See how the right way for while to get them into a purring, receptive mood, and how they show them that here Is a wrinkle that ought to be smoothed out and there a tuck to be put into the bill Of course they all want a they don't want 1t like the biu in sight An. they want to get the bill into one of those legislative commit tees that chew their cuds from Janu- ary to July, where the untagged lOb- byist can put those tucks in and iron those wrinkles out to please the pub lie service corporations. The busi- ness men are too old birds to be caught with the lobbyist chaff. if you are not; and don't you see. that these wrinkles and tuckS are being talked about thus early just to get you and h1Iq a. chine, so it won't taste so bad when they force 1t down your throat at the end of the legislative session? Why, one would have a part of the com mission elected by the people-thats catchy; organized labor is expected to jump at that bait like a piokerel at a minnow. Great fear is expressed by another, lest some paragraph of the bill may infringe the constitution Oh. horrors! And so it goes, and so 1t will continue to the end of the chapter unless you get busy and the Business Mems Association keep busy.
 May I now show you how to obtain a public utilities bill, and incidentally how to elect a U. S. Senator who will do something fin Washington besides eat frogs legs suppers; play politics with postmasters, internal revenue col lectors and machine politicians. to say nothing about rubber?
 Don't nay too much attention to the wrinkles and the tucks. If any para graph of the bill is unconstitutional let the courts say so when some one courts. Take the bill as the Business Mems Association will present it to the Legislature. Upon the nomination of eactl candidate for either branch of the Legislature, be he Democrat, Re- publican, PTohibitionist. Socialist. or what not. call upon him to answer in writing over his own signature. yes, or no, these three questions:
 1. Will you vote in favor of the bill for a public act known as the public utilities biu prepared by the State Bus mess Mems Association if introduced in the Legislature?
 2. Will you vote to suspend the rules of the House or Senate Gas the case may be) and put the bill upon Its pas sage immediately upon it's presentation to the Legislature, without reference to any committed?
 3. will you vote to pass it notwith- standing the Governors veto. should he veto it?
 Yes, and ask yet another question::
 Will you vote for United States Senator who will represent the people of Connecticut instead of special inter ests?
 When all the primaries are over and you have your answers tabulated, go out and defeat every man who answers no, or who bubbles, ducks or evades, and see to it that every man who an- swers yes is elected. Should every candidate for a particular office in a given atOWn answer yes, then choose the most reliable and trustworthy Of the lot.~ Forget party for just one election, become an insurgent. and as- tonish yourself at the power that lies in your hands.
 This rugged program will turn the trick. Why should this bill go to a committee to be juggled with? The Business Mems Association will see to it that every candidate has good op- portunity to study it before the Legis- lature meets. It isn't for the corpora tion lawyers to determine in advance the constitutionality of the bill, but for the courts to decide after the bill shall have been enacted into law.
 Pass the bill without debate, in the first days of the Legislature. The commission will then be appointed and assume its duties in July, and the strength and weakness of the bill will develop when put into actual opera ton. AS it's weaknesses appear sub sequent Legislatures can be depended upon to make such amendments as seem necessary.
 You see this Is only a new applica- tion of the old receipt for rabbit pie: first catch your rabbit. Enact the law as presented. Then you have your rabbit. But you will go hungry for a rabbit a long time if you wait to please everybody as to the rabbits
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