The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-10-10
In Secret and Cold Flooded Manner Republican Leg islators Esmasculated
 Important Law
Amazing Discovery Made by States Attorney Jud- son Preliminary to His Taking Action in Bribery Gases.

-Je IeIom SuI6JIIIel sl! HE 10 uIoQS feet, and worth not even the space it occupies upon the statute books, is the much mooted Corrupt Prac- tices Act that has been looked upon as safeguard against election brib- cry since 1905.
 Absolutely wiped out of existence by a strangely secret action of the Judiciary Committee of the Legisla- ture of 1909, the provisions of the statute which empowered the States s Attorneys to conduct election inves- legations in open court are no more.
 Not until just now did this remark ably bold piece of Legislation by the lobby ridden Republican General As sembly of 1909 come to light. And it was a crucial moment-a time when the law was to be put to use in unearthing what promised to be profoundly sensational political scan dals high up in the Republican party that it was discovered that the law was no more.
 States Attorney Stiles Judson whose public declaration that agents of the New Haven road had been resorting g to bribery in the recent Senatorial contest in the 18th District today con hrmed the report that the proposed investigation in open court of the Easton bribery scandal could not be made.
 Chagrined at the discovery that he ONA - such an investigation, JudSon was not ready to admit, however, that he had dropped the Easton case. He was not prepared, just now, he said, to tell what he had done or what there was left for him to do in the matter. He was plainly disgusted with the condf- ton of the law.
 "It's a case of MT. A seeing MT. B. and MT. seeing MT. s. pointed out the States Attorney. E"To get at the facts the law provided that we these PNntlPn16n into court, put them under oath and make them testify But that part of the law has been wiped out It was provided that men could be forced to testify, under oath, and that any testimony they gave could not be used in a subsequent criminal prose not to be excused from answering on the ground that they would in crinninate themselves. But we cant t get Mfr. A. to tell about MT. B and MT to tell about MT c, now that the law has been altered.
 Senator Judson has been in posses sion of the knowledge that the law was of no use for upwards of a fort night. When the Easton bribery scandal broke first, he began looking up the law as to the best method of procedure in getting to the bottom of the several tales of various Easton men. He proposed to dove-tai1 the va rious stories together, and finally en- mesh the man who was making the offers of bribery, bring him into court and put him on trial.
 But right at the first stage of the game, he ran tip against a snag- Few men in the state are better posted as to what is going on in the legislature than is MT. Judson, but he got the first inkIing of what the legislature had done when he prepared to invoke the special power he supposed remained intact, to prosecute the Easton inves- tigation.
 In the corrupt practices act of 1907 drafted by States Attorney Williams were special provisions embodied in the law for the sake of convenience which empowered. the states attorney to call before a. Judge of the Superior court any person he wished to question in connection with crimes. These have been obliterated.
 The Judiciary committee worked with gum shoes. Had there been a general realization of what their re- port meant, even the shameless lobby ists that controlled the legislature would no doubt have lacked the te- merity to force the repeating measure through.
 (On the editorial page of to-day's Farmer will be found further informa- tion with reference to the discovery made by MT. Judson.)