The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-02-26
Stratford Electors Quietly Watch Working Out of Opposition to Barnum 2 Avenue Trolle1s.

Little towns are only miniatures of larger ones. Bridgeport has it's 'old guard. politicians. in al out of sight. who prefer the deluge for everybody to back seat for then selves. Strat- 1 ford Is in the same pre,licament. The "olc guaa'd'' of the Revo .utionary town is frightened. The trolle ys are coming g :, over Barnum avenue. If the trolleyS come over Barnum avenue many mo. e Eeople will move to Sfratford. The i new people won't k1 ow the "old guard". The new people may not vote | for the ''old guard Therefore the 'old guard, with that primitive in- stinct of self preservai ion, common to the "old guards everywhere. which looks almost like Intelligence but is not, is trying to stop thu tro.leys from i coming in.
 The good, old politicians. who have 1Tsed at the generous public breast, oh. these many years. are out for the selectmen. and against tue trolleys. Tn TO new role. for them, they are enacL- ing revised version of "curfew shall not ring tonight or rlther Monday night.
 The curfew that the cd guard fears Is the town meeting, which is called for Monday evening. The clapper to which they cling, trying to stifle it, l is the public opinion Of the towns people. who are strongly disposed to give to the Barnum avenue people support to get the trolley through. For many years the B arnum avenue people have fought for trolleys. This section is bound to be used for resi- dential purposes as soon as it is open ed to convenient access.
 Recently the Connect ,ut Company, seeing in t.lis territory a sufficient 1 number of peoule to mai a line prof itable, acceded to the de1 ,and and sub- nitte5 plans for loc. tion. These plans have been appp we'd on the Bridgeport end of the TO ite. But the Stratford selectmen, although instruct ed by a town meeting to get the troll leys, have held up approval of the p ans. upon the claim that the com pany will not consent to grant a twelve foot roadway on both sides of the tracks.
 This demand of the elsctmen might always have been deemed by their neighbors the result of real though misplaced public spirit, had the orig inal demand not been fer a ten foot roadway. The law requires only eig1t feet. But the company lromptly. and it is bel eyed unexpectedl 7. acceded to the demand, and the SC ectmen were caught without any apparent reason for refusing their sanction. This was the case, at least. until demand for F foot roadways was made.
 To this demand the company refuses to accede. declaring that the conces- sion of ten feet amounted to a bar gain and indicating that road more than two feet wider each side of tracks thar Fairfield avenue is sufficient for a suburban district now. and probably always to be a residential district. Now the avenue carries only Is feet of niacadam but when the tracks are down it will be macadamize.l to 35 feet wide.
 A further town meeting has been called for Monday evening. The pur- pose of this meeting is to zee if the citizens will again instruct the select ment to approve the plans.
 It is to prevent such instructions be- ing given that the "old guard are dili- gently laboring with the voters.
 Said Stratford voter this morning to a Farmer reporter: "One would think to hear those politicians talk that the Barnum avenue trolley line is a cross between a case of smallpox and a patent bed bug poison.
 ''Those fellows would stifle the growth of this town for the next hum dred years to keep themselves in power. And they are not bright enough to see that the quickest way to get themselves kicked out of power is to antagonize large number of the honest, thoughtful, conscientious and just voters of their own town, who know intuitively that it is good that a town should grow, and best for everybody that the people on Barnum avenue should reap any increase in the value of their property that will nat. urally come to it with the arrival of swift and convenient means of transportation.
 There are few citizens in this town so stupid that they do not prefer trol- leys, under fair conditions and regula. tions, to the domination of lot of political chaps, so shortsighted that they do not know which side their po- litical bread is buttered on.
 '"The notion that strangers. moving into town because of the trolleys. will naturally be prejudiced against the nachine is all nonsense. The ma chine will never sustain half the dam age from the advent of strangers that it will get for bucking public senti- ment All those fellows who are against the people on this issue may keep at it until the annual election. Then it will be a good old 'raus init them''
 There is only one thing that the Bar mum avenue people are afraid of. It is that the story the "old guard" is circulating. that the victory has been won, and that the company will yield the F foot roadway. because the spe- C1dI WOTk udS OCSu OOuSnL, VIII O0 swallowed whole. /
 No special work has been bought. This question was settled yesterday, when a committee friendly to the Bar mum avenue people went to New Hal- ven and saw General Manager Punder- ford.
 The trip was to ascertain if the new special work had been ordered, and also to make an appeal to the company to grant the F foot roadway.
 Rev. Father O'Connor. J. c. Hendrick son. Thomas McQuillan. George Fair child. IT.
 MT. Punderford said that the special work had not been ordered and would not be until the plans for the work are approved by the Stratford select men. This statement was afterward confirmed by Vice President Calvert M. Townley.
 The Stratford situation is regarded as unique in local political circles. This is said to be the first time on record in which Q political machine has sought to keep down the population of a community for fear that the pres tige of the politicians would be dis turbed
 The ordinary Stratford view was pretty well expressed today by a Bar mum avenue man who said: Those chaps will put through a town bylaw yet demanding passports of people coming in and out For anti-machine Republicans. Democrats Mugwumps, Socialists and Prohibitionists. nothing will be doing