The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-23
"OId Guard" Said to be PIot- ting Compromise to Give RoIIister Heights Away With-
 out Referendum to Voters
Marr Thinks Meeting to Divide Stratford Wouldn't be Proper in His Office, and Knows of None Such
Section Will Contain Factories and is Likely to be Self Sup porting Despite High Birthrate May Even Show Profit Women Petition Against Di- vision

That Stratford Is to be betrayed with a haircut into the hands of the enemy as Samson was of old by the arch deceptress Delilah, is the terrible news that shocked the citizens of the old town. today.
 Stratford has protested against all shearing of it's ample locks. All. or none, has been the cry of those whose revolutionary seires titled soil wrung by their ancestors from the red and impatient Indian.
 The Board of Trade was formed to prevent the cutting of a single lock of land from the towns fair brow. Pe- titions supplementing the energies of the board were circulated and signed by the great majority of the citizens.
 'tBut if annexation must come it must come after a vote of the electors and it must include everything from Washington Bridge to Paradise Green; the Center and Hollister Heights ev- erything but Putney and Oronoque. which are not really estimated as a part of the town"
 in quotations, was represented the only concession that anybody was willing to make. But now the sad fact has arrived in Stratford that this is not a government by the people, but by representatives, and the 5story that the representatives of the town are looking with affectionate eyes up- of Trade, who want them to afl ie to let Hollister Heights come witt k. the precincts of Bridgeport.
 This will be called a "complB nise" and 1t is hoped to effect 1t without submission to the voters of Stratford.
 I-a% a.. sentatives of Stratford and the Gen. eral Assembly.
 It was strongly said, this morning, that a meeting is to be held some where in Bridgeport to arrange for the presentation of the case for the an- nexation of Hollister Heights to the General Assembly. The plan includes the creation of a committee to ap- pear in the name of Stratford. The place was generally credited as being the office of Former City Attorney Marr. in the Sanford Building.
 But Mr. Marr, when asked, did not candidly approve the question and the following conversation ensued:
 Gan you tell me the names of the committee of stratford Or Bridgeport citizens or both who will meet in your office this afternoon?" Farmer re- porter asked of Attorney James A. Marr this morning.
 Say young man, you must have been up late last night" replied At torney Marr; "what committee IS that?''
 boom the annexation of part of the town of Stratford before the Legisla- ture..
 "don't you think that if the newspa- pers got hold of the fact that there was such meeting to be held, the general public would be inclined to think my office wasn't the rlsht pidce to hold it?"
 s.But the newspapers have got hold of the fact" replied Mir. Marr's inter- viewer.
 '.well I know of no such meeting Ha hav laughed MT. Marr, genlaily, and the interview closed.
 The true inwardness of the story seems to be that the Stratford poli- ticians want to get rid of Holilster Heights. Then they would have Stratford Center made 9 Borough or 500 persons and let the rest Of the town struggle along as It does now. With Hollister Heights out of the way, where the majority of the votes are Democratic, the "Old Guard" be- lieves that it might remain in power for many years to come.
 To overcome the inertia of those who oppose SlVlHS up cNCh1 aii AiASAA of Stratford is opposed the argument that the birth rate on ,Holl1ster Heights is very large, and that the tax burden for schools will not De met by the property in that vicinity, but will fall, upon the rest of the town, and especially that portion of the town where the birth rate is low.
 To offset this argument 1t is urged that the neighborhood of Hollister Heights is destined to be manufac- turing center, that these manufac- turing properties will be very valu- able and that the revenue from them will not only pay for all of the ex- penses of the Hollister Heights sec- tion, but large profit to use on other sections of Stratford.
 There can be no possible question but the real influence behind the plan for partial, as opposed to total an- nexation, or none, is the political group, the same who opposed the ex- tension of the trolley through Bar mum avenue for fear of the effect up on their political fortunes that would arise from the rapid population of the territory served by the railway.
 Seven hundred persons have sign- ed against giving up an inch of land. One petition is headed by Mrs. H. J. Lewis and bears the names of some 60 tax paying women, who like, Mrs Lewis have a reverential regard for the historic town and look upon the prospect of it's territorial despoilment as less than sacrilege. To meet these conditions the citizens of Stratford have invented slogan. It is
 ''No annexation without a referen- Y %l> xy<>k<,