The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-30

THINK OE THE CASE OF MOTORMAN PETERSON, CONSIDER THE AMBITIONS OF CORONER WILSON,
 IS THIS CORONER A SAFE MAN" FOR MAYOR?

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 Coroner Wilson, appealing to the Electors to make him mayor. is a diff ferent fellow than Coroner Wilson 1T nffice. and in no immediate need ol tavors from the people.
 About to embark as passenger lr the Warner-King-Lavery craft, he x,ftadenly sbecomes conscious that ms ,,urse as coroner has not been in ac- rordance with the traditions of the office. and realizes that the secret conduct of his place is recognized as dangerous infraction of the Ideals handed down through more than century of government under Repuo- SThis is the declaration in ~whlch Coroner Wilson shows that he knows the weakness of his position:
 As Coroner, I believe all ln-
 ,uests should be held in private, with such persons only as are ln- terested present, and that the ends of. justice are best conserved in this manner. The duties are of an inauisitorial nature, and not ad- ministrative and executive such as E those performed by the mayor. On the other hand, I am as firmly of the opinion that fullest publicity and .openness should characterize all acts of the mayor, the various boards, and the cofnmon council at it's various committee meetings.
 ..The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be-"
 It is Ia little late in the day for Coroner Wilson to ask the people to believe that his views have suddenly become honestly democratic about the conduct of public business. A man who does not believe that judicial business should be public business can have no abiding belief that executive and administrative business should be public.
 For every reason of sound policy that requires publicity in the conduct of the office of mayor, there are five or ten reasons why courts in all their departments should do business in the dwight
 Am officer who will conduct a sec ret court in America is. in bis heart, welded to secrecy. He distrusts the people, loves darkness and hates light Such a man is dangerous to free institutions, because through his example the number of his kind may be snultiplied.
 The very law under which the cor oner's DfficeN is conducted contem- plates an open office. Provision is made for occasional secret inquiries, where some special occasion may make full publicity temporarily in- advisable.
 This permission of the law, estab- iished for occasional use, has been twisted by Coroner Wilson into a sup port for perpetual secrecy.
 The result has been a disastrous collapse in the reputation of the of
 
 oner's administration has come a flood of findings repulsive to public sentifn ent..
 One hardly knows which is most ~ the fataL accident in Fairfield. when respehsibfrity wasplaesd upon the dead engineer. or the finding in the matter of the Federal express, with it's futile placing of blame upon the corporation.
 Contract the procedure in these cases with the procedure adopted by ,- Coroner Davis of Middletown in simi- jar gases. 4s.sss 4%4s Coroner Wilson held secret-court. The public was barred The officials of the railroad were admitted Coroner Davis held an open court, called in a jury, lived up to the best precedents of judicial procedure.
 If there is anywhere in Bridgeport an e1ector who believes that the cor offerAs- o1leuee~cperated as a secret tribunal, let him consider the case of Motorinan Peterson This was a case in which a party of Yaie students, sons of wealthy parents. went joy riding, with women scarcely older than themselves. Drinking un- til a late hour of the night, started for home. At Boards corner, their automobile got out of control and was struck by trolley car. Motorman Peterson, in charge of the car, was arrested. He was lodged in jail and could not procure bail.
 The proceedings before the coroner were conducted in secret. The stu dents were permitted to go their way. Peterson was held on manslaughter ccarre.
 He would have lain in jail for months had not this newspaper per- ceived the injustice to which he had