The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-09
GOV. BALDWIN WOULD. SMASH
 RAILROAD LAW

With the chief executives of the city and state present to share hon. ors with Cy Warman, the noted hum- orist. and Rev. H. c. Meserve of Dan bury, whose eloauence has made him famous throughout Connecticut, the business men of New Haven held their sixteenth annual banquet last night. The remarks of MT. Warman favoring the much discussed recipro- city treaty with Canada and his against 1t, the measure will ultimate ly be accepted by the parliament of the Dominion, is especially interesting in view of the fact that he is himself a dweller in the great northern em- pire.
 Governor Simeon E. Baldwin sprang something of a surprise when he intimated that he would be pleas ed to see New Haven go back to the old dual form of government with a separate and distinct from each other. With word of praise for President Mellen, the governor made the inter- esting suggestion that the present railroad law be stricken from the statute books and that the price of a franchise for running a railroad through the state be made a percent age of the gross earnings.
 Gov. Baldwin said in part:
 1T am inclined to think that our facilities for transportation are now better than in most states.
 'Mr. Mellen seems to me to run his railroads, on the whole, pretty we'll though I, for one, was sorry to see the general railroad law go off the statute books. It has always seemed to me that we were safer with a statute to fall back on, which allowed Y1x where, provided he put up honest money and did honest construction work and paid a fair price for his franchise. And the fairest price for a franchise seems to me to be a per- centage of the gross earnings of the
 we have been uneconomical. think, in giving away our railroad charters. They are worth something. The trolley that has brought back the grade crossing at every street corner, adds very much to the dan gers of travel as we'll as to the facili- ation of travel. I think they treated that subject about right in Baltimore, years ago. when trolleys came in there. They gave the charters on earnings should be paid into the city treasury every year, and now it brings them several hundred thous- and dollars every year.
 we have acted rather hastily, and sometimes rather inconsiderately, think, as a city. in granting privileges to our street railways, without get ting value for them.
 "The law leaves a good deal of au- thority as to the location of street railway tracks, and the mode of con- struction, to the board of aldermen, and they can give their approval on conditions. Any additions that arg germane to the grant can be imposed Once or twice our city government has tried to impose conditions that were not germane, and so their re- strictions failed. Generally they have let the railroads off with very little, if any, concessions to the public I am not sure but things in this respect would have gone better if there had been two branches of the common council instead of one. Where they adopt the commission plan of govern ment they sacrifice a good deal to get directness of responsibility; but they do get it. The commission con- sists of very few men, and every one knows whom to blame if things go wrong. But our board of alder mn consists of a good many men, and the sense of responsibility of each is lessened."