Connecticut western news., 1911-04-13
.CARLETON'S LETTER
LEGISLATURE VERY BUSY
 WITH INVESTIGATIONS
Highway Commissionership Still a PuzzIing Factor-Excitement Over Public Utilities Seems to Have Prao- ticaIIy Exhausted Itself.


 Public Utilities Seems to Have Prac-
 ticaIIY Exhausted Itself.
 Hartford. April 1.-The present gen. 0 'L assembly has probably had to do with more investigations than any for a lIng time, if ever. It has authorized some and let others go. A special com mittee is now investigating the high cost of living and another the duplica- tion of work and expense among the state departments and commissions. while section of the labor committse Is investigating labor conditions in the state institutions. A commission auth orized by the last general assembly has made to this a report on the oyster in- dustry in which it suggests variety of legislation which is highly displeasihR to the oysterman.
 Now come the investigation into fire insurance rates, the department store probe and the investigation of Judge Clark of the Hartford city court, My. what flutter of lace salesmen and floor walkers there was in the Capitol the morning after the first of these, which is placed ssoond in the list just giysn, m Ade it's appearance.
 Meantime it had kept NormaLd All n of Sage. Allen and Company, where the strike of the Hartford garment workers started, busy with a hearing before May or Smith of Hartford showing why he should not be removed as Hartford polics commissioner in view of his actions as such commissioner
 And then the insurance investigation My, that was the worse one. What a priolzing up of ears there was in the magnificent insuranc, buildings which line Hartford's main street when the Senate reversed the Insurance commit- tee anl ordered the investigation by a vote of 2l to 6. Those Hartford sena- tors who tried So hard to defend tho in- surauce companies didn't have chance. There was nothing of politics in 1t it was simply that there hadn't been chance for those men to get off their minds in an effective way the resebt- ment which almost every man who has had dealings wish fire insurance oom- panies feels toward them.
 Several gentlemen who believe that Governor Baldwin depends much on their advice and who have come to Do known about the Capitol as the kitchen cabinet are having most busy time trying to solve the highway commission ership these days. The trouble is that there aren't enough votes in the Senate to assure the approval of the appoint- ment of either J. Fred Jackson or "A. H. Terry of New Haven to Jim. Mae Donald's place. Governor Baldwin may send in a nomination ere this sees the light, but if it is either of these gentle men he won't hold the Senate Demo- crats to vote for him.
 Indeed. am inclined to believe that if he sends in anyone beside Macdonald, he won't hold the Senate Democrats He is being strongly urged by some of his Democratic friends, men upon whose whose advice he really sets some value. to reappoint Mcdonald as a stratagio move of the first water and he might do it. There would be no question of hiS getting whatever else he desired from the Senate if he did thls. me of the men who are urging him to do it, Demo- crats of statewide prominence. began by being utterly opposed to MacDonald. but have changed their minds since ex- amining into his work since tho session began.
 There isn't much doing on public util- ities, though the dailies try hard to re- vive the subject every few days. It'sa dry one. So is workmen's compensa- tion. This legislature will not pass.any compensation legislation, in my opiniony or any employers liability legislation either. Regarding public utilities, don't fail u remember what has been said in this correspondence about the strength of the court of commerce plan when the show down comes CARLETON.