Connecticut western news., 1911-01-26
LEGISLATIVE LETTER.
PUBLIC UTILITIES BILL
 HAS EARLY HEARING
All Kinds of Disagreement on the Sort of Bill That Ought to Pass-ls Gov srnor Baldwin Cunning for Second Term?

srnor Baldwin Cunning for Second
 Term?
 Hartford. Jan. 24-The paramo unt is- sue IS coming to the front very early Tn the present legislative session. The kind gentlemen who have been appointed 60 the Joint Committee on the Judiciary have assigned the first hearing on the public utilities commission matter on the day that new business must cease be- ing introduced, their date being Febru- ary 3, but liable to change if the date for the cessation of new business is post poned, as it unquestionably will be. It would be queer Connecticut legislature before February 15. There has been such a scarcity of 1t So far that either the newspaper men and Legislative clerks are goiag to have to work vary hard to week and next or less of it Is coming in than usually does. I know the latter isn't true, for there Is enough of 1t to come, so much that the date will have to be extended.
 There Is three times as much trolley legislation to be considered as was con- 'sidered by either the general assembly of 1907 or 1909, including entirely new trolley roads projected from New Hart, ford north into Massachusetts, and from Canaan ditto.
 But to get back to public utilities : The initial hearing on this subject will be the opening skirmish in a merry war that won't be done SO soon that this general assembly can adjourn much earlier than the last did if. indeed, this doesn't break all records. Senator Chair man Judson and aouse OIaIrmhn Bank are agreed on the necessity for c0m mission, though disliking-to putit yer! mildly-each other, personally, whil Senator Mahan, the Democratsos senaeul of the committee and Democr4tic f1ool leader in the Senate. is oppose to it.
 There is lack of harm3ly among the other members of the committee ant al, interesting point regarding tlas K tha, those who favor c C)nmisslo are. hard, any two of them. agreed on d"tinitc proposition while lose who are np0oSc, to the scheme are somewhat divided it. their opposition.
 It is probable that we Shall have som, sort of public utilities commission, please understand, but only the powers above will be. President Mellen wants q court of commerce and the chances ar, pretty good that the other public service corporations will range up alongside him on the subject, though no bull eve hated red, and the devil never hated holy water as the Southern New England Telephone Company and some of the lesser public utilities companies abhor the very name of public service regula- tion of any kind.
 Governor Baldwin is neither an inno cent child nor 8 recluse who doesn't know what is going on. In the years agone he and the late Lynde Harrison knew how to handle legislatures and he hasn't forgott an all the tricks he learned dS d IOUDylSI- E10 lS d pO1l6lClhH Ol n good deal cleverer caliber than he has been given credit for altogether and is unlikely to overlook much in the way of tactical advantage which there comrs opportunity for, since-whisper it Governor Baldwin has his eye on being succeeded by Democratic governor, one Simeon E. Baldwin of New Haven.
 This thing of changing the order of promotion in the legislative olerkshipS, throwing John A. Spafford out and bringing George E. Hinman back as a post graduate to take the office that Spafford had every right to expect to have and the effort to create a perman- ent official who shall have the work of both the clerk of bills and the expressing clerk in charge is not to be construed ms following out Governor Baldwin's re- commendations. but simply that of some clever political work done while the Mo Lean men weren't looking, for both En- crossing Clerk Baldwin and Clerk of Bills Hinman were Lake and Bulkeley men. CARLETON Railroad street. heard groans in the