The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-05-20
Seen and Heard
 Round The Town

Congressman paid flying trip to his
 parents, MT. and Mrs. Ignatz Berger, | of 82 William street a few days ago. lie did not want to talk to reporters preferr1ng to spend about three hours
 chatting with his aged parents.
 Although there has been very lit | tie printed about the congressman s
 early life it might be said here that he has a University education, and
 that his father spent small sized | fortune to educate him, sending him l to the best schools in Austria. The l old gentleman thought he was giv- l ing his soon the ground work to be- | come prince, and never dreamed 1 that the son at the age of 52 was ! going to be a statesman in faraway
 America. In fact America was not
 in the mind of either father or son 1 in those days.
 | Attracted to America as a fertile | field of endeavor the son preceded | the father here. Several years later the location of a railroad on the op-
 posite side of the small town where the elder Berger's hotel was located | brought him financial ruin. Then the | elder Berger and the entire family 1 came to this country.
 l The elder Berger and his wife are very proud of the achievements of
 their son. although the old man has | been too busy retrieving his fortune
 in the leather finding business to
 think deep enough about things poli- | tical to become a Socialist. While | the parents of the congressman are Orthodox Jews Victor is said to have | religious views all his own. He is | married to a Christian.
 l There is hardly butcher shop Tn the city now that has not a meat
 cutting machine. A few years ago l if housewife wanted chopped meat | h. 1@oI, IL, eral minutes to beat a tattoo upon
 his chopping block with a small pair | of cleavers. There are more people
 buying chopped meat today in pro- | portion to the population than ever l before. In the Slovenian and Hun | garlan markets almost every third
 customer wants chopped meat and in
 most of the latter markets the cus- | toners want pork ground up with the beef. pound of beef to half l pound of pork is the usual formula | The best thing about it is that one
 of the best meat chopping machine es on the market is made in a local West End factory.
 People who live in Bridgeport do not seem to realize that they are 1iv- l ing in one of the seven fastest grow | ing cities in America This is going some. real estate investment here beats putting money in western gold l mines.
 One thing that is needed to make Bridgeport a bowling success is the selling of stock in local industrial en- terprises in $5 and $10 shares so that working people can invest their sav- ings in them. One local concern which is shipping its product all over the world and making money has the bulk
 of it's shares sold locally and is paying 7 per cent. But the stock sells for $100 share and only a few of the common people get a chance to buy it. Old and reliable concerns selling a portion of their stock to working peo- pie would do more to hold skilled la bor in Bridgeport than the Manufac- tmers' Association does to attract 1t here The sale of S5 and $10 shares in per cent industrials would do much
 to keep thousands of dollars in Bridge port that is now sent across the wa ter to relatives throughout the Euro pean countries to purchase French and German consols which are sold in
 small lots, and which bear only small rates of interest
 People are beginning to wonder what has become of that cooperative store the Socialists were going to start here
 It can't be because of a lack of funds the famous Rochdale stores which now
 sell to one-eighth the population of
 the British Isles was started with $138
 and now has surplus of s20, 1000, 900.
 It was only a case of the handful of
 weavers, who started the thing, stick ing together. They could not buy
 cheaply at the start, but by sticking
 together they became the greatest buyers in England, even beating out the famous Army & Navy stores. Are the local Socialists fearful that they
 will not hold together? The Rochdale stores pay a quarterly dividende to all it's customers and accepts the money paid over the counter for necessities as money invested in the business
 Some residents in the first tax dis trict beyond the border line of the second district are losing sleep fear ing they are going to lose the "honest graft they have enjoyed for a num- Der of years When the taxpayers come to understand the city's knotty way of dividing the first and second district monies these people who are getting fire and police protection free, to say nothing of other improvements. will lose the soft snap they now en- joy.
 Ask the tax collector how much the first district taxpayers pay in hard cash toward supporting the city gov ernment. If MT. Donnelly tells you
 
 will undoubtedly be surprised to learn that these first districters'' pay only $41 ASA toward the running expenses of the corporation of Bridgeport.
 Now that is whole lot of money, isn't it? But while you are about 1t ask the collector how much the peo- pie of the second tax district will pay in taxes toward running the city gov ernment. He will tell you after con- sulting his books that the people of the second district pay this year $1,- 474, ,012.53. Quite a difference, isn't it?
 The total cost of running the city this year approximates $1515, ,4s7.60, and the people of the second district pay nearly fourteen-fifteenths of the entire cost The people who live on the fringe of the city who want their streets graded, lights, sewers, fire pro- lection. police protection and other things want to get by with little $40, GOO contribution to the pot
 There is no way of telling how much is spent in the first district only, but it Is safe bet that for a number of years the first districters" only have got quarter of million dollars for their picayune contribution.
 They only pay a. 10 mill tax upon a $4, ,148,497 valuation. How would you like to buy all of the property in Black Rock. North Bridgeport, up North Main street way to the Trum- bull line, and all of the property in northern East Bridgeport for four million dollars? If these people would sell collectively for that price any New York reality syndicate would buy it