The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-06-06
JUDS0N CHARGES THAT
 MAJORITY UTILITIES BILL WAS DRAWN BY THE LOBBY
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In these reports rom the commit tee upon the subject of the regulation of the Public Service Corporations of Connecticut. is the continuation of a persistent demand that for four years past has been made by the business interests of the State, and in which they have been supported by the great body of the common people.
 This movement has had none of the characteristics of a popular fad that attracts today and fades from the public mind tomorrow. It has received the earnest attention of the business associations of the State, composed of F. 900 members. It has been deemed of sufficient importance to find place in the platforms of the two great pol1- tical, parties in their appeal to the electorate of the State: it loomed large enough in the campaign to warrant most of the Senators of this chamber in a membership of 8 to make, each, a declaration to his constituency as to his views and attitude upon this important legislation.
 It is of sufficient importance to jus tify me in asserting that the political future of members of this body may be materially influenced by the votes recorded today; that even party des- tinies in the next general election may be shaped to some degree by the votes of their Senators and Representatives upon this measure.
 These words are not in the nature of a covert threat. nor do l desire to he regarded as prophet of disaster but I do indulge the view, in which many thinking men join, that if the Connecticut public is betrayed by it's servants as it was two years ago up- on this very subject, just so surely must the political penalty be paid by those responsible for such betrayal.
 The scene that was enacted in the House at the last session. when a corrupting lobby was permitted to in- wade the floor of the House and con- duct their nefarious trade, in the view of the Speaker and the members Of the House and whereby a sufficient number of votes were changed to de- feat the bill to the lasting infamy of those who succumbed. is a scene that decent citizens hope will never be re- peated in Connecticut Halls of legisia- tion.
 Probably public sentiment will not be outraged again by such brazen eff forts at corruption, but the less visible (though more subtle) and just as eff fective methods of corrupting the eonsciences of members are being em- ployed by lobby that is permanently entrenched in the corridors of this capitol.
 If a member is influenced in his vote by the seductive promises of po- l1tlcdI Dr61eTm6HC. pr lne advancement of some selfish interest in which he is concerned. and surrenders to these blandishments, he is morally as cul- pablo as though he had offered his vote on the auction block
 The Senators that have convened in this chamber during the past two de- cades have not been without suspi- cion-yes. and a we'll founded suspi- cion-in the popular mind as having been more responsive to the demands of the powerful selfish interests than to the demands of the public.
 had occasion to make an address in Hartford before the men of the Windsor Avenue church in the early part of our Legislative Session, and I then said which I here repeat and in which I have confidence we go to a vote upon this great public ques- tion that we have a Senate in this year of Grace. 1911, which for the first time in long weary years. is composed of men whom. the poisonous breat of the lobby cannot blight and who, both in intelligence and probity, give assurance that the reasonable de- nands of the people of the State will not go unheeded-
 It is conceded that the time has ar rived in Connecticut when the Public Service corporations should be sub ject to that reasonable supervision and control at the hands of the State as will insure reasonable service and rates and proper safeguards for the protection of the lives and limbs of the large army of employees whose brain and muscle are devoted to their service
 This general recognition of the need of State regula tiOn has been of slow growth: the basic principles upon which such control is founded have been diligently obscured by selfish in- terests to be affected by such legisla- tion but the need and the understand ing have finally come to have a per- manent Judgement in the mind of the unorganized public.
 The barriers erected by public in- terests have been swept aside in a number of progressive States that have carried forward these movements whereby to restore to the people the rights of which they had been insidi- ously despoiled.
 The great States of Massachusetts, New York New Hampshire, New Jer- sey. Wisconsin. California and other jurisdictions in which powerful cor- porate interests long had throttled the will of the people. have. in response t0 an enlightened public sentiment placed iegisla tion of this character up- on their Statute books and in all such StatSS they have strengthened the hands If such Public Utility Con- missions through their laT making bodies.
 Let it be underTood that the advo- cates of this legislation are not in sympathy with any corporation bait