Connecticut western news., 1912-02-22

moderator tapped the table with the rub Der end of his lead pencil and called them to order, whereupon both gentle men sat down.
 Henry R. Whitford got up to ask a question Suppose the vote at the pre- vious meeting had been 42 to in favor of accepting state aid-would these gen. tlemen have called this meeting to re- scind They would have said, "We carried the day, and we're going to have it our way" If we vote to accept state money the town will have nothing to say about it. Macdonald will expend the money where he sees fit-put it into the trunk line if he wants to. The speaker expressed himself as not in favor of resembling nor of accepting state aid. z Mr. Bronson said he did not believe all the former road mouey ever went into the roads,
 MT, Roberts read 8 letter received from Commissioner Mcdonald giving assur- ance that the town could appropriate the mon 4v and use it whenever it saw flt. The spaaker said he had confidence in the towns selectman, and would not believe they would clandestinely go into collusion regarding the state roeds. If that should ever happen, he said, we would have redress at the next town meeting and put in new selectmen.
 H'Snpposing the money is all gone? ?' inquired MT. Bronson. but the speaker evidently didn't hear him. We should not vote to make another blunder, he continued, after reference to the cost of the Bennett's Hill job; nor should the town take another contract. The state gives us 75 cents if we will put in %. We need the roads to keep up with other towns. Practically all the other towns in the state 'have been fools enough" to accept state aid. All who were opposed to good roads, at the pre- vious meetings were "drummed out" to attend that meeting.
 "How do you know thaC?" demanded MT. Bronson, but MT. Roberts proceeded to speak of the bonding of the town for $34, ,000 40 years ago for railroad pur- poses 1t was true, he said, but would any man present vote to undo that and dispense with the railroad? Our grand list is $l,315,416. If we ask for $lO, QUO of state money our share of that will be ga, 300, which we can more than raise by two mill tax, or $2 on $I.00O. We would be penuy-wise and pound foolish to reject the appropriation
 As MT. Roberts sat down the moderator signifed to Leo Werner, who had inter. jected some remarks during the speech. that the meeting would now hear what he had to say. But Leo had nothing to say.
 MT. Bronson sad it was proposed to bank on an uncertainty, inasmuch as either MT. MacDonald on the legislature might upset the whole thing at any time. He reverted again to the cost of roads and said they always cost twice as much as expected.
 "Where?" asked MT. Roberts.
 John B. Reed Ro5 the floor at this p)lnt, and said that concerning this state oad matters there had been mis- representation in the newspaper. The town does not pay u state tax.
 MT Roraback remarked that the town did pay state tax, but admitted that the state tax had not bson imposed by the last legislature, and for the next two years at least there wooId be no state tax.
 MT. Reed said it had been stated ill the press that the town of North Canaan paid approximately $l.00O a year" in state tax. He read from memoranda that in 1909 the town had pald state tax amounting to $658.47 and in 1910, $689 l3. This money, he said does not go in- to the good roads fund, but into the treasury of the state. for schools etc. The building of state roads is expensive; all the walls and railings on state roads have to be paid for by the town, and the