The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-02-08
HUDSON PLAYS FALSE LEADERS OF REPUBLICANS ChaIrmanShlps of Committees Have Been BarteTed He
 Asserts Present Speaker Webster Wears 'sOId Familiar Collar" He
 Tells Business Men of Milford


 Speaking before the Milford Busi- ness Mems association Thursday night States Attorney Stiles Judson handled the Republican machine in this State without gloves. He paid his respects | to ''Ed'' Robbins of the New Haven road, the Speaker of the House, the Editor of the Hartford Courant and 1 others.
 What MT ,Judson said will be found below:
 q had distinct purpose in choos- 1 ing for my subject this evening that l of The Business Man in Politics. l have exhorted the business men of | the State for years past to be more alive to their political duties, in oth- l CT words their sworn obligations Of i citizenship.
 saThe interest awakened throughout | the State among business men who | for the first time left their shops and factories to organize a movement to | write progressive laws upon our statute books in the sessions of 1909 and 1911. most gratifying "'If it had not been for the prudent l course of the business mems aSsocia- l tions of securing letters from candi- i dates for the Senate in the election of 1 1910, and had not those letters been
 available when the fight upon the. minority report for public utility | bill with teeth in it was opened, which enabled to jack up a few webbing | Senators, the public utility bill would 1 have gone down 10 QereaL as IL .naO at the previous session.
 YOUR WORK FINISHED" l This proved what could be done I for good government by the substan- l tial citizenship represented by the i members of the business mems asso- | ciations when they were in earnest 1 and asserted themselves. That work was finished, but if you l have a proper regard for your duties as citizens your work is not finished.
 You are aware that the Republican ] party of this State is in it's present 1 state of disorganizatj ton and might | say abasement, solely due to the con- | tinued betrayal Of the people by the
 so-called Republican leaders That i infamous leadership of the Republican party is at present divided among i three or four notorious lobbyists plus
 the editor of leading Republican
 journal, that happily doesn't lead as l much as 1t formerly did.
 This organization of Republican
 leeches at Hartford has had the Re
 many years. At a time when the l Republicans were in a great majority
 in this State these eo-called leaders found it safe to dictate nominations 1 for the State ticket and for the State 1 Senate and certain of their numbers have been accustomed during 1egisla- l tive sessions to prostitute their po1i- | tical powers and influence by using | them to improperly and many times | corruptly influence legislation. I Se- | cured the adoption of the Senate rule | vesting the appointment of commit
 tees in the president pro tenn. Prior | to that a bargain counter on 1egisla- | tive chairmanshipss was set up by | these leaders at Hartford.
 i ROBBINS CORRUPTION SHOP | ''Ed'' Robbins for the New Haven | road peddled out legislative chair manships for years and then at the | opening of sessions set up his corrup- | ton shop in the rooms of the board
 of education at the Capitol.
 | His place was taken by the present l purveyors of committeeshipe who un- | deterred by the fact that the se1ec- tion of Mir Rora back to be chairman Iof the State Central committee and 1 titular leader of the Republican par | ty drove thousands of decent seIf-re- 1 specting Republicans into the Progress | sive and Democratic parties, have at l this present session put the old fa- | niliar collar about the neck of the 1 Spee ker of the House and required 1 him to put aside such manhood as the | Creator had endowed him with and l appoint such men to such committee | ships and chairma nships as they dic- tated for their personal uses. | CHARGE IS OPEN
 ''I make this charge upon the evil | dence and without hesitation. The
 New Haven Leader has editorially l lobby dictation to this Speaker, and | yet the Republican side of the House sit there like bumps on logs without a
 and official investigation of these ser
 ious charges Is it aiy wonder the
 
 disorganized and discouraged? I
 would that I were member of the
 House for a brief time I would at least guarantee to the people of Con necticut that the truth of these | charges of infamous conduct would
 be speedily ascertained.
 | ''The eQuanimity with which we re- | ceive the information that the pre- l siding officer Of our House of Repre-
 sentatives has been thus led astray
 on important a subject, is amazing
 and would indicate that the Repub-
 lican party in Connecticut had be-
 come corrupt and contented.'
 You business men have legitimate | interests before this General Assembly
 and are concerned with the question
 of the integrity of it's committees and
 in the question of the alleged sinis-
 ter influences under which they were I made.
 why don't you demand such in-
 vestigation? You have Representa-
 tives who can voice your demands.
 NOT A PARTISAN MATTER
 This is not partisan matter. It
 matters not whether you be Republi-
 cans or Democrats. You are citizens,
 and you are interested in both the
 fact of good government and in the tTf so-called leaders and lobbyists
 have unduly influenced and coerced
 this Speaker, the Connecticut elector- ate entitled to know it and are
 entitled to have such malefactors as
 said 6ecte1 6e ha1e an6 p1nis6ed fRe R9
 no other means can this political l scandal be properly dealt with
 Milford ought to know what it is l to get into the clutches of the lobby. 1 You had your bitter lesson on the subject of the diversion of the waters
 of the beautiful Wepawaug river. You secured a favorable report the . merits of your proposition. You pass Il ed it in the House and we were pre-
 pared to put it through the Senate, when you were begui1ed into having 1, it recommitted. I gave you warning 1 against sanctioning such a suicidal 1 course. I was no tyro in the ways of 1 legislation. I predicted the favorable 1 report would never come back, and 1 my prediction turned out to be well ! led