The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-06
CBy Our staf Corres.l


 Hartford, May 6.-Much to the sur prise and chagrin of Representative ClituS H. King of Fairfield, House chairman Of the Committee on Cities and Boroughs, the House refused to- day to stand by him on his unfavor- able report on the bill introduced by Representative Lynn W. Wilson of Bridgeport whereby the general statutes affecting the requirement. of monopolies of electric and gas light franchises by cities shall be amended so as to include waterworks privately owned.
 Representative Wilson's bill sought to amend the statutes so as to make 1t possible for any municipality to de- ciae by vote of it's electors whether or not to acquire the charter and property rights of any privately own ed water company; after the council in two successive. years has voted in favor of the proposition.
 At the present time there is a statute which gives cities the roght to acquire, under certain conditions, any gas or electric light plant, when in two successive years the common council shall vote in favor of the pro- ject. Wilson's bill was designed sim ply to add to the statute the word water 50 as to include water plants under. the same general conditions.
 Representative King said that the committee was opposed to MT. Will sons amendment. He said the whole question of waterways and water rights was so involved that in his Judgment the state will soon require a special commission to inquire into this whole question. He asked the re- lection of wilson's bill and moved that the report o9 theecomnittee be accepted.
 Representative Wilson on obtaining the floor made a forceful and eloquent address in which he explained in de- tai1sthe full import of the attempt that has been made for many years in Bridgeport by the agents of the public service corporations in both parties to deprive the citizens of the city of the to vote upon the question of whether or not the city should own its public utilities
 MT. wilson was most eloquent in his denunciation of the stable of lob byfsts'' maintained by the Bridgeport Hydraulic Go. both in Bridgeport and in Hartford for the purpose of throt- tlfng legislation which the people de- mand. He referred to the distin- guished Republican from Fairfield, chairman of the Cities and Boroughs committee and said he regretted that he found him working hand in hand to the same ends as those sought by the agents of this company.
 He wished it distinctly understood that neither himself nor his Demo- cratic collea gIIe in the house, Col. Mc- Murray, nor the people of Bridgeport who sent them there expected that they would be able to secure the jus tice which. they sought at the hands of the General Assembly when he saw the position taken by MT King
 He was willing however to go back to the people of Bridgeport. to tell them of the fine times and the dining and wfning of Hhose well fed hand someIy. groomed lobbyists so 1uxur- iously maintained by the Bridgeport gentleman who dominates the affairs of that city. He was also willing to go into Fairfield and in other villages and towns of the state and tell the honest voters of the doings of the lobbyists and of their ways and their manners of securing control of legis- lation He said he was neither a he could easily foreteII the outcome of this question in so far as the House chairman of the committee is con cerned when it became known early in the session that he had been se- lected to supervise the affairs of the citizens of Bridgeport. MT. Wilson closed with an appeal to the mem bers of the House for a, righteous vote on a righteous matter.
 Considerable applause swept through the house as he resumed his seat.
 The vote was announced:
 Total number cast POP. Against acceptance of adverse re- 1 port, 1o6
 In favor of acceptance, 96.
 MT. Wilson was then recognized by | the chair. He moved the passage of the bill notwithstanding the adverse report of the committee.
 The Republican House leader. MT. Healy of Windsor Locks, asked the bill be tabled for calendar and print 1 Ing, as it was an important bill and that the members should have al