The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-11

MT. Carabine began by telling of the
 history of the growth of socialism in
 Plymouth, and particularly in Terry
 vile, which is @ part Of Plymouth.
 He said in part:
 1.-TWO years ago last fall, fifteen so-
 ciaIists met in Plymouth in an apple orchard, and decided to nominate
 town ticket. We were tim1d and most of us who worked in the shops there
 believed that if we came out on ticket we would lose our jobs. Finally
 one Hard said, If yez think wud
 make a good se1ectman. I'll start the, ball a-roIlin'.' When the votes were
 counted. after election, the socialists
 lacked five Of being victorious. When
 the November election rolled around
 we found that the democrats and re-
 publicans had fused, and they beat
 us. But wait until next fall. We
 will show them something. In the
 town affairs, the socialists had four
 teen offices to fill, as the minority al-
 ways had that number allowed to it.
 And in a smaH town. this is a great
 deal. The small town officials are all powerful
 '.The greatest thing about small
 town is that any mutt can be a judge
 Look at me. am a. Judge. The
 grond Juror is another mutt. He
 takes the part of the prosecuting att
 torney in a small town. Imagine 2 socialist grand juror saying to a so-
 cialist judge. Your honor and both working in the same factory. Irn- agine what he would tell the judge in the shop. could get no infor1na- ton of the duties of my ofice when, was elected, as there was no law or justice in the old party. We lacked up as we went along. w could. how ever, see the difference between law in Plymouth, and justice in Plymouth. ssThe grand juror started in by cleaning out the town And he Mad success. There was former town of owned a house which was used for immoral purposes. The socialist said, You must drive those people out of your house and out Of town Who said so 2 asked the former official, T did, and if you do notS I will serve papers, answered the socialist. and the house was forthwith cleaned out. When the tax collector was ready to open upon us, he handed to the grand juror a list of 140 names of delinquent personal taxpapers. They represented about one-haff of the to- tai number of taxpayers in that town lsWe were told to collect the old taxes. We pictured ourselves rolling in wealth right away. We were told to get a couple of warrants, and that the others would come docking in when the two warrants had been serv- ed A committee of ways and means was named, and the grand juror wat appointed to go around and look up the dehnquents The law gave to us the privilege of soaking everybody about $S.50. The law says the grand juror is to collect. and that let me out.
 HOut of the 140 names handed to I us. we found that eighty were either in Russia, in Poland or dead. That
 left sixty names of people who were | ff night after night in explaining to the
 poor foreigners that if they paid up ! It would cost them g each, but if they did not it would cost them about ss-5o each Fifty-nine paid up. and i that left just nine out of 140 delin- quents for notices to be served upon. If we had made out 40 warra nts, and had them sefWed, there would have been but sixty collections, and we
 would have got $3I6 out of the town for collecting The same. We saved 1 the town that That is the graft. The cry went up that system ce doing business was not according to law. We were robbfhg the officials An indignation meeting was held and I the town books ordered closed, and no more personal taxes have been
 collected there since.
 HI could have had the delineuents brought in before me, and I would have abated the taxes, but the tax
 payers would then have had to pay
 me a fee for every one brought in.
 That is more graft"
 MT. Carabine told several instances
 of judgments which he had handed Isdown from his bench, all being l against legal precedent, and all in ac- iscord with justice as the socialists see it. Speaking. of the conditions in Plymouth, the speaker said that there ] had been a deficit or a dedication
 which ever way you want it. in the tax collections This began in 1903,
 with a $3 shortage that year, run ming up to a $s,00o shortage in 1913
 The trial of the former tax collector
 is coming off in little while, and the l speaker did not believe that anything
 would be done to him.