New Britain herald., 1914-08-29
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- order to furnish em- ployment for idle men was attended by more s---'---- people than any sim liar meeting held here in great many years. This may be accounted
 for by reason of there being a rumor
 that the appropriation would be op- posed. There was something to that, but not enough to cause any excite
 ment The city meeting has been
 losing it's popularity for a good many
 years. Back in 1892 a city meeting
 was held to appropriate several thou
 sand dollars for public purposes and
 there was no one present except the
 reporters, the clerk and the presiding
 officer. and it was the newspaper mon
 Who had to introduce the necessary
 resolutions. There have been other
 meetings where the attendance was
 almost as small, and it will be re-
 membered that it was not many years
 ago that it was thought the city meet
 ing should be abolished altogether
 and the business now performed by
 that body placed in the hands of the
 board of finance and taxation. It
 has been customary for the heads of
 the different departments to attend
 the city meetings, but they were all
 absent this week and yet the attend
 ance was larger than when they used
 to be present It was noted that
 there were a number of young men
 there and it was good to see them
 taking an interest in public affairs
 and proving it by attending meeting
 where public funds were being appro-
 priated. Perhaps there may be some
 one who can take issue with Edward
 O. Kilbourne, who said that there
 were more idle men during the ad-
 minlstration of Mayor Am prose Beatty
 than there are today There may be
 some one around who was interested
 in public affairs at that time who may
 be able to give some further informa-
 tion on that point. MT. Beatty re-
 tired from the office of mayor twenty
 seven years ago in order to accept the position of postmaster. MT. Kill bourne did not go into details on the
 matter of the unemployed and did
 not seem. to be prepared for a da7 bate. He was not. opposed to ,appro-
 priating money just now, provided that a satisfactory reason was given for it. This was not given, although. Alderman Jester said it was for the
 purpose of supplying the unemployed with work. There were none of the
 old-time debaters present and the only information brought out was by the queries and answers of MT. Kill bourne and MT. Jester. The meeting was short one and save for the lit tie debate between the above two gentlemen there was nothing out of the ordinary in the business tran sacted.
 The effort of Mayor Quigley and some of his political friends to drag the court of probate into the political mire this week has thus far proved unavailing. The effort this time was to induce Judge Meskill to become a candidate, but so far it has been un- l successful, although Judge Meskill 1 has not expressed himself either way 1 on the matter There has been some | feeling engendered by the offer to l make the probate judgeship a politi 1 cal office and it is now feared that it may result in affecting the vote that great many democrats are desirous of giving a local candidate for state office and which may be the means of affecting his election. New Brit ain has always been strong for its own people when candidates for office in which the vote of other towns are cast and it was hoped that there would not be any obstacles in the way of that being done this year. It may be that at least two New Britain men will be candidates on opposite state tickets this year and unless something happens the disposition will be to give them a good send off hal there ! is too much politics dragged from an- other quarter there is no telling what may happen. Had the probate judge ship been a political office to be filled by opposing candidates right along then it would not occasion so much comment to have another campaign this year, but as a matter of fact it Is not a place to be made a football of every two years; the republicans dropped it themselves eight years ago and as there has been no develop nents which might cause a change of feeling since, there is no reason, ex- ,ept that of politics, to cause a return % the old conditions now. There is nothing to be gained by that and it is plain as anything can be that the peo- ole are opposed to it.. There are any number of reasons why they should De- The democrats have been en- lorsing local candidates for city of ices because the occupants have filled hem as well as they can be filled. It must be admitted that a good feeling 1as been engendered among both parties because of this. fact and it is generally regretted that an effort should be made to disturb that kindly ceiling in the city and especially lmong our public men. Politics has , )een the bane of our city government n past years and the efforts to keep out now should be encouraged. There can hardly be any doubt but hat hundreds of democrats voted for George Quigley for mayor. And so