The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-07-08
THE INEVITABLE RESULT

 T FFICIENGY IN government is a splendid AZ< thing. It is not so splendid as honesty. There may perhaps be honesty without effici- ency, but there can be no efficiency where there is no honesty.
 The present administrations from the in stant it took office, was estopped from efficient and honest government in any real sense Of those things 1t was Organized primarily. as everybody knows, to. take care of certain pri- vate interests, and this being its first function good government, exercised in the Interest of the people, could not have been, at the best, more than it's second object.
 Events have unfortunately, not been oth- erwise than The Farmer has warned it's readz CTS from the beginning they must be.
 An administration inaugurated for pur- poses that were moreSprivate than public could not long continue within the bounds set by it's promoters.
 None would consent to serve another's pri- vate interest without at the same time serving in some degree his. oy1n and so we have such a spectacle of a municipality administered for private ends as is not remembered in Bridge port before
 ent government, it must be said they never con templated or expected any such condition as has come into being
 There was s debatable ground in which there was division of opinion as to what was best to be done with respect to pal own
 
 The administration came into existence more particularly to represent the views and opinions of those who were opposed to mtnici- Epal ownership, because their vested interests and their habitual way of looking at suchsques- tions had brought them to an opposite view.
 There can be little doubt, however, that this group, beyond maintaining the condition of private ownership of utilities, sincerely de- sired to give Bridgeport an ideal government
 Tn spite of the desires of this group, as an inevitable consequence of making the objects EOf government private, many unusual and evil things have come into being.
 The tax rate is much higher, and must con tinue to increase as the consequence of the growing debt are realized
 There has been g letting down of the bars in almost every department, and old standards of municipal honesty have been replaced by private purposes
 The Warrenite contracts with their illegal features, and their moral failure to protect the interest of the city, are one sign
 The illegal bonding election was another
 The streak of rnaeadan through the War renite on Fairfield avenue was another sign. The original standards as set in the board of contract and supply proved too high. and were overthFown with the displacement of Afr lCatlin, the clerk of the board.
 There have been more scandals, more sus- picious and regretable circumstances, impfi- eating the quality of the government of Bridge. port during the last two years than in any ten wears before.
 It is not strange the men who, however unwittingly, made these conditions possible look aghast up on their work, and would undo l it if possible.
 But things must go on as they are, at Ieas luntn another municipal election arrives, fol Bridgeport lacks the recall, and other measures 1 by which the public will is made manifest 1T I dsuch situations as ours
 That time will soon arrive and then, in the I light of events, there will come another trial o strength between public opinion and organized political selffshness as represented by an ad Iopinion-