The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-29
PUBLIC OPINION


 Just about now MT. Outlying Dis tricter, who happens to have Repubh- can prochvities, is racking his brain with conundrunns of this sort: What will Mayor Wilson do if by any chance or nnischance he should happen to land in the lieutenant governorship of the state? Will he keep on working as persistent1y and doggedly as here tofore to put over permanently onto us Outlying Distrfcters an unJust, and what the supreme court of the state has decided to be an inequitaible bur den of taxaltion3''
 He was onto the job, as we all know. early and late Every hearing bear ing on the matter, judging from the reports. found him energetically work tng for the passage of the measura That was right on top of the break ing crest of the high finance wave when air and water were being in- jeeted, ad 1fbitun, Into corporate com Hinations and the certificate factories were running day and night. Mon opoly, it was boldly handed out, had come to stay and it was only a ques- tion Of getting in on the ground floor to the prospective Investor, or failing in that, anywhere short of the gilded dome itself. It was like the possession of counterfeit plates whose produc& couldn't be distinguished from the gen. uine. We all recoHect the boastful chuckIe Of Morgan: You can't un- scramble eggs. can your
 Excuse the ancient history. but you have to step back a little to get a proper perspective.
 Here was where Mayor Wilson made his debut on the political stage Be- hind him were the full line of local
 nonopolies-water, gas and electricity with their various and sundry ram ihcations for the acquisition of power and ducats. Morgap's united dry goods were ambitious to take over and nnonopolize the entire department store business of the country. New York city department stores paid no taxes. It was thrown on the real es- tate.
 1 MT. Cooper and Mayor wilson cer- ta.inly made an energettc team in put ting the district matter over. Press ure was brought to bear all along the line and ChamberIains equitable measure which had been substituted i tginal bill. was recalled. MT Cooper. who had followed up the matter close- 1 Iy,~ appeared on the scene at the cru Icial moment in the closing rush of the session, we are told, and engineered the movement
 Ex-senator whitcornb, we may add, rather apologeticalIy acknowledges to thave been the instrument of the recall
 Who, the Smart AIeck, as MT C9laIn- berlain terms him. was, at the l original bill previously rejected by the committee and had it slipped through is a matter not very difficult to con- I lecture. No one has, as yet, come for
 ward to claim the honor.
 1 Anti-election promises are plentiful,
 but we have to judge individuals by 1 their record.
 eff Wilson gets up to Hartford as
 lieutenant governor adyed-in-t the-
 wool Outlying District Republican told
 me the other day, fits going to be mighty hard s1edding to get anything 1 just and equitable through in the
 matter of g. district measure.' ? l Another thing is troubling MT. Out living Districter just at the present. l He'd like to have in his pocket once more those good sirnoleons that were l wrung from his scant earnings under a pretendedly legal extension of the Second district. tax rate It was a
 regular hold-up. Why don't. the city pay back to him what belongs to him It looks very much like trying to put
 1t over onto him, law or no law. The regular Second Districter has got a grievance of another sort
 against the present incumbent of the
 mayors office. Wasn't he going to
 reduce our taxes? ?'' he says. sDidn'r
 he harp on that from the word Go ?''
 Economy was to be the watchword and
 a fixed tax rate of fifteen mills from
 then on. We all know the sequel.
 Expense added to expense The high est tax rate in the history of the city and bonding to beat the band.
 The whole thing was evidently a well -concocted scheme to get in under the false pretence of economy and a I low tax rate, and once in the saddle, to build up a following by a lavish and profuse expenditure of the people s money.
 Why that man. averred the Sec ond Distrteter, warming up on the
 subject, don't know enough to run a Icorner grocery. His whole adninis- tration has been a series of bIunders.