The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-05-11

I F l the movement to inflict Bridge port with 8 big bonded debt,
 Representative Lynn w. Wil- son said among other things: MT. wilson said: 9sWe are confront-
 ed in Bridgeport with a divided sopin- ion upon the debt question There are some men who call this a little" 1 Bridgeport. They propose to make l it over into a greater Bridgeport They have an infallible recipe for this me- ttamOrphosis, a formula which Is en-' titled to rank. with the recipe for etern-
 al youth, which the ancients always
 sought and never found.
 These gentlemen, who have sudden l Tyr discovered this is little Bridge port, are going to make a giant of us.
 not by waiting for us to grow, but by forcib1yA holding us by the nose While they compel us to swallow a big debt, their dose for giant growing. i They are going to hand us a big debt
 whether we want it or not. That IS ltheir wonderful prescription. They
 are going to make us take it if they
 can.
 I Bridgeport has always run on tho. fPay as you go plan. It has been run
 after the early policy of the state and Ination. finder this policy of pay az l you go, the city has become the second
  | first 50 in the United States. | The municipal statesmen who want 1 to make us grow faster. don't teA
 us how their dose win bring that thing. labout. am afraid they can't tell us,
 because a large debt don't help us It will injure us. l Mayor Wilson is not the only states man who has discussed the debt ques-s ton. But he is the first to publicly say a big public debt is a good thing s<7 7<zf,5- 1 jured all governments.
 Jefferson called public debt that. mortal canker.'
 Jackson in his day extinsuished the public debt, and said he was adnaon- ished to do sd by the example of other selves.
 We ought to consider, however, that Washington, Jefferson and Jackson were old fashioned men, and that Nav or Wilson is new and modern. Can he be right and they wrong? But Prof. Hadley, of Yale, one Of the greatest economists in the world, has written a book on government. in which he speaks of the oily of in-s curing great debt for unprodnctive thingss in even more strenuous terms than Washington or Jefferson dfd.s And Prof. Hsdley but states upon this point the classic view of all econom- fsts.
 We may fairly class Mayor Wilson as an inventor entitled to a basic pat ent. He Is the first to claim great public debt is a beneficial thing. @ I fear, however. that Mayor Wilson is not really entitled to the credit of the idea think he got the idea from the water monopoly and other public service corporations
 [ don't suppose that down in his heart Mayor Wilson cares a fig wheth- CT we have a debt or not, except as the politicians would have more money to spend.
 But this matter of bonding is vital thing to the public service corpora tions, as shall briefly show you- And the hue and cry for debt, coming from so many quarters, all proceeds from
 the activity and influence Of those interested in taking profits from water, gas, electricity and ice.
 You may remember that when the Beardsley park dam burst about six years ago, a. municipal ownership cam paign was begun You may remem- I of men interested especially in the water company began a campaign for l a .sbigger Bridgeport" by which they meant a bigger debt. Then these
 men, standing in the background.
 commenced to push forward a flood ! of extravagant projects, each requir- l ing debt to create it.
 1 Presently the more active. of the lrepresentatives of these corporations l furnished the money. thousands of
 dollars, with which those friendly to. Lthem might get control of the muni-
 cipaI government, and from that day
 to this the debt program has been re- Ilentlessly waged, here, before the vot- CTS and at Hartford, out of sight of the voters.
 | This is the fourth set of bond issuez I that have been offered to Bridgeport lwithin two or three years and the to-
 tai amount of the offerings will reach lmany millions of dollars.
 1 And in the background, waiting to
 be offered, are other millions They want to widen Broad street, to build I all the public buildings over again, to construct a magnificent boulevard from Seaside park to Black Rock oven
 a bridge that cannot be built for less than a million dollars. All good things
 but not good enough to go in debt
 for.
 | It is enough to say that the debt all ready proposed by this adm minlstration with the debt which is waiting to
 be proposed as soon as the bond is- sues of Saturday are out of the way. would require about eight mills on lthe grand list to maintain There
 would be payments for interest, pay ments to principal and payments to would be acquired. Eight mills on | the grand list it would take to carry the burden.
 So you see it is not the bonds that are offered now that you must con- sider alone, but those that the same people have offered and those they Twill offer, if they get these.
 l To my way of thinking most of the bonds that you are asked to favor Saturday, are unnecessary. would make but one exception. The $50 GOO to complete the High school That work will have to be done and it will be cheaper to do it now.
 My first objection to bonding now, aside from the persons who are trying to have you create the debt and their motives. is this:
 Money is too high. We borrowed | all wa needed three and If