The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-13
BAl. .DvvlN'S s FIGHT I AGAINST CORRUPT
 LOBBY IS LAUDED
ec:onfinueo from PaKe 1.l

Unfortunately Connecticut. and to an extent the nation, has within re- cent years, .fa1lAn5 into slothful ways, so that we have omitted to improve our instttuttons as much we should, and have even permitted them to de- teriorate in certain serious respects
 We are the home-the legislative and corporate home of great tran sportation systen-a great aggregate of railroads, trolley roads, steam ships, lighting and gas plants, which enjoy almost a monopoly of the tran sportation business of New England.
 Into these great enterprise the best brains off New England had been merged They gave employment to the workers of New England, and the capital of New England was poured into them in an abundant golden stream.
 Recently this great enterprise came into a sad state Its help was de- creased. Its dividends were sus- pended. Its trains began to jump the rails. It's passengers were crushed beneath the debris of cars, or burned. and smothered in the 1re of overturn-
 The president of this great enter prise was driven from his office. be- came a witness for the government, and to gain immunity, turned states evidence.
 In the illumination of this mans s frank testimony before the Interstate conmerce commission, the facts of the greatest crime in the history of New England became as clear as day He himself, with the co-operation of the directors of his railroad sys- tenn, had personally supervised the | expenditure of slush funds amounting to niIHonEo dollars. Of these expenditures the Interstate Commerce Commission, in it's letter Of February 2. 1914. addressed to the Sem ate. said
 tsThis investigation has demonstrated that the monopoly theory of those con trolling the New Haven was unsound and mischievous in it's effects To achieve such monopoly meant the reck- Hess and scanda1ous expenditure of money; it meant the attempt to con- troI public optnion; corruption of gov ernment the attempt to pervert the political and economic instincts of the people in insolent defiance of law.
 tsThrough exposure of the methods s of this monopoly the invisible govern ment which has gone far in it's efforts to dominate New England has been made visible. It has been clearly prov en how public opinion was distorted; l; I how officials who were needed, and who could be bought were bought; how newspapers that could be subsidized were subsidized; how college profess I or and pubhcists secretly accepted money from the New Haven. while | masking as the representative or a great American university and as the guardians of the interests of the -peo- pie; how agencies of information to ] the public were prostituted wherever they could be prostituted.
 Here, then, is a single instance of the presence of an abuse in our state, which cries out for remedy. This hid eous manifestation of social disease comes upon us suddenly; but the n1al- ady has been of slow growth | tI is not unknown to you that for i more than a score of years now the fashion in Connecticut has been to use great sums of money in seeking i'm portant office.
 It was long the fashion to nominate for governor very rich men, and then to make those men pay well in order to be elected, and often to be defeated.
 Thus by degrees there grew up in Connecticut and spread slowly over New England, a system of corruption. We began to have government by cash instead of government by men
 This contamination spread like slow poison, until 1t infected every branch of the commonwealth.
 The ballot was poisoned by the pur- chase of voters. The will of the peo- pie was thwarted by the traffic in deI- egates to conventions The fountains of justice were tainted at the fountain head by the purchase of bad laws.
 Three classes of corrupttonists came 1 into being, consisting of those who l yielded to the temptation to sell their votes, Of the rich citizens who fur uished the money with which to buy office or other privileges they desired