New Britain herald., 1916-10-07
T0un Topics

A new and decidedly complex angle has been placed on the political sit
 uation, especially among republicans, during the past week by the with draWal of Mayor G. A. Quigley from
 the race for representative And as in the case of Howard M. Steele, the people are asking the question i Why?' The mayor says it is be- cause of stress of business and he
 cannot afford to devote the time. MT. steele said he did not know 1t would
 take so much of his time to be in the legislature, hence his withdrawal Absurd, his excuse has already been labelled. Scarcely less so is that of his honor has been called. When he first sought the nomination MT. Quigley
 knew full well the tax it would mako
 upon his time. Now he changes his
 mlnd. Hence, again the question 'Why?' Possibly some astute poli- ticians can see in the withdrawal of ! MT. Steele, Quig1ey man, followed so shortly by the withdrawal of the
 boss, something strangely akin. It is an admitted fact in the re- publican ranks that MT OuigIev's
 withdrawal at this late hour is sure
 to be a serious blow to the republican party in New Britain Than MT.
 
 a stronger following and his name on
 ticket Is bound to give it added strength. Remove it and obviously much strength is likewise taken. Also, the new candidate will have a harder time. He will have less time to make campaign plans and no man can he brought forward who can add the strength to the ticket that MT. Quig- 1 ley can. And this on the eve of an important national election when re- publicans and democrats alike are looking for a victory, especially To- cally. Republicans and democrats alike are verbally wondering if these l withdrawals are significant at all the former with apprehension and the latter with glee, meanwhile the demo- cratiq candidates are feeling more
 confident than ever.
 Sometime in the future, it may be six months and it may he a year, there Is to be a change in the sched-
 ule of the electric service between this city and Hartford. The Connec- ttcut company has already ordered a
 half dozen new and larger cars for this important line and as soon as they are built they will be put into
 
 pay -as-you-e enter variety, although
 with the five and ten-cent zones it is difficult to see how they can be made practical unless a passenger on leaving the car be required to drop his nickle or dime in the box, rather than on boarding it. But the big change will be in the running time when it is hoped to have a tcn-minute schedule maintained between this city and Hartford. The service between these two cities is admittedly poor and in adequate and a change is an absolute necessity The only way is to pro- vide additional cars, for with the traffic congestion in the capital city i it is impossible for trolley car to make any fast time at all within the city limits and it takes almost as long to go from the city line to city hall in Hartford as does the entire route to New Britain. Charles Mellen former president of the New Haven
 road, had at one time an elaborate and highly efficient and practical plan to give rapid transit service between these two cities. His plan, however, was to send the cars over private right of way as soon as they left the center This would enable them to speed the cars over the line at a much faster rate than is possible on lines that skirt the public highway. Hartford, unfortunately for this plan, is entirely equipped with f1ange rails and will permit of no change. With the change in the railroad adminis- tration this plan was cast into the discard and doubtless will never be carried out. But if the company will provide enough cars to give a ten- minute schedule the public will be pleased. Particularly in the west tho trolley companies have uneXcelled in- ter-urban service. Shooting out from the city of Detroit are mum erous in ter-urban lines going to Toledo, Port Huron and other cities within a hum dred miles radius. Over these lines a perfect schedule is maintained and the system is so worked out that "lo- calls" are run, stopping at different towns and stations, and 'eXpreSses' are also run giving faster service be- tween the larger cities. These lines, however, are almost entirely over private rights of way such as former President Mellen dreamed.
 *
 For 9 couple of hundred or more New Britain families this past week has been the happicst of the year, with the possible exception or the one earlier in the summer when the administration gave final assurance that war with Mexico had been avert ed. For the soldier boys are coming home again. They should arrive be- fore the middle of next week and the celebration that should mark their home coming cannot be too elabor- ate When a crisis has been passed the public is prone to forget that which transpired before, but New Britain should not forget. The fact that their native sons who marched au1au amid shouts and tears of friends ]