The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-09-20
BUSY MIR. BANKS EAGER 10 SERVE
 BEDDING MORE
But Ungrateful Townsmen Doubt If That Would Be
 Quite Proper
Especial to The Farmer.)

with the best of intentions has hardly time to get them into good shape the present season. In view of these facts many express surprise that he should undertake, outside his general con tract, special improvement jobs to the amount of nearly $1,000. One of these jobs on the long hill leading from the Center to the Saugatuck valley IS nearly completed and very goo0 1on he is making of it. A good deal or unfavora!ble comment Is also heard regarding his efforts to again become a selectman, many viewing his hold ing of this office while he holds 1m- Dortant contractrua1 relations with the town as of questionable propr1ety. His friends reply that this view Is a mistaken one as no pay warrants TOT his road work can be signed by the selectmen until the work performed has been approved by the special road committee, thus making the select mems part in signing the bills mere for1nality That statement Is true as regards the general contract at $5,000 a year, but not quite true as regards the permanent improvement jobs, these being awarded through the joint action of the road committee and the. selectmen. Besides the selectnen still have control over the renewing of sluices and minor bridges, depart ment calling tor an outlay during the past year of nearly $700. As practi- caIly all of this work has gone to Mr. Banks on the past two years his mem- bership, in the board of selectmen could hardly improve his position in that field Nevertheless the sentiment of objection to Mir Banks on the ground mentioned persists, it being fai ineaN that with another Y1eT11it1hr of the board politically and otherwise friendly to him he might be able to do himself aindnesSes not wholly to the towns benefit. Both he and w. O. Sanford, one of his Democratic op- ponents, have served several terms on the board of selectmen and any com parison between their records on the score of responsiveness and general usefulness iss decidedly to MT. Banks disadvantage. Had the latter delayed his candidacy another year and given us> first-class roads in the meantime the town, out of sheer gratitude, would have Bestowed on him any of flee within their gift.
 The four Bedding boys now serving with Uncle Sam's troopers and those joining them later are not to be for gotten by their home friends. In every store and post office in town there have been placed boxes to serve as receptacles for coin contributions which. will be used to buy tobacco, candy and small comfort articles for the local soldier contingent. Each member of the Home Guard has sub scrfbed a. stated monthly subscription for the same purpose. When the boys get to Europe an effort will be made to continue conveyance to them indi- vidualy of the gifts. If this cannot be done the money raised will be aurned over to the general tobacco fund. Each of the local men at the front will be asked to write at least
 one letter month to the Home Guard.
 1 One of the topics discussed at the last meeting of the Mems club was the advisability of keeping on with the finance committee system first in- | troduced last year as a feature of the 1 town government. The notable ex-
 ploits of that committee were to rec-- 1 ommend an increase in the salaries of
 certain town officials, most of whom
 were members of the committee, and
 to forget to recommend whether an emergency expenditure of $2, 500
 should be funded with the towns per-
 manent indebtedness or speedily paid by an increase of the tax rate. The
 club decided that the system should
 be continued. not. after last years
 fashion, but in accordance with the
 terms of a recent legislative act. This
 act prescrEbes the manner of the com mittee's appointments. provides that it shall make up a budget at least two
 weeks before election, that this bud
 get shall be advertised in the news papers and that if the tax laid in any year fails to furnish the revenue for ordinary expenditures the rate in the
 folio wing year shall be sufficiently high to make up the deficiency. The question of adopting the system will
 be voted upon at the annual town meeting to be held Oct. 1.
 |, Ther is under advisement the plan of holding a battalion drill at the Danbury Fair grounds on Tuesday of
 Fair week in which Battalion E, com prising the Home Guard commands of
 Danbury, Bethel, Brookfeld, Newtown
 and Rddgeield, and the shore town
 battahons representing Norwalk,
 Stamford, Greenwich and adjacent towns wouldl take part. The project is likely to be carried out and in any event the Guard will be in evidence
 at the fair grounds by the presence on the Ssix days of a squad of six from leach of Battalion Els six commands. They are to have a booth set apart for them and will there act the role of. a reception, demonstration and in- formation committee to make better known the purpose and methods of the organization.
 Dog Warden Warner has received instructions from the state authori- ties to enforce strictly the ortter re- quiring all dogs to be muzzled and
 kept off the highways from Sept 26 until further notice. The order ap- plies to all the territory west of the Connecticut river and is prompted by the fact that within a few months
 about 100 persons in that section have been dog bitten, three of them with fla tai results. An agent will come here from Hartford to see that Mir War
 ner compels compliance with the reg iulation. ~
 At the Episcopal rectory in Wilton last Saturday Rev. MT. Marks per- formed the ceremony which united in
 marriage T. Marvin Stocking of | Georgetown and Miss Edna Shelley of
 Ridgefeld. The couple at once be-
 gan housekeeping in part of the res-
 idence of the groom's mother in
 Georgetown. This is MT. Stocking s
 third marriage, his seconf wife hay
 Ing died last winter. He conducts a