New Britain herald., 1918-03-18

@ declared, Il wish fYfu4. l.u& kseSsffi < of tEe country" The vliay04s l it,. M TOT Of Richard Covert, his political agent
 Talks About Potatoes.
 x One of the first items which the z mayor touched upon was the much 5 discussed Municipal Farm project, # which has caused his administration more trouble than any other single item. Re told of the difficulties en- OuntereG-adverse weather condi- tionS, pests. potato lice, etc., and then explained that some 3,200 bushels of marbles" were raised. Fearing a po tato famine this winter, the committee went into the open market, he said, and bought some more, but these po- tatoes had hardly arrived before "a gentleman from the Third ward, through the columns of the newspa- pers, attacked the project and de- Clared the committee was disposing of frozen and bad potatoes to the people. This hindered the committee and did not give them a chance. Potatoes were stored at the East street school, the mayor said, and when the order came to save on coal, the janitOr did, but the result was that some 400 bushels of potatoes there were frozen. That was not the fault of the com ll1JI6G or the IuS speaker said. Others were stored at the Cherry street storehouse and when the cold snap came the gas main was frozen, making it impossible to keep the gas heaters burning. As a result, 400 bushels more were frozen, but not through any fault of the administra- ton or committee. The steam heating system at the Beaton & Caldwell plant was also frozen up and allowed 1,5o0 bushels of potatoes to be frozen there. Again the mayor said this loss was not the fault of the committee or him. self, and, he added, ''Who was this los
 for, anyway? The venture was at tempted for you and the loss was made for ycu.'
 Even under the very adverse con- ditions the mayor said he felt sure the potato business had saved the people of the city from 25 to go cents per bushel and on the estimate that 195, ,000 bushels are used here in a winter, he said the plan had probably saved the citizens between $4O,OOO and $90,000.
 The mayor also called attention to the fact that his opponents are claim ing that the city's debt has been in creased about $15O,GO0. "Yes, it has," the mayor admitted, ''but on the oth- CT hand it's assets have been increased many times as much as that. You have a new High school that cost $28S, ,O00; a new Grammar school at B cost of $S8,O00; two new park lands at a cost of $64,O0O: a new Bur- ritt school at a cost of $17O,0CO and other assets which bring the total up
 to $600,000. Thus, the balance on
 the right side of the city's ledger is about $450,0O0 in four years. Not a r1 oI,O T this statement and one man shouted; Never mind, Georgie, we're going to have you elected anyway"
 The slaughter house, which the mayor said has been attacked by his enemles who at first predicted it would be 6 rank failure, has more B. than proved it's worth and today not single piece of diseased meat is sold
 In the city because of it. The ef1i- ciency of the health department and the great work it does about the city i'll preventing disease and helping to
 stamp out epidemics etc, was an-
 other matter touched upon by the
 mayor.
 Other Records Are Ready.
 Turning to the work of the board
 If public works during his admins
 tration, the mayor said that during
 his four years over five and cne-h half
 miles of macadam has been laid in
 The streets; over five and a half miles
 of semi pavement has been laid; al-
 most a mile of permanent pavement
 has been laid and subwayS have been
 laid in Lafayette, BigeIoW and Elm
 streets which are self supporting for
 he first time since the subway sys-
 :em was adopted here. He also said
 that almost five miles of sanitary
 sewers have been installed and three
 niles of storm sewers. The elimina-
 ion of the Corbin avenue 'deatii
 rap" grade crossinG as well as the
 elimination of the Lake street grade
 crossing were mentioned as other
 salient points of his administration
 The mayor also made mention of
 Alderman Q. r. Curtis attack on the
 own farm dairy barn and advised
 1is listeners to read what Dairy Com
 missioner Holt had to say about the
 barn after he visited 1t. He said it
 vas O. K, tho mayor declared. An
 other thing the mayor said was that
 turing his term Of office he has rec
 sgnized no religion or nationality, nor
 nas he hesitated to remove men when
 1e thought they were not fitted for
 heir jobs. q have tried to conduct
 Inc city government for your inter
 Asts. have tried to make it an
 American government for American
 people and managed in the interests
 a the great cosmopolitan class that