The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-07-16


 genial personality of Allan W. Paige of Danbury, Derby and Bridgeport. who for good or i'll first induced thess personages to look into the possibil- ities of profitable investments in the state of his birth, and in which he wielded much political and social in huence at this time. In the cau- cuses and conventions of his party he was active from boyhood. In the halls of legislation he soon became potent factor, always making friends by his powers of personal magnetism and companionable ways. A shrewd lawyer with a Yale sheep skin in the middle sos he came to Danbury just below his native town of Sherman and hung out his shingle
 His father John O. Paige, former school teacher and farmer, was coun-
 ty commissioner at the time. Excise laws young Paige soon mastered. Dan
 bury became too small and he came to Derby, where he married and soon
 was associated with Sydney W. Downs
 of Shelton, who soon formed a pow 'erful combination in that manufac-
 turing town. This firm was counsel
 of the Housatonic Water Co.,, which
 built the first dam across the Housa- tonic. The experiences and insight
 into the workings of this power com- pany who sold power privileges to
 the score or more manufactories on
 both banks of the river may have
 given him his first lesson in the inn
 mense possibilities of direct utiliza- ton of water power in the production of electrical force to be transmitted by wire to the public utilities for
 power and lighting purposes In his
 schooldays, his teacher relates he lov- ed geology and physics, excelling In
 both. The elder Paige had harness ed little stream flowing through his patrimonial estate and made 1t into .
 mill where he did his own and the neighbors' grinding and wood saw ing. Young Paige installed small dynamo and wired the house, lawns
 and grounds for light. There was
 no noticeable loss of power for the mill. The father was always a l thinker and doubtless opened the
 mind of the son to the many other
 uses of electric power. About this time the Ansonia manufactures had built an electrical railroad from their factories to the Shelton docks over which they transported their coal and
 raw materials. It was a success from
 the start; and the natural suggestion
 arose that passengers could be car
 ried as the trolley systems were now opening up ali over the country. Tha r1a& R1 IA-
 charter permitting them to carry fac tory workmen from the villages to
 their work, as we'll as their freight.
 The company engaged Attorney Paige
 to put 1t through the legislature. He
 had almost succeeded when the Con-
 solidated Railroad Co, invoked the
 law against parallel competing road and the scheme was knocked on the
 head. Connecticut also placed ban on all state electric railroads from ever doing the joint work of freight and passenger service. Paige, defeated, returned to his office and
 took up the matter of controlling the upper reaches of the Housatonic river by building other dams to conserve the waters for the dry seasons and prevent the devastation of the spring
 freshets. The Housatenic Co. got
 the concessions from the legislature
 in which Attorney Paige was a pow
 erful member at this time as we'll as
 successful promoter of business re-
 quiring legislative sanction. From
 the little Sherman household dynamo
 to the possibilities of the damned
 up Housatenic river was a far step,
 but Allan W. Paige took the stride. Armed with all the scientific data of. coal exhaustion and the consequent
 menace to manufacturing in this country, and bearing his charters and
 plans of power development with
 him, he get the ear of the financial
 magnates of Pennsylvania who were on the alert for monepolistic enter prises in tn eeast. Control of the
 N. Y. N, H, & H. R, R, and the troll ley systems was prerequisite to
 making the power proposition a sue
 eessful venture Attorney Paige it is said. had as much to do with the fsAex ef- the steam railroads in ab--