The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-03-14
Prominent Contractor
 Says Citizens Must Act
 If Legislature Will Not
(Contnued from Page One)

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 "A bill was prepared and presented by Ferdinand Fox, secretary of the
 Tax Payers Association. At the
 hearing before the committee on Cit
 ies and Boroughs. Senator Delaney.
 Senator Bartlett, Represent tives
 BlakesIee and Chew stated to he
 committee that they had no objection
 to the investigation.
 | Charges were made to the com mittee that the charter of Bridgeport 1 had been violated by contracting bills ! in excess of appropriations, and by raising salaries of two city depart
 ments when there was no money in
 the city treasury to pay them. Mayor Wilson, City Auditor Heating, W. B. i See1ey, president of the Board of i Apporuonment and City Attorney COmley were present, heard the charges and made no attempt to deny them. The committee on Cities and
 Boroughs assumed from this that
 there was need for an investigation
 and ordered one.
 But on orders from powerful sources, the disgraceful conditions of Brtdgeport's finances were ignored, the appeals for help were disregarded and now we have the humiliating spectacle of school teachers asking for their hard earned wages and no money to pay them.
 For this and many other reasons taxpayers like Samuel H. Wheeler, Frank Miller and ex-Mayor Henry Lee began to shake their heads and wonder where We were at. These men remodeIed the city hall under Mayor Aulvihilrs administration and turned back into the city treasury RRN 1f would be held up 10 public ridtcu1e if they attempted to do such a thing under this administration.
 "A member of the Tax Payers As- sociation exo-rined the records of the Tax Commissioners office recently and he found many inequalities. He found that one prominent member of this administration listed his property for one-half of It's value. He found that another listed his horses fer 1 S2,5OO. The horses and brass mount l ed harnesses are worth conservatively $40,00O. This same contractor lists l an up-to-date Ford car for $40.
 Certain manufacturers list their | property in a lump which is viola riOn of the law, while small property | owners adjoining are charged so much | per front foot. It is claimed that an ] Organiza ton of pOwerIu uI manufaCtur- 5 CTS, consisting of less than fifty mev1- bers, hire an expert and practical . dictate what valuations they will pay on and that their property goes In . for less than twenty-five per cent of 1 its value.
 "A member of the Tax Payers As | sociation wrote to a trade paper in | New York that makes a business of | compiling statistics, regarding the i value of manufacturing plants and i equipment in all of the industrial cit 1 les of the United States. He asked i for information as to the amount | of money invested in manufacturing in Bridgeport. This paper which is accepted as a standard authority on such matters replied that they had appraised the plants in Bridgeport en- 1 gaged in manufacturing as being worth S196.OO0, ,O0O. Of course their figures were not brought up to date Many millions have been added to investments of this nd in Bridgeport since they had made their survey.
 q may have erred in stating to the Morning Telegram that the man ufacturers did not pay more than ten per cent on their valuations. But you must remember it was late at night 1 had put in a hard day in Hartford fighting another form of wasteful extravaganza. The Port of Bridgeport. l would be very glad to be set right on this matter, not by Tax Commissioner Connor, who does not possess the necessary technical skill or knowledge but by the nanu- faCturers who have only to open their books to get the knowledge"