Republican farmer., 1920-08-06
Special to The Times)

board may do to aid the Con- necticut company and no mat ter what fare it iss allowed to collect the general opinion is that the company will close down its state service within two months and then wait for legislation by a special session of the legislature to aid in pull ing it out of the mud.
 That seemed to be the gen eral opinion as the result of the public hearing yesterday. It was generally admitted by re- prosentatives of the company that the chances were that the seven cent flat fare would be failure as was the zone system in the matter of recouping the finances of the company and it was also very generally believ- ed that the higher fare the company charges the less money will get, fer,the fewer passengers it will carry.
 Hence there seems to be nothing in sight except suspen- sion and an appeal to the state to doe something to help it out of the situation.
 The testimony yesterday showed that the Connecticut company is sinking deeper into the bankruptcy nire every day and with all the hard thinking of it's high salaried officials and retainers 1t will be unable to pay tho salaries of these officials or re- tainers no matter what scheme of collecting fares or conditional prom ises they hold out to the public.
 It may run for six weeks more or perhaps two months, but President L.. s. Storrs and Judge Walter c. Moves, chairman of the board of trustees, at the hearing were not at all certain that the trolley cars throughout the state would not be compelled to stop in that time no matter what action the commission took on their petition to allow them to change the fare col lection system from the zone system to g. flat rate.
 These officials talked like the navi. gators of ship who had lost theil bearings and were about to abandon and scuttle the ship.
 Disgust and lack of confidence 1T the management was expressed al the meeting and in the corridors of tn, Capitol and the general opinion wal that if the company was worth say ing 1t would have to be done by tn, people of the state acting tlrrouel the legislature.
 Even men who have formerly beer strenuously opposed to state owner ship of public utilities were of thi opinion and stated that the stat could not make a worse bungle am muddle of the matter than the pres ent high salaried officials
 The management under the ques tioning of the members of the com mission and the representatives, of tn variousi towns and cities of the stat showed an amazing lack of knowledg g of what was needed in the transpor tAtion crisis which they insisted wa confronting them and said that tn only reason that they were demand ing a change in the method of collect ing fares was that something must b done and that they were doing some . thing but did not know and had n means of foretelling that what the were demanding would be benefit ( detriment to the Connecticut Con pary's financial condition.
 Judge Moves was very muc wrought up over the statement Mayor David E. Fitzgerald of Ne Haven in his letter to the comnissio in which he said that "the public Ina lost confidence in the management the Connecticut Company"
 Judge Moves said T can't belie- that the people have lost confiden, in the management of the compan That would mean that they had 10 .> confidence in the Government. W the trustees who are managing tn property are working under the o ders of the United States Court whi, appointed us and this court is a pa of the government. If the peep have lost confidence in us they ha lost confidence in the government"
 Judge William S. Bennett, corpor tiori tounsel of New Haven during I talk to the Commission said: 'Whet CT or not the people are of the opini that they can do without the troll service they have no doubt but tn they can do without the managene of the trolley company"
 Corporation Clark of Hamden Sd when asked IT ne wanted the Sta
 Commissioner Higgins then sai Speaking now, broadly as a citiz of the State and not of large cent of population. what do you think
 inc effect on the business and CO naercial life of the State in general tne cities and large centers did I help to pay their share of the cost transportation in the suburban tricts?'' This now from the bro viewpoint of a citizen of the sta There was no answer.
 Most- of the representatives of towns objected to the short not M ~iven of the meeting and said u while they had reMoonded to the