The Connecticut labor press., 1920-03-27
STRANGE ACTIVITY
 TO PUSH OVER SITE
 FOR NEW CITY HALL
Methods of Clique to Force Selection Arouses
 Suspicion.
PRESS GETS IN TOO
Will Publish Nothing About Any Other Than Elm Street,
 Committee Is Told.

Such an apparently we'll defined and organized attempt to push the Elm and Temple street site for the proposed new city hall down the throats of the taxpayers is showing up, that the spe- cial a1dermanic committee considering the proposition is at last getting a bit suspicious and therefore may hold mp its report indefinitely. That Elm street and no other site will satisfy what looks to be clique trying to put the thing over on the city fathers, became doubly apparent this week when the committee was told point blank by a newspaper reporter that 1t was no use of his taking any information that the committee had as to the present site or any other site but the Elm street one, as his paper wouldn't publish anything but whaf favored the sElm street sIfe.
 The reporter represented The Reg ister which has daily advocated the Elm street proposal and going out of its way to urge the committee to report speedily on 1t and also in getting men of prominence to endorse the site. Early in the week, the reporter was committee about speeding up the re- port. He was told the committee had such mass of evidence before it, aside from that secured at the public hearings held, that 1t would take some time to go through 1t all.
 As an evidence of this the alderman under question showed the Register representative a bundle of about 200 letters from manufacturers, merchants, business men and workers of all classes including some of the heaviest taxpay- CTS who were interested but unable to be present at the hearings. They there fore wrote their views and vast ma jority of them favored retaining the present site, perhaps remodeling the present building and building additions on the land owned by the city in the rear.
 These letters were offered the report CT to make or take what he wanted of them so that the public would be given all the facts as well as those about Elm street. He wasn't even interested in the signatures and frankly told the alder men that 1t wouldn't be any use in his taking them as the Register would not print anything about any other site but the Elm street site. Therefore he didn't see any sense i'll wasting his en- ergy i'll going through the letters.
 This incident and other apparent at ternpts to bec1oud everything but Elm street, especially the clamor raised in
  ing to foist the old Heublein corner on the city, reused the suspicious of the committeeman that there might be also a clique behind Elm street and they are now going to the bottom of the affair before making any report.
 While Elm street was first mentioned by Mayor FitzGerald in his message relative to considering a new city hall, it was done, it has been learned, because 1t was suggested to him as a possible site and he put it before the aldermen simply as a suggestion and not by any means as recommendation. Some of the aldermen, not on the committee, are of the opinion that if the hall is to be taken off Church street it could very readily be removed to Orange street directly in the rear of the present hall and annex and hitting Elm street at Orange. The city owns a large vacant plot of land in the rear of the present buildings which runs right up to the Orange street property on which now stands only lot of old buildings which could be secured for very little expense.
 At any rate 1t looks as if the city hall proposition would be long time developing, especially now that the al- ! dermanic committee has it's thinking cap set and is going to look deep into the woodpile.