New Britain herald., 1920-01-03

DfIlSS JIG DCll oll IliiuuIdCIuISI lItO the limeligl1t again. for the first time since the famous suit for libel against the Chicago Tribune. It will be re- membered that Mi. Ford admitted on the witness stand that he frequently entrusted to his publicity chief the writing and dissemination of import ant staten many of which he did not attempt to edit The country laughed at the spectacle of Mir. Ford permitting such a condition to exist.
 The observer recently came across a copy of letter written by John Hay, one of Abraham L-incoln's sec retaries-Nicolay being the other-in which he gave a personal estimate of the Presid ent and from this letter it is found that the Great Enlancipator often did not even read state docu- 1nents which Hay or Nicolay had public papers.
 Concerning this dislike of Lincoin's for req ding and writing, Hay wrote:
 He w'rotc vcr2' few letters and did not read one in 50 that he received. At first we tried to bring them to his notice but at last he gave the whole thing over to me and signed without reading them. the letters I wrote in his name. He wrote perhaps half a dozen a Neek-not more. NlcolaN re- ceivcd members of Congress and other visitors who had business with the executive office, communicated to the Senate and House the messages of the President and exercised gen. eral supervision over the business.
 T opened and read the letters, an swered them, looked over the newspa- pers, superyisd the clerks who kept the records and in Nicolay's absence did his work also. When the Presi- dent had any rather delicate matter to manage at distance from Washing ton he rarely wrote, but sent Nicolay CT ne.
 He read very little. He scarcely ever looked into a newspaper unless I called his atten ton to an article on somo special subject.
 Critics of Henry Ford would do well to investigate the shortcomings of other men prominent in American sides.
 Connecticut people have been sub jectcd to three demonstrations of the power of monopolized public utilities during the past year emphasizing how lax the state has been, how archaic it is. in not taking steps to curb the appetitns of utilities which serve the public and whose service is a necees- sary part of our complex dom mestic and comm ercial systems.
 With only a few days preliminary notification the Southern New Eng land Telephone company increased it's rates and the only alternative of those who objected to paying the increased charge was to have their instrum ents removed from their homes or places of business Tn the home the te1e- phone is a desirable convenience; in business it is recognized a S one of the nee eSsittes of modern times. In nei- ther case could the user well dispense with it. and so subscribers swallowed hard and dug deeper into their DOC ketbooks.
 The next levy against the people was laid by the Connecticut com pany, which decided that it's revenue was in need of tonic. The majority of peo- pie agreed with this and were agree able to paying six cents with the un- derstanding, implied if not written, that the service would be improved correspondinSly.
 More recently the company which supplies electric lighting III the homes has determined on a radical course and will charge consumers for some thing they might desire but which exists in the most intangible form.
 Had the laws of tho state been up to date, had the legislature been awake and strding along with pro- gress it would have been necessary for the Telephone company, the Con- necticut company and the Lighting company to appeal to a state body, probably the Public Utilities commits sion, before advanced rates could be put into effect.
 In many states the procedure con- sists of an appeal by a public utility to the authorized state commission for permission to increase it's rates, a public hearing at which rcmonstrances may be filed, and the decision of the commission. In Connecticut the pub lie utility decides first to raise it's rates and the people must take a for mai appeal to the utilities commis- sion the raise becomes effective automatically and remains in effect. As the public poorly organized and only i'll unusual cases is appeal brought before the com mission, the decision of a utility to boost rates is almost final, something like demo- cratic nomination in a. southern po- itical convention.
 At the next session of the General Assem- bly an effort should be made to correct this condition so that pub lie utilities would be forced to prove their case before they are permitted to add to the financial burdens of the public.
 Widespread interest is manifest throughout Connecticut in the state ment by Major General Leonard