New Britain herald., 1920-09-18
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lSlature or COnn0CllCul represents llle will of the people of Connecticut. Of course there are times when the average man, not so erudite as the governor, forms the same opinion in his own mind. The difference is that the average man thinks the leglsla- ture is not expressing the will of the people while Governor Holcomb's mental processes lead him to think that the legislature is not competent to interpret the will of the people.
 This is the only conclusion to be reached after the fiasco early this week when the\Tovernor threw his stubborn mind athwart the path of the nineteenth amendment to the United States constitution which, in itself provides for the very action as that which the Connecticut legisla- ture subsequently. took contrary to the opinion of the best minds of the upper and lower house, Governor Holcomb stood with his h~"'- = the wall and virtually ordered the law makers not to discuss the amendment cOnferring-not as gift but as an act of simple justice-the right upon eligible women to vote for candidates for public office. It is now history l that the independent mass-mind of the legislature reacted in a manner di- rectly opposite to that which the governor anticipated and his emula- l ton of Horatius--the first traffic cop ! to get his name in the paper-was l dramatic, but that's all.
 1 Governor Holcomb's latest eXperi- | ment in attempting to bend the will l of the legislature to correspond with 1 the direction of his own will parallels ! many of his past acts on Capitol Hill l and. brings up the query. Do good | ilIdonS pnOd ~ONarnnrSo Con- necticut, during the present genera l ton. has had an opportunity to ob- | serve tho work of two former occu- 1 pants of the bench. Governor Baldwin | and Governor Holcomb, whose simi- | larity in respect to their viewpoint is ! remarkably striking. After honorable careers on the bench. both were ele- 1 vated to the highest office in the l state, and from then on both .continu- l ed to be aloof from the people They l thought of things in the abstract i They saw the strict letter of the law ! but did not enter willingly into en- | toying the f1esh-and- blood spirit of 1 the law. Both were what the young ] man on the curbstone delights in de- 1 scribing as human icebergs," apt l enough expression.
 So the question arises whether jul 1 dicial training in the upper courts 1 units a man for a public executive | office between which and the people 1 there should exist a warm contact. ] The difficulty of our recent governors seems not to be living up to the | dignity of the office but in living | down to the people. Governor Hol- | comb demonstrated this last Tuesday | when he sought to check the forwa I'd i course of the suffrage amendment. He | revealed his cold, single-track judicial | temperament, his regard for order | and precedent, when he tried to put off until next week what the legisla- tors wanted to do then and there. And for once, at least, he was shown with scant courtesy that the legisla- ture of the state still functions as the interpreter of pubic will
 Whatever motive Alderman Gil | had in speaking of office hours fol the mayor at the meeting of the Com. mon Council this week, the topic wa: timely and deserving of being brough
 to public attention. No doubt Mayo l Curtis spends as much time as could
 be expected in the mahogany room l at city hall, but the benefit is not s
 great as it would be if he maintaine' 1 regular hours with which the peopl 1 are familiar.
 ] Mayor Curtis is the head of tn l corporation of New Britain, which i i going concern just as much a a stock corporation. As chairman o
 the board of directors, he should hay
 certain hours at which time he shoul | be accessible to other members of tn | firm the public. who sometimes hay | important matters to discuss pertain
 ing to the progress and welfare of tn ( ha m a 6 l, l aware of the hours at which Mayo
 nRctis would be at his office prepare
 reconsideration to business af
 roper for discussion.
 Ing office hours and keepin
 matter a military secret is no
 Bod for the city. Mayor Curtis woul
 10 well to determine what hours ar
 convenient for him and the citizen
 and advertise the fact He should als
 be on duty one or two evenings fweek SO the humble proletariat whicl | earns its bread by ;he sweat of it l brow could visit him and absorb som | of the wisdom which radiates iron
 his giant intellect. Not that we woult
 have hizzoner overburden his men
 tal apparatus but at the risk of in
 curing brain flag To should have opel
 house at hours wl1o7 his constituent
 could drop in ana pass the time O
 day.
 Mayor curt:a hs to har, kicked
 by tho gun he flrSd in tho direction iof John ?. Mnguiro. con >racto
 whm he he'd accused of being dt'a:or. in exec uting a certain contract at thu new fro station on Kensington avsnue
 It sccms that the contractor tac nothing to do with the work th'