The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-16
SAYS CHAMBER PLAYS POLITICS

(Continued from Page One.)
 being incurred by municipal depart ments. We are offered now one of three choices, namely:
 l. Disregard our duty to the un- fortunate
 ?. Levy a special tax of a frac- tion of a mill or a mill on our grand list. which apparently you would
 8. Issue short term notes to cover the needs of this period of depres- sion and pay them off during our years of industrial activity and easy money.
 t'As you know, personally favor ed and recommended this last meth cd. but your Chamber of Commerce vehementIy opposed this method be- fore the Legislative Finance Commit tee which had the bill for consider ation- I favored at that time, as you also know, the issuance of short term notes from time to time. not ito exceed in total the sum of S5O0,000, for the express purpose of carrying us over this industrial depression.
 You have suggested the 1evyinS of a special tax From your recent ac- ticity and the apparent antagonism of your Chamber of Commerce I am of the opinion that you prefer the special tax solely for the purpose of making political capital rather than for any benefit to be rendered othe city For if a special tax were levied,
 
 raise, and how would you safeguard against raising more than would be needed for the purpose? By the is suance of short term notes. however, a definite sum could be raised for there could be bi-monthly, monthly, or semi-monthly issues as necessity required and there would be no dan ger of any surplus.
 'In 1evying the tax and making appropriations for the fiscal year 1921-22, the Board of Apportionment and Taxation pared each department as much as possible in order to make the tax assessment as light as possi- b1e. Now you would increase that by levying a special tax and at the same time, through the injunctions you have filed, you are preventing many people who are taxpayers from get ting the money they need to pay the taxes as now laid.
 .'I am of the opinion that if the Chamber of Commerce would with draw it's opposition to the proposition which has been suggested, and which is the one that every industrial and commercial concern adopts, namely, the issuance of short term notes in periods of depression, to be paid off during financial prosperity, that the legislature would look with faVor upon this measure.
 With the present attitude of the Chamber of Commerce I cannot help btu think that it is an attempt to take advantage of the eXlSencleS or ne imes for self-e2ploitation."
 The salient points of MT. Behrens' to President William E. Seeley, of the Board of Apportion- ment, follows:
 From 300 to 600 men daily employ ed on municipal projects.
 Number of needy families daily in creasing, now totalling 24o.
 Each family costs $7 a week, or a l total of $5,SS0.
 Legal Aid Department has 55 cases | of threatened evictions.
 Family in every case that of city 1 employe whose municipal pay is up | held by injunctions.
 City bill to small merchants un- l paid, and merchants facing financial | ruin. |
 Bills have been contracted without | funds since December, believing that l deficiency appropriation would be | made.
 Present appropriation will be ex- hausted May 1. |
 Unemployment may exist for sev- eral months more. |
 At least ssoo,OoO needed to pro vide for poor. |
 Imperative need for, immediate | DroViSiO0 of S5O-O0O-