The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-15
Atwater In Acceptance Speech Says Political
 Brigandage Must Go

{. As he walked forward to the plat form last evening at the Democratic
 Town Convention. thunderous cheers greeted Frederick Atwater, the nom ! inee of the Democratic party. Town Chairman Cornell, after the applause had suibsided, called for three cheers
 for the next mayor of Bridgeport y end then without further tntroduc- tton presented Atwater to the con- vention, MT. Atwater prefaced his | remarks by esaying that he was not used to extemporaneous speaking.
 Hts acceptance speech in full follows: MT. Chairman, Ladies and Gentle linen, Delegates:
 ! I presume it is the long established custom for nominees for mayor to ex-
 press their great surprise at being | rendered the honor of being a candi- date for that office.
 1 If such be the case, I am afraid that must break precedent at the out set, because am frank to say that l ] did have some inkling that some such action as I have been apprised of, would be taken by this convention. The matter was first brought to my { attention, by. Q group of worthy Dem- ocrats who insisted that the nominee | for mayor this year should preferably 1 be a Democrat without political "past." Whether they considered that I am the only Democrat in town who | had not succeeded in acquiring a 'past" I don't know.
 Having studfously avoided the ram lf1catfons of an active political career during my younger days, I must con- fess l have felt no great longing to be projected into the chaos of a poli- tical struggle at my present period of l life. Rather would I contemplate the continued peace and tranquility of as- sociation with friends and family un- | marred by any circumstance that
 might tend to lessen the opportunity for these pleasures so cherished by me. I might, therefore, say with candidness that I have been very re- luctant to enter into campaign for any political office. There is no | emolument, no honor, no thought of gain, no requirement or advantage, l 70 attract me.
 On the contrary. the sordidness of politics as 1t exists in Bridgeport has been to me a heavy circumstance weighing upon my disinclination to
 be a candidate.
 These thoughts I have many times expressed to my friends as valid rea- | sons why I should be permitted to pursue the "even tenor of my way" No citizen of Bridgeport, however, | who has the slightest regard for the we1l-being and advancement of his l community, can close his eyes to the conditions which have grown up in our midst and which, to my mind,
 have been fostered by a system of political brtgandage now grown so | self-evident that the Republican par ty itself at a recent primary sub | stantially repudiated the course which has been followed. No voter in this l city who has the slightest regard for | the safety of his family, the pres 1 ervation of his property, or who cher | tshes 0 hope for the future, can af- ford, by blinking at conditions as they are, to Hull himself into a feeling of ! retain a business address in Bridge port; no one who hopes that our in dustries may continue to flourish in Bridgeport rather titan in other bet I t<1,- nno who believes thA1 the restoration of | the disturbed financial conditions of l the world should find a. ready re-
 action in Bridgeport that the thou
 sands of unemployed may once more
 return to their vacations; no one who | believes that the small home-owners ! who invested their savings in a dom- | icile for themselves and their fam | way of excessive taxation; no one who
 subscrIbes to any of these self-evideut propositions can afford. when con-
 siderable body of his fellow-men tell | him that he Is needed, to shrink from any task which might be presented to 1 him for his performance.
 And so it is from sense of duty,
 and duty alone, that have consented to add my share of sacrifice to that of my fellow members of the Democratic Party in any way that the call of the party may determine. I cannot help | but feel, and must express, my deep
  delegates in this Convention assemb- led, that you have felt that I am | worthy of selection as your candidate for Mayor The conditions presented to the Democratic Party call for ex- ceptiona1 effort and the adoption of l extraordinary means in order that the demands of the people of the city may | be adequately met. As I understand l 1t, there is at this time a surge of feel 1 ing that it rests with the Democratic | Party alone to afford the avenues for | relief from the expressing conditions | under which we suffer. That, under 1 these circumstances, 1t should be your l will that I be selected to lead a. fight | for such worthy objects, is indeed a | compliment for which I feel myself unworthy; but since upon your ma | ture deliberation you have thus or dained, as a Democrat and citizen | accept the nomination which you | tender me and couple with my ac- ceptance the assurance that, if the | people of Bridgeport elect me to office I shall endeayor to the best of my ability to fulfill to the greatest pos | sib1e extent the requirements which ] | know are demanded of me in the | emergencies which the next mayor | must be compelled to meet. In mak- 1 ing this statement I am again con- | scious of my many human deficiencies | of which I fear we all have a share and can only hope that these may | be mitigated by my fixed determina- | ton to afford the City of Bridgeport an administration which shall be
 wholesome in character. clean in its