The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-10-28
SPIRITED TALK OPENS
 SECOND SESSION

New Haven, Oct. 27-Professor AL
 len Johnson opened this mornings
 session of the School of Citizenship of the Connecticut League of Women Voters and Yale University with a spirited talk on "Our Legislators; Who
 They Are and What They Do." At the start, Professor Johnson disclaim- ed any intention to deal with person. alities, but he gave figures that startled his audience of new voters, concerning the makeup of the aver age state legislature.
 Studies of state legislatures" he said, show that on the average only fifteen per cent of our representatives
 have had a college education, and, what is worse, not fifty per cent have | enjoyed a full common school educa- i tion. Only twenty-five per cent of the members of any given legislature 1 have had previous legislative eXperi ence, and in the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1921 only nineteen per cent had sat in any previous legisla- ture. Farmers constitute one-third of our state legislature; lawyers one fourth, and business men a fifth. Less | than half, in short, have by virtue of their occupations, been in contact with the conditions which must be their chief concern in Iaw-making. Measured by the size of their re- responsibilities, our legislatures do not
 seem equal to their task. The public shows impatience and the press re- fleets the popular humor by it's gibes. The task of a Connecticut legisla- | ture is made still more difficult by faulty legislative practices. Three fourths of the published laws of Con necticut are of a sort that might be, and in many states are, cared for by administrative officers or by local | governments under a system of home | rule" Professor Johnson advocated the short ballot for the election of executive officers, and a decrease in i the size of the legislative body. i Professor F. R. Fairchild, follow | ed with a discussion of Taxation of, 1 for and by the people, Mrs. William 1 H. Deming presided at the morning i session.
 | Professor James w. Tourney opened | the afternoon gathering of the school | with a talk on Forestry in the United i States with Special Reference to Con- | necticut." He cited the comparative
 progress of industry in China, Japan, | Greece, England and the United 1 States to show that a large supply of l available wood is essential to con- 1 tinued progress. As to America, he
 said, Out of our original S22 mil | lion acres of forest, we have left only ! 137 million acres and these for the l most part are in the inaccessible parts l of the country. We are now using up ] our forest capital more than four l times as fast as we are producing it. 1 It would be possible, however, by fire l prevention, prevention of destructive | numbering, refOrestation and improve l ment of existing regrowth, to produce i four times as much wood as is now 1 grown
 1 Dean Tourney explained the number. | of abandoned farms in Connecticut and other New England states by say ing that the destruction of forest i growth, which once assured a profit 1 able winter industry for farmers, is 1 partly responsible for the decline in agriculture here. t"This abandonme ent is due to economic pressure forced tI7rn1Iph ha -1oo1 1c%f for off al | most the complete destruction of the productive capacity of the forest land, thus impelling the cleared land to support a permanent population which i in many cases has been economically l impossible.
 1 Although the state now boasts of IS per cent. of her total area as for est, it's growing capacity is so low and i the quality and kinds of timber in ferior, we are forced to send out of i the state for 8 per sent. of all the which we yearly pay three to four mill lion dollars in freight alone. As American citizens and voters we should work for increased publicity owned forests by the nation, by states and by local committees, reasonable public regulation of forest lands, and more liberal support for the forestry | movement
 An organ recital was given in Wool sey Hall at D. m-, by Professor 1 Jepson, whose program included se- lections from Handel, Jepson. Boe1l- mann. Lemare, Bird. Bossi- Borodin and Wagner.
 This evenings session of the school will be addressed by Professor Will liam Lyon Phelps on Faith and l Knowledge in Voting.' Miss Mary Buikley will preside. Tomorrow s program includes addresses by Prof. Charles NJ. Andrews. pr. c. E. A. Wins1ow, Prof. Ralph Gabriel and Dean Charles R. Brown.