New Britain herald., 1923-03-17

The idea of having commission to
 investigate the situation Is by no means new one, Tor in 1895 a sim
 liar commission was appointed of which the chairman was the late Mi- ehael kenealy of Stamford, who was
 subsequently for many years chairman
 of the republican state committee, MT,
 Konealy and his commission made an
 exhaustive study into the highway sit-
 uation in the state and reported in
 favor of a single headed commission,
 James H. Mcdonald, now chairman of the committee on roads, bridges and rivers, was appointed the single l headed commissioner. The develop ment of the Connecticut highways therefore, has been really the result of the work of two men. MT, MacDon- aid and the present outgoing com missioner, MT. Bennett. Governor Templeton advocated n commission of at least three to succeed MT. Ben nett. Other suggestions were made Of commissions up to as many as eight, in which event there would be one man from each county. This proposi- ton met with favor from Senator John H, Trumbull of Plainyille. who is one of the dearest thinkers in the legisla- ture. After due consideration, how over, it has seemed to the roads, bridges and rivers committee that the best thing to do would be to have commission to investigate the situ- ation and make a report to the next general assembly. A report creating this commission, which would be ap- pointed by the governor, will probably come out of the legislative committee next week and should have easy sail ing in both the house and the senate.
 The Board of Finance Bug-a-Boo
 A tempest in the tea pot was creat- ed early in the week when the scn- ate amended the so-called F. Kent Hubbard bill, Sent it back to the house and the following proposal be- came the law:
 No person shall hold office as an appointive member of the state board of finance while such member is by appointment of the governor or the senate trustee, director, commission CT, or member of the board of man. agers of any state institution receiving aid from the General Assembly"
 This was said by its opponents to be for the purpose of putting E. Kent Hubbard, president of the Connecticut Manufacturers association. off the state board of finance Any. one who reads the bill can readily see that MT. Hubbard, Mr. Wadhams, MT. Bugbee' and any other people who later may become members of the state board of finance, have their option as to whether they remain on the board or on boards of institutions which re- ceive state aid if they are appointed by the governor or the senate as q di- rector or trustee. It was necessary to inject the personal element into this bill in order to have any basis of op- position to it at all and few people will agree that directors of institutions which receive state aid and which spend large sums of money appro- l priated for institutions from the state treasury, should also be on the board which makes the recommendations as to the amount of money which they | receive.
 It so happens that one of the insti- tutions in the state which has re- ceived most substantial aid and which has been the subject of great deal of criticism, criticism which increases instead of decreases as time goes on, is the Connecticut Agricultural col lege at Storrs. The state aid for this l institution if the amount asked for should be given, would seem to flow into bottomless pit MT. Hubbard is a director of the Connecticut Agri- cultural college, but there is no req son why he cannot resign from that and remain on the state board of finance to which he was re- appointed for term of six years by Governor Lake last December.