New Britain herald., 1925-06-04

ed in the bill. The BrooKnelu rep resentative went so far as to say on the second. day - that the bill was a very good one now that 1t con- tained the road he was after
 Such methods disgusted Miss Cheney Most representatives" she commented, instead of trying to make laws for the whole state, as they are supposed to do, act on the theory that the Lord helps those who help themselves-here in the Legislature. The whole bill should be canned"
 From this it can with reasonable certainty be surmised that Miss Cheney had no pet road project on her mind.
 Miss Cheney is not entirely right, however, in opposing the attempt of all legislators to induce the state to construct needed roads. That comes under the head of the states busi- ness and the Legislature is the body to decide what roads are to be con- structed. But the point she makes against the swapping of support for various projects that otherwise would not gain attention seems to be well taken. No legislator Tn endeavoring to further his own pet project should tell other legisla- tors he will support their projects fl they support his, Taken to its logical conclusion. if every legislator had a pet road on his mind ana svapped his support with every other legislator on reciproca' basis, every district in the state would obtain a new pet road. The scheme would be ruinous as well as ridiculous. vet that is what the pork swapping system amounts to in principle.
 Under this system, when the Leg islature instead of just Miss Cheney gets disgusted with the prospect inc construction of really necessary road suffers. There was no trunk line project before the Legislature as ,mportsnt as the Cat Hole project between New Britain and Merlden; vet had there been few hundred tenacious pet-road legislators Who refused to give up their pets unless other roads also were dropped, tne rat Hole road project might have suffered.
 One of the road projects lncluded in the omnibus roai bill was that between Waterbury and brstoi' through Wolcott. This 'as a pe' road of importance and was inciud- ea in the bill through the effort oi Representative Browne of Wolco't
 The road will be an expensive un- dertaking and will traverse hlIiS country, although it will be mucn shorter than the present route oe' tween the two cities throus rbomaston, or the route through p,atuville and Milldale, It will be q urch more important highway however, than most of the other nroiects which were before the Leg ,,,.,ra some of which were includ' cd in the omnibus road bill
 r would be inconsistent to favor more good roads in view of the un
 deniable demand for them' S'' then feel disposed to be ultra-erlu
 "A, of the Legislature when 1t made
 an effort to provide those that ap
 rAared most necessary, The system
 of obtaining them may be archai' and mt entirely in consonance "ltf
 ten.ply efficiency, but sooner O later the roads materialize. Despit' the log-rolling procedure often al tempted and sometimes agree ,non it is apparent that trun'
 roads between the most thickl' nonulated cities gain the preference The system should not be judge entirely uponf the modus opersndI hut upon the results.
 How the plan actually works that inc committee on roads rea'l has most of the say as to Wha
 roods are 10 be constructed uouse Leader Ben Alling uninten tentionally let the cat out of the oaI when he remarked: "The commute on roads has been spending mucI A, i,s time this session trying to ge in this bill the roads they want Rut MT. filling quickly correcte' himself by adding he meant 10 sa
 be committee put into the bill tn
 roads mostly needed. Either metho
 kills off picsyune projects of Iittl