New Britain herald., 1928-02-25

l k4e prluCtpAo UtHtUU tuo poaiCe drive against defective lights on automobiles is being applauded quite generally, but the manner !u whtcA 1t is being carried on is b.. ing criticized. and net without req, son, It h aaid that in almost svery one sf the cases brought tnte DO, lice court during the pest few days, the accused driver was nN aware that the lights were not fuRstionine and when attention was directed towards the condition. the dsfscts wers Femedied. yet under ChiAl Hart's orders. the policemen had no course open to them but to sum, moa the drivers to court. givins them police records and causing the attendant embarrassment and in. convenience. Technically. all wcrs guilty, the court holding that there was no excuse for having lights which were not burning.
 Several of the drivers told the court they had observed that ths,r lights were burning when they started from home, and in all prob- ability the jarring of tho rough roads caused the condition noticed by the arrestins policemen. In the presence of the policemen, they re. placed the bulbs or adjusted the wiring so that the defects were remedied. yet they went into court and were fined s2. It mattered not what the explanations were ts the policemen. the latter wers under orders to make arrests and they carried them out to the very let- ter. as attested by the arraignment of 60 drivers in three days.
 Without attempting to dictate to the police department. 1t would seem that the use of discretion by the policemen would meet the situa- tion quite adequately. If q man II, charge of a car could fix the lights and thereby prove that he had not been driving for g long time with knowledge of the existence of de- fects in the lighting system. 1t would not seem amiss to allow him | to go on his way. On the other hand, if policemen found cars with bulbless lights or with wires out of place, indicating that the drivers had been aware of the defects and had made no effort to have these conditions attended to, certainly arrests would be justified. If the practice of making arrests promjs- cuously continues, the city coffers will be in fair way to be swelled to the point of overflow, but it will not be surprising to learn that after few days or weeks the drive has ended. and the lightIess cars will be rolling along with the brake-less and horn-Iess, against which driver were instituted long, long ago, though not with the vigor and sweeping generality of the latest campaign.
 The writer of this column has no i desire to advise the special commit tee of the common council appoint ed to investigate the department of public works how to proceed. The resolution introduced into the coun- Gil by Councilman Sablotsky is broad enough to cover a wide field and to cover it thoroughly and the committee should have initiative enough to inquire into every bit of 1 iu oI,t fo
 Serious accusations have been made against the public works de- pertinent. It has been alleged that city money has been expended un- necessarily by the employment oi certain wagons and trucks, that pre- ference has been shown in allottine work and that materials owned by the city have been diverted to pri- vate uses.
 New Britain administrations have been noted for theiE-clean govern ment. Unlike other cities. this con- munity has not heard the cry oi graft" Discrimination has been practiced. it is true. and friends oi the administration have been ia. vored. But it is 50 unusal to hear the charge made that money has been wasted and materials taken for pri- vate uses that it is almost, if not entirely, without precedent. Nc breath of suspicion has been di. rected against the administration ol the present executive; the accusa- tioa has been pinned down to g single department and it's head.
 There is more to this than ap. pears on the surfkce. No doubt pol. itics has it's part. But what offends the average citizen is the thought that branch of his city govern. ment has laid itself open to insinu. ations that all is not we'll. Although the committee has been entrusted with the task of sitting the charges it is not a committee affair alone The whole public is affected and i. interested in seeing justice done There should be no attempt tt whitewash anyone, nor any attemp to return a verdict of guilty unles the evidence justifies such a finding The committee has a great deal O latitude. It should summon ever, witness possible, every person wh, can throw any light on the charges and the witnesses should be candit in the interest of good government There has been great deal o smoke concerning the conduct of tn
 public works department officials every effort should be made to dis cover whether there is any fire.
 The writer has been through sev eral investigations in other cities
 The chief objects of the contendin
 factions seemed to be to throw a much mud at each other as the could lay their hands to. There i no excuse for that in New Britai