The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-01-12
JasEer And J. Henry

Now that the shouting and the tumuIt | attending the organization of the State Senate on Thursday have died out, it is possible to direct attention to two import ant features of that performance One is the deliberate misrepresentation by the republican press of what really occurred. The other is the unholy spectacle of joining forces to do the public good.
 Untrained observers in the Senate chamber might be fooled by the show be- ing given and draw erroneous conclusions. No such defense is possible where sup posedly intelligent, well-informed news paper editors are concerned They are neither innocent nor inexperienced in the back alleys of politics. They knew, as all other people who have reached the age of reason know, that when the socialist trio cast their votes for the, republican slate that they did so to carry out deal. But to conceal from the public the truth they call the socialist trade "a switch" and try to lay the blame at the door of what they are pleased to call the Old Guard among the democrats Back of that deliberate misrepresentation is the determination to start and fan into flame quarrel among the members of the party they wish to see reduced to impotence. It will fail be- cause LIC ICSOlu OpCoho 1OI iCoCh.
 The democrats are the largest group in the senate and they are there by the direct vote of the electorate. If either republican or socialist wished the Senate t,, be organized by the party, logically and properly, entitled to do so, 1t could have been done in ten minutes. That is, if the public good was what was desired. The democratic nominees for clerk and presi- dent pro tempore were the unanimous choice of the party caucus. What difference did it make to either socialist or republican whether the nominees were Old Guard, s New Guard, or No Guard at all? But in accordance with the terms of the deal be- tween socialists and republicans the dem- ocrats were not to be permitted to organ iZe the body.
 Five different names were offered by the democratic Old Guard and New Guard {" and No Guard at all and finally an attempt was made to cast the democratic vote for < BECAUSE THE DEAL HAD ALREADY BEEN MADE. When socialist, Secor, I. arose and held in his quaking fingers his z alibi for the vote, he and his associates were about to cast, the nearest sighted ' person in the chamber could tell from the very appearance of the paper that it had : probably been in Jasper McLevy's hip pocket for week.
 Sg Practical politicians can find no great . fault with the republicans for making the deal. They are not angels and do not pre- .--atend to sport wings. It is platitude that politics makes strange bed fellows. But :. who could ever picture Jasper McLevy and J. Henry Roraback, sleeping like two little children, under the same blanket. The socialist party of Connecticut in liai- son with the Connecticut Light and Power
 Company
 MT McLevy has endeavored to blow away the stench by shouting, "You, too" at his critics. He protests that MT Rora-
 back and he are not in political cahoots. 1To quote sentence used about historic :, episode of almost equal fetidness, "Me- thinks, the lady doth protest too much" s~- We will know little later whether the price MT Roraback exacted was the reten- tion in office of the commissioner of high ways. In the meantime MT McLevy
 should have plenty of explaining to do to the benighted republicans and democrats ~of Bridgeport who guilessly voted for the 4 socialist senators under the impression ~sthat they put the public good above party
 interests.