The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-09-10

self at notably reduced rates. However, that is an improvement upon which Controller Leary is going to speak and leave the subject to him.
 Salaries Restored
 By intelligent management the administration has been able to restore in full to city employees the reduction in salaries which they voluntarily accepted during the worst of the depression. Our health department has operated with increasing effectiveness year by year until Waterbury ranks very high among the cities of the country. We have stated the great job of repaving our main arteries Of traf1c and the marvellous change for the better which is apparent in Exchange place will be noticed elsewhere at the re- paving work continues. These things are all matters of common knowledge.
 But there are two things which are not generally known because they have not received the pub- licity they merit. Both of them represent a saving to the people of the city and are the direct result of eff1ciency in city man. agement. Because of the ability of the fire department there has been a reduction of from 5 to IS per cent in insurance rates on public buildings, private dwell- ings, mercantile establishments, public and business garages, lum- Der yards, and theaters. That re- duction was made because the in- surance companies realize the fine work of the fire department and the decrease in fire hazards. No such reduction would have been made if the administration had been inefflcient, backward, or in different to the welfare of the taxpayers.
 Insurance Rates
 "Let us consider another sig nif1cant fact in the reduction of the rates of insurance on pri- vately owned automobiles in Wa terbury. The reduction amounts, on the medium priced cars of various makes, to $l5 @ car. On the higher priced automobiles the reduction amounts to $17 a car. To what is the reduction due? To the safety and accident preven- ton campaigns conducted by the administration through the police department which everyone can see has been greatly improved as to personnel. If anyone wishes to figure out the saving to Wa terbury automobile owners brought about by the increased efficiency of our police department, all he has to do IS to multiply the num- Der of privately owned automo- piles in the city by the average saving of SIS a car. The amount is up in the hundreds of thousands. And I make no mention of the lives which have been saved and of the injuries which have been prevented.
 Before conclude I would like to direct the attention of tax payers to another department of the city government, the welfare department. Never in the history of the city has such a tremend- ous burden of responsibility been imposed on a single department. Some realization of that burden may be had when tell you that at one point in the depression period one-eighth of t he popula- ton of the city was unable to take care of itself. The task of taking care of the needy was a tre- mendous one. It was done in such 8 way that there has never been a word or criticism directed against the welfare department. And do not forget that while this job was being done the tax rate in the city was be- ing reduced.
 Asks Support
 T have touched upon, only in the briefeSt way the record of this administration. Since we have been in office our wish had been to serve all the people of Waterbury to the best of our ability and without discrimina- ton of any kind. I know we have done so. We think, therefore, that we have the right to ask all the people of Waterbury to support us in this campaign even as we have worked for their in- terest in all the dark years since 1930."