The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-10-30

have carefully noted everything that has been said by MT. Perriel- 10 and his associates. Tonight l will tell you something about the questions they have raised. MT. Perriello and his associates have said that promotions in the Police and Fire Departments, and of teachers, have been made on a po- ntical basis; that city. employees have been coerced into making campaign contributions; that we have done & patchwork job on Bank street; and finally that we padded the welfare list.
 The truth is this-all appoint ments made by the Board of Edu- cation have been upon the recom- mendations of the Superintendent of Schools, pr. Thomas Condon. These appointments have been on the basis of qualification and have in every instance been approved by the Board of Education with out dissenting vote.
 The appointments to the Police and Fire Departments have been made by the Police and Fire Boards with the unanimous ap- proval of those boards-Republi- can as well as Democratic mem- bers. The appointments were on the basis of qualifications and the type of men serving on those boards is a guarantee of the quail ity of their appointments.
 No Coercion
 As regards campaign contribu- tions, I can tell you that there has been no trace of coercion of city employees or anyone else. Any per- son who has contributed to this campaign has done so because he or she is interested in the success of our candidates and for no other reason. I challenge MT. Perriello to name one person who has been threatened with the loss of his job if he failed to contribute. For that matter, to name any person who did lose his job for this req son following the 1889 campaign.
 The paving on Bank street is not a patchwork job. It is a good job which will give fine service for many years. With the money available a concrete pavement could have been installed a rel atively short distance. Upon the recommendation of the City En- gineering Department and of MT. Scott-Smith, the Superintepdent of Streets, it was decided to use a method which would permit 8 far more extensive area to be cov- cred. I do not think that MT. Per- riello will challenge the qualifica- ton of our advisers in this mat ter. I do not think the motoring public which is enjoying this im- provement will question the value of having it extend to Porter street.
 Discussions of padding the well fare list hardly deserves an an- swer. No human being can tell what business conditions will be and what our welfare needs may be for any year. The Republican candidate for Comptroller claims that 1940 surplus was based partly on savings in the welfare budget. This was in the budget for which MT. Perriello claims credit and I suppose that MT. Newton is, there fore, accusing MT. Perriello of padding this item.
 This criticism, both in its nature and its volume, is pretty small pickings from almost two years of management of Waterbury's af- fairs.
 Last night MT. Perriello pro duced one more issue. He said that oiling the streets at this time of year was mot only waSteful but dangerous" Thus MT. Per- riello, Candidate for Mayor in 1941! Let's see what MT. Perriello, as Mayor in 1889, thought about this. Between October 1st and November 8th of that year 58,700 gallons of the same oil were used on our streets. Certainly we have had mild weather this year. Ger tainly bad practice now was bad practice then. But, of course, 1t is not bad practice. It is just a desperate effort to manufacture ar issue.
 Baldwin Street Bridge
 Now let Us proceed with the things that we are accused of fail-' ing to do. It is said that we did not build the Baldwin street bridge promptly; that we have not in.' stalled a merit system; that we