The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-07-03
Politics
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Dire things are being promised
for Mayor John s. Monagan as a
result Of the governors veto Of the
bin freezing" Purchasing Director
Martin J. Sweeney into Office for
life. "Wait until next fall rolls
around" Sweeney friends and adj
mirers are saying. Does that mean
they might skip the primary, which
will have to be launched long before
the fall, and will concentrate on the
election? 1t has been whispered Of
late days that If Gov. Raymond E.
Baldwin should veto the much-dis
cussed Waterbury bills it would def
nitely remove the threat Of may
orally primary in Democratic ranks.
! incidentally Moe Berkman,
Hartford Times political writer,
continued his personal vendetta
against Senators John F. Tobin
and Francis ]. Summa of this city
with q signed article Wednesday
night which began Governor
Baldwin today had upset the plans
Of the self-styled political firm OF
Summa & Tobin, Waterbury state
senators, to give life tenure To
City Purchasing Agent Martin J.
Sweeney, Summa's relative by
marriage -"
The case OF Mr.. Sweeney is at
tracing considerable attention In
official Democratic circles. Knives
and axes galore are out for him and
his Job. If some of the vociferous
ones had their way about 1t, he'd be
out of a job tomorrow or the next
day. Others are merely content
with assuring themselves that he
won't be appointed when his pres
ent term of Office expires. OF course
that depends on what happens next
fall. Mayor Monagan has to be re-
elected before he can do anything
at all about filling the office OF pur-
chasing agent. And by that time all
the present fuss and furore may
have died quiet, but natural death.
It's hard to understand the
gubernatorial reasoning behind the
approval Of bill which allows the
Assembly alone to have full power
on restoration of forfeited rights.
1t was one of a batch that he re-
Gently signed. The bill provides
that forfeited rights must now be
sought in resolutions, but that
gubernatorial approval Of the same
Is not required. If that had pre-
vailed this year Harry Mackenzie
would have had his civil rights
back now, not to mention others
who were sidetracked by the COM
motion attendant on the Macken-
xie ease. Now, after all this gnash-
ing Of teeth, wailing in the public
gathering place, etc, the one con-
troll on bill passage-the veto-is
removed. 1t may make Republ-
can sense, but not common sense.
Private home construction. such
as 1t Is right now, received a DELI
mite blackeye in Hartford recently
when residents of one section OF the
city flooded coming hearing to pro-
test against speculative, get-rich-
quick makers who have come
to Hartford to construct cheap, I'M
slightly, two-by-four houses solely
for profit and not for our interests
-" Hartford is probably finding out,
as have other communities that the
majority of local builders are not in
terested in available priority certifi-
Gates to continue to put up the type
of one family house to which the
federal government restricts them
AS q result wherever those certlfl-
Gates remain unused large combines,
usually from out of Connecticut,
come in, take them out, and con-
struct a couple of hundred small
houses, which sell anywhere up to
sc. 900, but which will probably be
worth about half of that when the
war Is over. 1t was one of the rea-
sons motivating the local War Hous-
ting Committee to recommend eX-
pansion OF public housing, OF tenn
porary nature, rather than private
construction.
The office of Lieutenant COVER
nor is going to be a little more at
!, tractive, financially. in the future.
A bill has been approved which
raises the salary of the incumbent
from $500 to 81 800 a year, effec-
tive the first Monday in January,
1914. Once upon a time Demo-
Gratis had some such ideas about
this office, but were properly
squelched.
II you want to look so far ahead
rs the state and national conven-
tions of 1914, why the Democratic
side OF the picture apparently will
be dominated by U. S. Senator
FRANCIS T. Maloney. Despite set
back last December when his can
didate for National Committeeman,
Richard Joyce Smith, was defeated
by ex-governor Robert A. Hurley,
che fact of the matter is that la