USA > Connecticut > Connecticut as a colony and as a state; or, One of the original thirteen, Volume IV > Part 11
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In this emergency of hurrying troops into camp, the execu- tive department was greatly hampered by lack of funds. The General Assembly, not then in session, had made a specific appropriation for military purposes in 1897; but had so hedged it about with restrictions that unexpended money had been returned to the State Treasurer. However, a way out of the difficulty was found by appointing a State Board of Control, with the Governor at its head; and that created a fund for purchases. It was resolved to make preparation so complete that the men would be ready for service immediately after being mustered in, rather than to strive to break a rec- ord by rushing poorly equipped troops to the front. Some States, in their eagerness, hurried their men into the field with little more than the clothes they wore.
For this reason, our men were sent with cooking outfits, mess outfits, medical stores and a full set of hospital equip- ments, and to each commissioned officer was given a Colt's revolver. Under the sudden demand for canvas, not a yard could be bought by the State, the War Department asking to borrow or buy the tents already in its possession; and in the utter impossibility of getting new ones, the men were forced to be thankful for the partly worn ones that served to shelter them during a spring remarkable for its watery nature, when
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"during twenty-five days it rained with but few intermis- sions."
The terms under which the members of the National Guard had entered that body were, State militia service for three years, re-enlistment for two, and not more than three months' service outside the State in any one year. As it was not practicable for many of the members, under the call for the war, to give up their occupations permanently, it was necessary to do a good deal of recruiting, which required time. In view of all the difficulties attending the hasty for- mation of a volunteer army, the Connecticut National Guard did nobly, putting, in a little more than sixty days, over 3,400 men into the hands of the Government, all uniformed, armed, equipped, and ready for service. This number exceeded by 1, 148 the quota required.
The regiments were sent to Camp Haven, at Niantic. For young men who were excited with the hope of honor and glory to be won on the field, it was hard to pass the slow months of that summer in the monotonous routine of camp life, when others were in the rush of events at the front; but they were just as truly loyal to duty as if they had been on the picket-line or in the charge. With many there was genuine fear then that the Spanish fleet might pounce on exposed points in the eastern part of the Sound, en route for the destruction of New York; and many people went to bed at night prepared to be waked up by the booming of Spanish guns in the morning.
Hence the orders were that the New England troops, with the exception of one State, should protect the home seaboard. We can see now that they might have staid in their own homes as far as danger from Spanish ships was concerned; but hindsight is notoriously better than foresight, and in the
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light of the knowledge then available, no other arrangement would have been wise. Three-fourths of the volunteers from the whole country never reached the field; and the Connecti- cut troops were with the majority, who fretted away the weeks in camp without a chance to even smell the enemy's powder. The few who were in the regular army and the navy were the only Connecticut men who saw real war. The State administration was blamed by some for want of zeal; but the official correspondence shows conclusively that it was not for lack of appeals from Governor Cooke that his troops were not sent to the scene of action. Similar patriotic clamors came to the War Department from the whole country; but in its policy of letting New England guard its own coast it was inflexible.
After the destruction of Cervera's fleet, the First was sent to Camp Alger, Dunn Loring, Virginia; and on Sept. 10, the Third was sent to Camp Meade, Pennsylvania. In these, and other fever-stricken camps, with all their unsanitary condi- tions, death claimed far more than on tropical battle-fields. Those who died by disease were just as much martyrs to the cause and deserved as much honor as if they had fallen by Mauser bullets. The three officers who died-Lieut. Rod- mond V. Beach, at Porto Rico; Lieut. Allan M. Osborn, at his home in New Haven; and Lieut. Philip Fairchild, at Jacksonville-were the victims of fever. Each one had made an enviable record of efficiency and courage and persistence in duty even after disease had grasped him.
Before the war, a naval militia had been organized in the seaboard and lake States, as an auxiliary force in time of need; and it constituted a force of 200 officers and 3,703 men, who, even if not experienced sailors, had some training in seamanship and gunnery. The Naval Battalion of Con-
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necticut was full of enthusiasm at the very beginning of the war, and at once volunteered its "full strength for enlistment, 203 men, 18 officers." In early April, the Commander, Edward G. Buckland, had been ordered to make a detail from his battalion to inspect vessels in winter-quarters in the Connecticut harbors, and to select such as could be used as gunboats. The yachts Embla and Huntress proved to be available for torpedo boats; there were two steel tugs, and some small craft which could be useful as transports; but no probable gunboats were found.
On June 6, the Naval Battalion, 202 in all, was mustered into the U. S. service as a part of the Auxiliary Force. These men all entered the U. S. Navy individually, and were technically regulars and not volunteers. They did not have the satisfaction of serving as an organization, but were scat- tered in accordance with the orders of the Navy Department, and were discharged individually. The officers and men, who included many already distingushing themselves in the pro- fessions, were most rigidly examined, physically and mentally, by a board of naval officers, with very gratifying results. Every officer was recommended by the Board for a commis- sion in the U. S. Navy, and one, who was already noteworthy for diligent application in professional study, had the unique honor of receiving a commission in the navy higher than that which he had held in the Naval Battalion. Owing to lack of vacancies only, the medical officers and the adjutant did not receive their commissions. Most of the rejections among the men were for color-blindness, and not for other incapacity. Many of them spent a dreary summer tied to a Boston wharf on the U. S. S. Minnesota. A few of the members of the Battalion were fortunate in gaining appointments on the Yale and Dolphin, and others were offered positions which
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they felt bound to decline on the close of the war-some of them being young men who had college courses to complete.
As is well known, the American liner Paris was called by the Government from its peaceful vibrations across the At- lantic in the passenger trade, to the more exciting service of chasing Spanish ships in southern waters; and being rechris- tened in honor of Connecticut's great university, it enlisted the fervent support of Yale men. With their contributions, raised enthusiastically all over the country, a set of fifty-one naval flags and two fine Maxim cannon at a cost of nearly $6,000 were bought and presented to the god-child of the University.
The result of the war was almost a foregone conclusion. In the words of Maxim :- "The complication of modern implements of destruction gives to the highly scientific and mechanical races a marked advantage over the untrained and unscientific nations;" and it was another version of the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon when he enters into conflict with the Latin.
The total war expense to the State for the year 1898 was $175,648.36. The cost in lives, and health lost and impaired by disease is not so easily estimated.
The women of the State were not caught napping when the alarm of war sounded; and through various relief societies, and especially through the chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, they rendered hearty and valuable assistance to our soldiers and sailors. From May 25 to Octo- ber 15, inclusive, through the untiring and well-directed efforts of the State Regent, Mrs. Sara T. Kinney, the contri- butions from cities, towns, and villages were forwarded to the shipping stations, New Haven, Hartford, New London and Norwalk, and from there were distributed. Some towns con-
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tributed largely to hospitals that were situated within their own borders; and besides that, the Connecticut chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution gave the gener- ous sum of $7,158.87. Garments, delicacies, medical sup- plies, with money for purchasing needed articles on the spot, were forwarded, being comprised in 52 consignments of from six to twelve large packing-cases each. These welcome sup- plies went to the sick in the different camps and hospitals over the country, besides the hospital ships Relief and Missouri, and to the U. S. general hospitals at Santiago and Ponce- Porto Rico. The magic wand of prompt and vigorous per- sonal effort by the administrative head of the enterprise wafted these boxes and barrels through unspeakable block- ades in transportation agencies, and deposited them, with not one missing, at their various destinations.
The Mangrove, Commander Belden, of New London, which went to the assistance of the Maine in Havana harbor, and on which the Court of Inquiry was held, was destined to fire the last shots of the war, off Caribarien, Aug. 14, not knowing that hostilities had formally ceased on Aug. 12. The treaty of peace was signed at Paris, Dec. 10, 1898.
Industrial discontent, so formidable elsewhere, crept into the State at times during recent years; but on the whole the next Governor, George E. Lounsbury, and his succes- sors, George D. McLean and Abiram Chamberlain, have had only the problems of peace to solve.
The war over, there was opportunity to consider a remodel- ing of the State Constitution, which, being cut in the fashion of bygone days, was no longer a comfortable fit for the body politic of the rapidly growing State. So long ago as 1873, Henry B. Harrison had urged in vain that it be revised; and
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from that time on, dissatisfaction had been at times loudly expressed.
The changes most urgently desired were equalization of representation, and election of the principal State officers by plurality rather than by a majority. Some steps were taken towards gaining such amendments in 1895, but they were rejected, and were canonized under the name of the "lost amendments." The latter benefit was secured in 1901 by a constitutional amendment; and there will be no more elections by the General Assembly, unless two candidates should have the same and the highest number of votes. And the Senate is to be reapportioned in districts, not less than 24 nor more than 36, more nearly equal than before. But still disproportionate representation in both branches of the Assembly was undeniably open to criticism, and constant irri- tation in the cities on that account was apparent to every one.
This disproportion was owing to the operation of causes easily perceived, but not to be removed. From a common- wealth chiefly agricultural in its character, Connecticut, through the working of the Hinsdale Joint Stock Act,- framed by Theodore Hinsdale, a Connecticut man,-and through the advantages which she had long offered to busi- ness enterprises, had been transformed into a pre-eminently industrial and manufacturing State; and for that reason, her population, much changed in its personnel, had become con- centrated in a few leading centres, making very great changes in the relative population of cities and small towns.
The fathers, in their horror of a despotic one-man power, had invested the General Assembly with great author- ity, and had placed many restrictions on the governors, although they were of their own choosing. Now, in the whirligig of time, the cry of danger from an oligarchy was
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heard, and the General Assembly was accused of tyrannical intentions. And it was plain that the situation contained much that was unjust.
According to the Constitution, each town that was incor- porated before the Revolution was entitled to two representa- tives ;- if not so fortunate, then to one; and no town could have more than two. Hence the oft-quoted, because most glaring, discrepancy between New Haven with its 108,027 inhabitants, and Union, with 428, each being alike repre- sented by two members in the House. Again, among the small towns themselves great inequalities existed-some with large and increasing numbers of inhabitants having only one representative. The number of towns had increased from 120 in 1818 to 168 in 1900.
There was less excuse for the inequality in senatorial dis- tricts; for it is not evident that the town representation in the House was originally designed to vary with fluctuations of population; but the senators were especially intended to rep- resent districts equal, as nearly as possible, in population. So far from the original intention had the apportionment drifted that it seemed to have lost all relation to population, one dis- trict having ten times the inhabitants of another. In his mes- sage of 1901, Governor McLean urged a constitutional amendment to remedy this; but the House rejected the idea, as it had done three times before.
It must be explained that, in order to revise the Constitu- tion, that document provides that such action must be pro- posed by a majority of the House of Representatives, consid- ered by the next General Assembly, and published with the Public Acts of that body. If, in the next succeeding Assem- bly, two-thirds of each house shall approve, it shall be put to the vote of the town meetings of the State legally warned.
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Then, if voted for by a majority of the voters at such meet- ings, it becomes a part of the Constitution. This carefully- planned blocking of the wheels of hasty change invested, very wisely, constitutional reform with all the dignity due to solemn deliberation; but, as it was designed to do, it clog- ged speedy achievement, and many clamored for something more prompt. Of those who supported strictly regular pro- cedure, some advocated an entirely new constitution, others favored an amendment to the old which should embody all the necessary changes.
In despair of securing any action by the slow process judi- ciously demanded by the Constitution, Governor McLean at length consented to recommend what he had formerly opposed, a call for a convention for making the proposed changes. This proceeding was unconstitutional, but many hailed it as the only way to accomplish the desired end. The convention was accordingly called, and it assembled in Hart- ford, January I, 1902.
It was a notable company of picked men, each town send- ing one delegate, generally its very best citizen, and often representing the harmonious choice of both parties. Of the 168 men composing it, 138 were born in Connecticut. But the longer this carefully chosen body pursued its generally courteous deliberations, the farther from arriving at a result did it seem to be. It was not that they quarreled; it was not that they lacked in earnestness ;- the problem of so reconcil- ing all the conflicting interests as to please both the towns with their jealously-guarded rights, and the cities with their urgent masses of newly-made citizens, and yet to offend neither, threatened to rival squaring the circle. The advocates of the cities rushed into the newspapers wtih excited harangues against the fossil despotism of the rural towns, and thereby
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the suspicions of the towns were naturally aroused, and they were placed on the defensive.
For four months, comprising fifty-five working days, the convention sat; and during that time, it considered over sixty plans for revision. Of these, the most famous was the "One and sixty," by which the representatives of towns would be reduced to one each, irrespective of population, and the num- ber of senators would be increased to sixty. This idea, although long in dying, aroused the unanimous opposition of the press of the State, backed by public opinion. After untold and wide-spread agitation and suspense, and much curiosity as to the outcome of all this permutation of figures, a plan was approved and at last presented to the people, providing for two representatives for each town of 2,000 inhabitants, and one more for each 5,000 above 50,000, with a Senate of for- ty-five members, at least two senators to each county. By this, thirty would have been taken from the small towns and twenty-nine would have been added to the large ones.
Alas ! like many another compromise, it satisfied very few ; and the constitution so revised, when put to the popular vote, was successful only in achieving distinct disapproval, and still worse, contemptuous indifference-the vote of the State being phenomenally small, and over three-fourths of the towns voting against it. The fact that the State refused to accept changes in 1902 does not at all preclude the probability that the vital improvements then demanded will not be gradually and quietly adopted in the ordinary course of affairs; since this has often happened in the legislative history of the State, which prefers progress by slow and sure degrees to impetuous leaps.
Increased ease in the process of making amendments has given encouraging assurance of the possibility of change; and
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the State has wisely clung to its old policy of including only vital underlying principles of liberty and justice in the Con- stitution, and leaving the passing legislation of the day to be embodied in the statutes which do not require a political con- vulsion to repeal them.
One thing is clear, that the town idea is too firmly inter- woven with the warp and woof of the State's history and political temperament to be easily torn out, and that it will long remain a potent and conservative element in the govern- ment of the commonwealth.
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CHAPTER IX LOCAL INDUSTRIES OF MODERN TIMES
C ONNECTICUT, with her 908,420 inhabitants, takes the fourth rank in population in propor- tion to area among the States of the Union. Indeed, a glance at the map of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, with its fringe of stations averaging one in every two miles along the Sound, gives a broad hint at dense population. A busy peo- ple it is; forced to stimulate the traditional energy of the commonwealth by the modern demands of competition with the whole broad land from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Among the leading industries, shell-fisheries, railroads, agriculture, and manufactures readily present themselves.
The Sound has from the earliest days afforded a tempting and various treasure of fish, and especially of shell-fish. The very abundance of food to be had for the getting from this storehouse of Nature led to reckless extravagance. This inconsiderate plundering of the sea has threatened to reduce the once plenteous lobster to a curiosity in museums worthy to rank with the auk in rarity; but the oyster, menaced on the one hand by pollution of the water, and on the other by the thieves of the sea, animate and inanimate, has been pro- tected as becomes a valuable source of revenue. Oysters are the most important single fishery product of the United States, and their cultivation and sale in Connecticut gives occupation to many men.
In 1880, the late Judge Luzon B. Morris, afterwards Gov- ernor, was of notable service to the State in the important set- tlement of the boundary line between New York and Connec- ticut in the Sound. It was decided that the middle of that body of water should be the dividing line; and this kept in the jurisdiction of the State, oyster beds of great value. In 1881, the General Assembly established State jurisdiction
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over all oyster grounds south of the lines marked by certain headlands, the towns retaining control of the harbors and grounds north of this specified line. An "oyster bed" is defined as "a mound or rock which has been formed by the continuous growth of oysters for a long period of time." Oysters cling to almost any available support, and will cover a cast-off rubber shoe or boot or any other hard object that comes in their way; and they seem to seek with especial favor a spot that bears the shelly tokens of previous bivalve genera- tions. Such a favorite lodgment differs from an oyster-pro- ducing ground. Of these State grounds, 66,745 acres were held in 1903, which may be compared with the 27,252 acres cultivated in New York in the same year.
The laws as to holding such property vary in the differ- ent States around the Sound. In New York there are two jurisdictions, something as in Conecticut; in some cases the towns owning the grounds, and in others the State. Thus it happens that on the Long Island shore, some grounds can be bought, and fishermen are going over to Greenport to avail themselves of this privilege; in Rhode Island the grounds may be leased; while in other parts of New York,and in Connecticut, the States own the grounds,and grant to culti- vators of these submerged farms, not a warranty deed, but a perpetual franchise, subject only to the needs of navigation. The rights of navigation are paramount to those of fisheries ; and should a steamboat line desire to build a dock, or the United States Government decide to construct any public work on the best oyster beds on the shore, the oyster man could do nothing but submit. A case in point is that of the New Haven breakwater, which was built directly on one of the most valuable oyster beds in the Sound, to its destruction and the serious loss of the owners.
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The oysters taken from the Connecticut grounds to the waters of Narragansett Bay develop so rapidly and favorably that the Connecticut growers pay large sums for leasing grounds from the Rhode Island owners, and yet find them- selves repaid for their outlay in rent and transportation. It is the policy of the State to encourage this industry; and nowhere has the artificial rearing of oysters commanded more attention, and been carried to a more successful result, than in Connecticut.
The Connecticut laws for the protection and regulation of shell-fisheries are considered particularly good, and are used as a model by other States. Commissioners are appointed who attend to the proper mapping, staking, buoying, leas- ing, and surveillance of the oyster-grounds. An important part of the State's oyster business is raising seed oysters for her neighbors, New York, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. For this purpose her grounds are unsurpassed, the great Strat- ford and Bridgeport natural bed alone having furnished in one year over 400,000 bushels of seed-oysters to the trade. Each year sees more care and science applied to the raising of oysters, and it is probable that before long the clam will be the object of similar solicitude.
There is a tide in the affairs of oyster-men as in those of others. Sometimes there is a year of phenomenal plenty, as in 1899; and then a disheartening period of "bad sets," as during the four years succeeding, when no amount of care prevented disastrous loss of crops in all oyster-producing States. As in every other business, the tendency has been towards consolidation; and a smaller list of owners in one year than another would not necessarily mean a decrease in the number of acres cultivated.
The expense of maintaining this important and valuable
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industry increases constantly. The "Early Bird" was the first steamer ever employed in the oyster business; and it was the pioneer of a fleet of more than a hundred steamers now busy in the Connecticut waters, the boats steadily increasing in size and carrying capacity. Besides the State ground-tax, the oys- ter growers pay taxes on millions of dollars' worth of prop- erty along the Sound, from Greenwich to Guilford.
Connecticut's great railroal thoroughfare between New York and Boston, with its principal offices in New Haven, and its ramifications extending over the State as steadily as grow the roots of a tree, render her railroad interests most important.
The other east and west lines have kept pace but haltingly ; and now they and all the small roads, with the exception of the New London and Northern, the little South Manchester, and the Ridgefield and New York, have come under the con- trol of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, and have become parts of that powerful system well called the "Consolidated," although the name referred primarily to the consolidation of the New York and New Haven, and the New Haven, Hartford and Springfield roads.
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