New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-04-02
FREE RAILROADS FOR NEW-JERssY

first day of tho session OF tio Ne"-'orsey
LEGISLATURE. and has been intermittently con-
timed I'D TO the last day save four, as IL ap-
proached the time for adjournment, after
repeated shiftings and battledore and shuttle
cock games between the two houses, tne ten
eral Railroad bill has become the law OF tne
State. with surprising unaDimity In Doth
branches. Yet this final harmony Is not alto
oetber wonderful. The Pennsylvania interest
from the first regarded as alien and given the
cold shoulder as is the way Of jersey toward
the foreigner relied upon the Fabian poncy,
contented itself with defeating special char
ters for directly competing roads, ana reiied
upon the revengeful spirit of the latter TO Kill
off the General Law. In this latter they were
disappointed. The Pennsylvania road found
itself at last where the General Law was the
least of two evils.
New-JeIsey, for a generation mOnopoiy-rid-
den, is now the first Of Eastern States to enact
a true and substantial General Law; and from
what we know of attempts at this sort Oh
legislation in one or two Western States, 1t
hasperfected the most reasonable project OF
law in existence. Only one doubt occurs to
u.s. and that we cannot settle until the copy
of the perfected bill has reached US. 1t Is just
possible, for one Of the Senate amendments
made it so, that provision has been incorpo-
rated that land taken shall not be by condem-
nation of the land Of existing chartered roads.
We believe that this proposition has been
stricken out by the Assembly. If not, it would
fall under the common law, still regnant In
New-Jersey, and the crossing Of other rail-
roads would not be considered cOndenna-
ton. 1t would be only an easance, conferring
rights on the new company, but not depriv-
ing the old of any original right of way.
The law as it passed with Quaker-like calm
ness on Monday night in the Assembly and
on Tuesday in the Senate, in effect authorizes
any thirteen persons majority OF them res
idents of the State, to organize railroad
company. Their articles Of agreement shall
name the termini of the road, the counties
through which it is to run, and an amount of
capital stock of not less than ten thousand
dollars for every mile, with the privilege to issue
bonds not exceeding the amount of the paid
up capital stock. When at least two thousand
dollars for every mile of road is subscribed
and ten per cent paid in cash, an affidavit to
that effect and setting forth that it is intended
pended to the articles of agreement and fled
for record in the Office of the Secretary of
State. That filing constitutes the charter, but
the construction of the road must be begun
within six months after the c0mpany's organ
ization, and if the road is not more than fifty
miles long a track shall be ready for use in
two years if more than fifty miles, six months
additional are allowed for every twenty miles.
The remaining provisions are mainly those
usual to special charters as TO entry upon
lands, condemnation, &c. But there is an i'm
pOrtant clause which allows any such new
road TO lease its property OF to merge and
consolidate with any connecting line. Con-
Meeting roads are required to transport all
goods and passengers for each other. Passen
ger tickets are good until used, and the police
of the roads is thoroughly guarded. BY the
39th section it is expressly provided that "no
franchise heretofore granted to construct a
railroad, or to build OF establish bridges
cor ferries, or operate any line of
travel, and take tolls or fares there
for, shall hereafter continue to be
cor be construed to remain exclusive, and
4" that no like franchise hereafter granted shall
"be OF be construed to be exclusive, unless in
&" such grant heretofore made or hereafter to
"be made it be so expressly provided" In
that clause we hear the death-knell of mo-
nOpoly.
After all it is not singular that New-Jersey
should be the first of monopoly or combina-
ridden States to proclaim freedom in
railroad construction. For almost genera
ton she has been stigmatized as the " State
"Of Camden and Amboy," and but small charity
has been granted to her apology that the
monopoly was sacred contract, dating back
to the infancy of railroads in this country-a
contract to be faithfully kept up to the last
hour of its legal existence. But once ter
minated, there was sigh of relief and
stubborn Jersey determination that the stigma
should pass away with the contract. We are
assured that this valuable forward step was
not purchased by money. 1t was the realiza-
ton of an old hope among our neighbors. In
all the vicissitudes OF the bill as it went back
ward and forward from one house to the
other it was never amended to its loss. Every
change strengthened it, and as it has
now finally passed, its friends declare, and we
are willing to hope that it may be regarded as
nearer to perfection than any other measure of
its kind in the history of railroad legislation.
The special bills still pending perish beneath
it, though what is known as the Tube Rail-
"road," a double charter for tubular trans
portation and an ordinary track beside, from
the Delaware to the Hudson, became a law
more than week ago. But in all essentials
the roads to be built under the General Law
have the same franchises and privileges which
any special charter could confer. Under it we
may expect to see not one alone, but half
dozen or half-score of through lines constructed
across the narrow belt of Central New-Jersey.
IN oiye outlnt IN tho commerca of tba continent