The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1885-02-22
NO CHARTER THIS YEAR.
THE OBSTACLES LOCAL "REFORMERs"
MEET IN TRENTON.

MEET In TRENTON
Assemblyman DiclSinson Promises Them
a Treat for q st. Patriclk's Day in the
the mnrnin' 0--seDats Bul, NO. IS.
TRENTON, February 21.-The charter
prospect is more unpromising this year
even than it was last year. OF the Rep
ublican Aasemblymen from Jersey City,
Heck from the sixth:district. is probably tie
only man who is anxiously waiting for o
chance to vote for it. Assemblyman See
is not red hot for it; Mr.. domaine is per-
ceptibly cool. towards it, and lAssemblyman
Dickinson, who last year refused to pledge
himself to the ssCitizens' Association, is
positively down on it. Under the rules it
went to the Committee on Municipal Cor
porations of which Dickinson is the
Chairman He seems to be in no haste to re-
port it, and even had the audacity to tell
Heck, when the specialized statesman from
the Sixth district solicitiously inquired.
when he would report it, that it would be
handed up to the Clerk for action on est
Patrick's Day, in the morning" That
means that it will be allowed to slumber
in the Committee till the Legislature gets
ready to adjourn. Dear and others have
been down here trying to override Dick
inson with the votes Of the members of the
Committee, but his fellow members pro-
pose to consult Dlckinson's wishes entirely
in the matter, and there isn't the smallest
likelihood of the bill seeing daylight again,
unless he consents. The next move of
the advocates of the measure was to en-
deavor to interest the leaders of the House
in an attempt to call it out of the Com
mittee, but the gentlemen who tried to en-
gineer that scheme were in every instance
referred to the Adonis from the Third dis
trict who presides over the Committee
having the bill under prayerful considera-
ton.
tits probably the political aspect of the
reform the bill proposes that stands in the
way of it. 1t vests all the appointing
power practically in the hands of the May
or.
s'Now, If we were always sure of Re-
publican Mayor" remarked one of the
Assemblymen to your correspondent, 'sthe
bill would be just the cheese. But the
majority in the city is the wrong way to
make the bill healthful for the Repubi-
cams"
Even. if it was unobjectionable from the
party standpoint. it would meet with some
opposition, because the boys don't like
either the men who are beaind it, or their
arrogance in assuming to "boss" local Of
fairs, or the manner in which they have
been treated by them. The Assemblymen
were, truly enough, invited to conference
about the bill, but it was only formal act
of Difference. Not single suggestion they
made was needed, and the bill was sent in
the shape in which it had been originally
drawn
The same political views that dispose the
Hudson Republican Assemblymen to be
against the bill, make Kelly and Chapman
and Clark warmly for it. They would like
to get it through, but haxano hope of doing
it. Heck has no ilea that Il can go through,
ported by the Commistee some time this
week.
Senate No. %, will probably be the most
warmly championed bill and the most
bitterly opposed bill of the Session. On
its face it looks like fully as dangerous a
measure as the famous 1877 of the Session
of 1882. 1t may have been introduced to
accomplish a specific purpose of no very
large public moment, but itopens the doors
to appalling possibilities. Even the specific
purpose for which it is asked can't be
learned When Senator Brinkerhoff called
upon Senator Moon, it's introducer, for an
explanation of its design, the other even
ing, the Warren Senator was silent. Presi-
dent Schenck and Senator Griggs who
fought shoulder by shoulder to get it
through railroad legislation like politics,
makes strange bed-fellows sometimes, you
see-offered no statement of the purposes
for which it WAS designed. "There it is,
was about all they said. ''You have got to
take it for whatever it does T. and in spite
of Senator Brinkerhoff's efforts to amend
it as to make it comparatively harmless.
it went through with bells on. 1t closes
forever, with the consent of the 'smunici-
pal authorities" whoever they may be for
the purposes of the bill, every street that
may have been under tide-water in 1854.
In one quarter we are told that it chokes
oft the Washington street bridge and shuts
up Washington street, in the interests of
Matthiessen Il Weichers, and the Lehigh
Valley Railroad Company Then again it
is said to sbe INTENDED to strengthen the
title of the Pennsylvania Railroad to the
Harsimus Cove property, and third one
says that it will assist the Delaware, Lacka-
wanna and Western road to wipe out the
city easements at the foot of 14th street.
It looks as though it might do all, and
good deal more. It is extremity dangerous
because of its great latitude. No one can
tell what may not be undertaken under it,
nor where the license it confers may end,
and it should be beaten. Ours.