The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-01-31
FIRST BLOOD FOR NEITHER.
THE RATTLE 0YER THE STATEN
ISLAND BRIDGE A DRAW.
"A Bold Charge Upon the Baltimore and
Ohio Road thar Startled the Assembly
but Accomplished Nothing Substantial
The Railroad Question in the Legislature

~H&hS AAoAtA hlAAAf 6tAEAktu NU8 Assembly
but Accomplished Nothing Substantial
The Railroad Question in the Legislature
Correspondence of the SUNDAY TArnxn.l
TRENTON, Jan. 30.--ss Be it declared as
the sense of this Lsgislature-and let our
Senators and Representatives in Congress
be SO instructed-that, under no circum-
stances. should the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad Company be permitted to bridge
Staten Island Sound"
The Assembly were transfixed with
horror when they heard Wayne Parker's
resolution of this purport read from the
Clerks desk on the opening day of the ses-
sion They could not believe their ears.
They were stunned by the magnificent
audacity of the movement, and dazzled by
its brilliant holiness. Had they not been
dreaming of the great fight between the cor
porations for tie mastery as the stirring
sensation of the session? Did they not
intend to keep the question alive. if it.
could be made to survive, till the Ides of
March? Yet here was man who boldly
proposed to put it at rest on the first day
of the meeting, and, at single roll-call, Ito
anticipate the glory and fun that they fondly
hoped might serve to divert them during
months of stupid law-making The Penn
sylyania, with its millions in reserve, and
the Baltimore and Ohio, with its other mil
dions in reserve, engaged with each other
in mighty xrestle for the supremacy.
could, if their rivalry was properly nursed,
afford endless amusement to the legislative
eye. They could be summoned to the
Legislative arena whenever the caprice of
members called for recreation from the
moHotony of their everyday work, as the
Roman grandees called the human gladia-
tors to the ring in times Of old Only the
members had no idea of being merely spec
tators. They dreamed rather of playing
with them as sleek old tabby might with
two round and fat little mice They would
toy with them, and turn them over, ana
paw them, and tenderly prod them occa-
,sionaily with bills and amendments and
recommitments and adverse reports, and
the thousand and one other parliamentary
tooth thrusts, till the curtain should be
rung down upon the session. But here was
a legislative knife thrust the very first
minute of the session that served at once
to pierce one of the little mice to the heart.
and to make an opening through which the
other might scamper off gayly and trium-
phantly to It's nest So swift and sudden
a contamination to the business of the
session could never be pc 'mitted. And
when the members had recovered their
stunned senses they committed Mr.. Par
ker's resolutions to the tender mercies of
the Riparian Committee with head-swim-
ming velocity.
Now Speaker Armstrong had made up
the committee. Speaker Armstrong is not
a Baltimore and Ohio man. 1t may be in
ferred that he had not made up Balti-
more and Ohio committee. He hadn't
The resolutions wers perfectly acceptable
to a majority of its members and they
were eager to put them back upon the
clerks desk for adoption by the Assembly.
But when they went around to the bars for
their evening beer, they heard mutterings
that BODIED i'll for the Parker manifesto.
The problems presented by il were too
numerous to be decided by single vote 4
and views on each intermediate aspect of 4
the question were too varying to make coin
cldence on the part of more than two or
three members possible. There was
First the question of the extent to which
New Jersey can command her waterfront
Then, the question of the extent to which 4
Congress can command it
Then, the question whether Congress
could give it away without the consent of
the State;
And the question whether the State could
give it away without the consent of Con-
gress
And the question whether, if the State
has any voice in the premises, she should
permit bridge to be built by any body;
And the question whether, if any body
should be permitted to build bridge, the
Baltimore and Ohio should be the party
permitted
And <ha .uaot,ov, xrIa<t,e~ 80 Al, r.1t;
more and Ohio were given permission to
build bridge, she should be allowed to do
from the shore overlooking Staten Island
Sound.
It was declared impossible to decide upon
all these incidental questions with a single
faye" or single ssno." The right of Con-
gress to the New Jersey coast had no nee
essary relation to the construction of
bridge; nor had the construction of
bridge any ne 'essary relation to the Balti-
more and Ohio. Some of the problems
might be subsidiary to some of the others,
but the main question was easily capable
of division into three parts, and the boys
advised the committee that it would be
better and safer to tackle the great problem
in sections than to tackle IL all at once
There would be more fun in il, and the fun
would last longer. They might safely say
e1A0b NVAAEA Oc6 AldQ III tullOElLy 10 AtHb per
mission for the building of bridge on the
New Jersey coast, without the consent of
the Assembly of New Jersey. That was
perfectly proper. It would help to make
the amusement of the session more in
tensely interesting, by making it more in
tensely personal, to the gentlemen making
up the Assembly. It would not only hold
IN reserve the question whether the LIE is
lature should permit the construction of
the bridge, but it would also serve to guide
the Baltimore and Ohio managers who may
be presumed, from their little acquaint-
ance with the manner of doing things in
New Jersey, to be ignorant about the mat
teri to the proper place to get their permit
from. The committee took the hint, and
Hon. Wayne Parker's fiery denuciation Of
the bridge WAS transmogriied into cour-
teous declaration that even If fke Balti-
more and Ohio is to have q bridge over
Staten Island Sound, they cant legally get
the right to put it there from the Congress
at Washington. The House agreed to the
committees substitute, and in accepting it
have merely said TO this vast corporation,
<'There's no use of your going to those
fellows, gentlemen. We're the ones you
want to see. We can give away site on
our water front. Those chaps down there
in Washington haven't got anything to say
about it. If you want piece Of our shore
come here and talk to us"
Mr.. Parkers bold stroke against the in
coming corporation has therefore miscar-
ried. The question of the bridge is ss far
from settled as ever. bill may yet be in
troduced into the Legislature asking the
State to give its consent. The resolutions
adopted BY the House, SO far from antici-
pating the defeat of such bill, expressly
declare and affirm the right of the Legisla-
ture to pass it, The great corporations
already in the State have failed to commit
the Legislature against the bridge. The
equally great corporation they are contend
ing with has failed to commit it to the
policy Of allowing Congress to give away
our shore. Victory has perched on the
banners Of neither army The first contest
is draw; and the band viii still continue
to play. Ours.
The Value Of nm Advertisements.
The power. of the press is wonderful, "
exclaimed Mr.. Myron Furst yesterday