The Sunday tatler and Jersey City express. (Jersey City, N.J.) 1883-1886, 1886-02-21

where 1 now stand, by the PRESIDENT or
this Senate, that the operation Ct the child
labor bill alone had turned out in the city
of Paterson $4,000 more Children than
they had been able to build school houses
for. The same thing is in many respects
true all over the State. That one sacred
fund il retained for your school and to ed
ucate your children-to wit, your riparian
land-which is insufficient, but whlchgives
us reasonable hope that with q proper
general railroad law and proper limitations
upon it it will in the future be ample; and
that is your only hope. But the Legisla-
ture of New Jersey is now told that the
construction of her laws as they stand not
only renders it yalueless for future time.
but will operate to destroy present
values and they are asked to sit
idly by and consent to that destruction in
the name Of commerce and the general
railroad law which, they tell us, as it now
stands works that destruction of itself.
There is no soil nearer to where these
roads want to terminate than New Jersey.
There is no better. Aye, but we are told
that there Is cheaper If il be cheaper,
Mr.. President, it is because of what the
general railroad law Of the State has done
for New Jersey. There would not have
been any cheaper place for railroad ter
minus on the waters of the Atlantic coast
than in New Jersey if heretofore the termi-
nus of each of the trunk line railroads had
been upon Staten Island. If our land is
worth more than theirs, if it is desirable
to legislate for corporation that they may
getscheap land, merely suggest that it is
only possible that they get land cheaper
there because they have not got what 1t is
sought to give them by this bill. New
York, we were fold yesterday, had done
great things for New Jersey Certainly it
has, and certainly in SO far as one State
should be to another in every sense a
sister, New Jersey is and has been and will
be to New York, but when it comes to
despoiling your own household to enrich
New York that is an entirely different
question.
Ga every consideration, then. this bill
ought to pass. Justice to corporations
since they have been dragged into this dis
cussion-justi 20 to the State of New Jersey,
justice to the citizens who have settled
upon her lands and bought her riparian
rights IN anticipation of the future JUS
tice to the fund which the riparian law
created, and justice to the children who
are now growing up, and, above all, justice
to those who, we are told, have been turned
the schools, because of the passage of the
child labor bill, all demand Of this Legisla-
ture that the termini of these railroads, in
SO far as New Jersey can secure it, shall be
now and for all time to come upon the
soil of the State, and whatever advantages
there are to ba derived from it shall be
derived by the children of the people of
the State.
Mr.. Griggs took the floor in favor of the
bill. He said that after the full discussion
that had been heard he would not say any
thing upon the subject were it not that
assiduous efforts had been made by person
outside of this mem crship to create false
public opinion. Why is it. he asked, that
SO many reputable citizens Of New Jers y
have allowed their names to be attached To
circumstances against this bill? Because
they have utterly misconstrued the t.
This amendment simply prevents any rail-
road company from bridging Staten Island
Sound without the consent of the State.
If this amendment had been in the general
railroad law from the first it would not
have been operated to prevent the con-
struction of any railroad that has be, n
built under the Law during all the thirte n
years of its existence. In reply to quo g.
ton by Mr.. Vanderbilt whether it would
not have prevented the bridging Of I'll Q
Delaware by the Bound Brook line, he sale,
s.No, because this bill refers to streams
where the tide Gibbs and flows only" He
proceeded to instance all the railroads that
had been built across the State under the
general railroad law. and said this till, if it
had been law, would have stopped none of
them. He said that the Baltimore and
Ohios surveyed route by which to reach
the proposed bridge avoided any popu-
lous place ia the State, and simply
took the shortest cut across the soil
of New Jersey. It is a false assump-
ton that the only way for this railroad cora
pany is to 60 to Staten Island. Other COM
panies have asked no such favor. They
have been willing to accept the generous
of the State. These hospital
tiles are still open to the Baltimore and
Ohio. The Senator quoted the law of 1873,
which prohibits the construction of any
bridge over navigable waters without the
special assent of the State. This act, he
said, was understood by all to effect the
purpose now sought in Senate bill No. AZ,
and yet we find Senators who voted for the
general railroad law are now opposing this
BILL He also read the protest Of the Legis-
lature addressed to Congress last year,
against the bridging of the Arthur Kill, and
showed that Senators Fish and Nichols both
voted for it. The Senator thought that he
detected in the arguments the favor Of the
farmers of the far West being afforded
facilities for reaching Europe with their
grain, the seductive and beguiIing words of
the free trader. But his philanthropy.
while worldwide in its general application,
was modified by the maxim that charity
begins at home. As to the constitutional
rights involved, New Jersey has propriety
right to the land under water to the middle
of the Arthur Kill, and it is preposterous
to claim that these proprietary rights can
be taken away from her without her con-
sent. The Senator then read the resolution
passed by the Legislature In 1884, protest
ing to Congress against authorizing the con-
struction of q bridge from New Jersey to
Staten Island, and read from the minutes
that Nichols, Vanderbilt and Youngblood
all voted for it, while they now opposed
it. (Great laughter.) These gentlemen, he
said, were opposed to the bridge last year
and the year before, but for some reason.
they have changed their minds. So far as
the valuable shore front of New Jersey was
concerned, he was a monopolist. It was
foolish proposition, while the State has
miles of shore front to sell, to bring the
rival property of a rival State into the
market.
Pending the discussion the Senate ad-
journed,
NervouA DebfIftated Mem
Ur