The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-03-09
JUG TAVERNS
MUST co.
Passage Of the Werts
Bill After a Sharp
Debate in the
Senate.
REPUBLICANS FOR FREE RUM
The Measure Likely to Go
Through the As
sembly Next
Week.
REPUBLICANS FOR FREE RUM
ISpecfal to the Jersev city Netrs.l

TRENTON, March z, 1SS9.-The Werts EX-
else bill has passed the Senate. 1t will be
brought up in the House on Tuesday
morning, if possible, and will be disposed
of by that body without delay. Assem-
blyman Heppenheimer has proved his
qualifications for leadership, and while he
has always been DESTROYS of treating the
minority with fairness and of allowing
the Republicans to amend or alter bills in
any way consistent with the interests of
the people, he has had no patience with
moves made simply for partisan adyan-
tage. All such he has uniformly swept
away with the irresistible force of the ma
jority. Should the Werts bill be brought
up in the Assembly on Tuesday it is not
improbable that it will be passed by that
House the same day, after due opportu-
nifty for debate shall have been given, and
/ then it will be submitted to the scrutiny
Of a Democratic Governor.
The discussion in the Senate to-day
lasted five hours. There is no reason why
the consideration of the bill should oc-
cupy SO long time in the House. In the
Senate members are allowed to talk until
they are tired; in the House there is more
consideration for the feelings of the audi
ence. In the lower branch of the Legis-
lature the rules provide for the choking
off of members who talk against time as
the Republicans did in the Senate today.
The Werts bill and it's provisions are SO
well known that there is no reason why
the House should spend much time over
4,l
developed. The calendar is enough be-
hind to warrant stringent measures to
save time.
REPUBLICAN ADMISSION.
So far as the debate in the Senate is
concerned, little that is novel was
advanced by the Republicans. One of the
most striking statements made was
uttered by Senator Gardner, the acknowl-
edged leader on his side of the House 1t
was that the Republican majority year
ago would have passed a better law if
they had known then what has since been
taught by experience and by the decisions
of the courts. This statement was snapped
up by Senators Edwards and Werts, who
pointed out that the measure under con-
sideration was dictated by those very
facts. This was one surprise Another SUP
prise was the speech of Senator Bob Adrain,
of Middlesex, a Democrat. He began
by saying that he had no inten-
and those who heard him believed this
part of his remarks. Among other things,
in the course of this remarkable address,
he said he believed in good saloons; that
the speech made by Senator Nevins, of
Portsmouth, was nothing but rehash of
Grand Army addresses about the nation
and the home; that the citizens of Jersey
City who, this week, came to Trenton to
urge the passage of the Feeney Water bill
were irresponsible cranks who wanted
the majority of the Board of Works and
the Board of finance indicted, and wanted
a law passed to allow others to perform
duties given by law to these Boards" and,
lastly, that under the first Baker amend
ment a community could not vote to TX
the license fee so high as to amount to
prohibition. The effect of the section, he
said, was to police saloons, not to further
prohibition.
SENATOR ADRIAN CoNTRADICTED.
Senator Adrain looks like an athlete
He is six feet high, burly with a stubby
black moustache and rough and ready
air which conceals his real brightness of
mind. He stands out among his colleagues
by being the only member OF the Senate
who wears bright red necktie, light
clothes and a DERBY hat with straight
brim.
His last statement, as to the effect of the
Baker amendment, was eagerly taken ad-
vantage of by the Republican Senators,
who rang the changes on it with grim de-
light As matter of fact, according to
Senators Edwards and Werts, who have
studied the subject as carefully as any
body, the law is capable of no such con-
struction. During the day the point was
mentioned to Governor Green and to At
torney General Stockton. Both gentlemen
agreed, informally, of course, that under
the section a community would have the
right to fix the rate of license as high as it
pleased, without limitation.
The Senate, Chamber was crowded.
Colonel Heppenheimer, the Democratic
leader in the House, had a front seat. His
chief whip, Colonel Feeney, occupied
cushioned chair on the other side. AS
semblyman Cole drank in the temperance
points made by the Republican leaders.
Assemblyman Bale wandered TO and fro.
The galleries We're crowded. There was
general interest when Senator Baker,
the man with the backbone, arose to ex-
plain his support OF the bill.
BAKERS EXPLANATION.
He believed he said, that local option
should be confined to the smallest diyi-
sions of voters, namely, townships, towns,
boroughs and cities, which should settle
the question for themselves. He voted
for the law last year because he believed
it was step in the right direction. He
defended the section licensing sales be
tween one quart and tiye gallons. In
local option localities, after one or two
years, it was found that liquor wos sold in
large quantities, he said, and that the
condition was worse than under licensed
sales the proposed lawwould do away with
the Jug taverns. In some localities the
people would fix the rate of license them
selves, in others they would elect Excise
Boards or councils who would fix rates ac-
cording to their wishes, He believed
that the people would find that the law
t,ronnead would stand all tests
THE VOICE or THE PEOPLE.
Senator Werts called Senator Baker to
the chair, and went ON the floor. Senator
Edwards made an elaborate speech, in
which he thoroughly discussed the consti-
tutional law points involved in the bill,
ems lneasllre he said This wear the people