The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-04-16
IT MEANS JERSEY City.
Gardner's Third Grab Bill
"Railroaded" in the
Senate.
EDWARDS FOUGHT ALONE.
Railroad Matters Discussed by the
Board of Trade in This City.
TRENTON, April 16, 1sS9.-The Senate
has passed Gardner's railroad grab, Ed
wards and Wyckoff opposing.
Debating the Grab.
.special to the Jerseu On Ne.cs.l

Especial to the jersey City Netcs.1
TRENTON, April Is, 1887 see now
that the real object of the bill is the rails
ing of the tracks in Jersey City," said
Senator Edwards tonight in the debate
on Senator Gardner's third railroad grab
bill
The bill was ordered to third reading
Hudson county's representative made an
earnest fight to have it amended so that
it would not give the railroad companies
the entire State, but he was absolutely
alone. Not one Senator voted with him in
favor of the two very moderate amend
ments he offered.
The first amendment struck out the
words making the act applicable in cases
of changes of grade crossings where agree
ments have already been entered into be-
tween the railroads and the municipal au-
thorities. The second struck out the
words allowing the railroads to condemn
lands 'for all other legitimate purposes. :"
In regard to the first, Mr.. Edwards said
that the bill was second cousin of the
notorious 185. If a railroad wished to
abolish it's grade crossings it should be
willing to go to the municipal authorities
after the passage of the act and OBJ
tain their consent. In past years such
consent had been granted in several
cases in Jersey City with the
proviso that the concurrence of a
certain proportion of the owners of the
property to be accepted must be obtained.
Now the present bill wiped out that pro
viso. He cited the case of the Jersey
Central bridge fight to show that under
the present laws, as interpreted by Vice
Chancellor Van Fleet, the consent OF the
property owners must be obtained.
Several Senators spoke in favor of the
bill as it stood. Curiously enough, all
abandoned the claim that it was intended
to enable the Reading road to get land for
a depot at Atlantic City, and advocated it
on the ground that grade crossings should
be abolished; and that a public improve
ment of that character should not be
placed at the mercy of a single objecting
owner of property.
SENATOR ABRAMS SARCASM.
Senator Adrain attacked the amend
ments with sarcasm. In the House, he
said, Senate bill 1S5 had caused pleas for
purity and honesty to fall from lips which
usually were turned in other direc-
tlons for the emoluments of life.
While expressly disclaiming any in
tention of doing so, he accused Senator
Edwards of demagoguery in fighting the
BILL saying that the Senator. had spent the
afternoon at New Brunswick, discussing,
as the counsel for railroad company, the
price of some land, and in the evening fig
ured as the friend of the people and the
opponent of the railroads.
Senator Edwards reply to this attack
was that he did not come to the Senate as
the representative of his clients, but that
he aimed to represent the citizens OF Hud-
0I,t tafi md hn nnr11n Of fha
State as far as he could. He continued
his argument in favor of the amendment
by showing how corporations set up the
claim of vested rights as soon as any grant
was made to them.
Senator Gardner devoted himself chiefly
to arguing what everybody admits-that
grade crossings should he abolished. In
defence of the large powers of condemna-
tion granted by the bill, he said that such
public improvements should not be left
dependent on the whim, avarice or
legal capacity or incapacity of individual
owners of property. He said the public
outcry against the bill was absurd and he
expected that if the same spirit continued,
a report would be brought back from the
Centennial celebration that George Wash
ington was at present engaged in steering
bunco.
MR.. EDWARDS WAS ALONE.
Senator Edwards insisted on the vital
Senator voted with him and it was lost.
Then the second amendment was taken
up. Mr.. Edwards said that it was hard
to say what would not be permitted under
the authority given to condemn lands
''for all other legitimate purposes" The
railroads might under this section con-
denim any church or public building for
Offices
Sweeping as was the power of condem-
nation given under the act of 1877 it pro-
vided that the land must adjoin the rail
road but no such restriction was in the
present act In regard to the manner in
which the land should be taken,
instead of following the properly
guarded laws of today, the bill
went away back to the laws of the
thirties and the forties, and adopted the
methods provided in the original charters,
such as the Camden and Amboy, the Della
ware, Lackawanna and Western and the
Morris and Essex. He summed up by
calling the measure an omnibus, drag-net
bill which took in everything ON the
earth, the heavens above and the water
beneath
Senator Gardner claimed that the Ian
guage used was that in all the statutes on
the subject. The bill was ordered to
third reading. There is likely to be music
when it reaches the House