The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-10-16
M'DERM0TT7S THUNDER.
He Demolishes Ex-senator Griggs
with Taxation Truths.
TRENTON, Oct. Is, 1889.
To Mr.. John W. GriggS. JGte State SeleG-
tor from PuSsdic CO1L1ltlE--

tor from P1ssdic County,
DEAR SIR-I have been favored with a
report of the speech delivered by you at
Trenton on the 9th inst. You indulged
in great deal of abuse of the Democratic
candidate for Governor. TO this have
no objection. 1t didn't lnjure the candi-
date, and if you rinsed your mouth prop
eriy before retiring for the night, you
will probably escape with a slight addi-
tion to your reputation as a common
scold. After you had exhausted your
flow of adjectiveS, you came to the real
question of the campaign, that of equal
taxation.
''For coming to it, for joining issue
upon it, | thank you. Your candidate
for Governor seemed to be so carefully
groomed to the avoidance of the question
that your mention of it rather surprised
me. | admire your valor. On the 9th of
November your candidate will probably
express his opinion of your discretion.
After unqualifiedly declaring that Mr..
Albeit is not entitled to the credit of the
relief from unjust taxation afforded the
people of the State during his administra-
tion, you said that the subject of the taxa
tion of railroad corporations was brought
up in the Legislature before Leon Albeit
was elected Governor" Correct. The min
utes of the Legislatures will show that in
1881, 1882 and 1883 bills were introduced
calling for equal taxation. In fact, Senator
if you had better acquainted yourself
with your subject, you might have
quoted from speech made on the floor
of the State Senate eight years before you
became member of that body, in which,
according to q report printed April l6,
1876, in the NclGaTk AdUerttser
(Republican), ''Mr. Albeit said
that he had determined that,
so far as he was concerned, no road
should escape taxation. and, ii that was
the object of these roads, he would vote
against every such proposition" You
went back twenty-One years to find
newspaper article abusing Mr.. Albeit
This was really waste of time. If
you had consulted the organs of your
party from the date OF his nomination
in 1888 until the date of his election, you
would have found Mr.. Albeit described
as stool of railroad monopolies," and
political monstrosity, whose election
would be followed by the ruin, wreck
and desolation of our fair State.
While you were ransacking the
looked the report of the Constitutional
Commission appointed by Governor Lud-
low in 1881. II you had read it, your
hatred of deceit would have forced you to
tell the good people in Taylor's Opera
House that, as member of that Commits
sion, Leon Albeit, on the 18th of May,
1881, offered the following propositions, as
amendments to the State Constitution
THAT the real and personal estate of every
corporation, foreign and domestic, except
those of municipal corporations of the State,
shall be taxed the same as the real and personal
estate of an individual and all laws that establish
different rule are hereby repealed.
2That no law shall be passed or contract
made by or on behalf OF the State or any NUM-
cipal corporation, by which the power of tax
alton SHALL in any way, be impaired or abridged.
The chairman OF the Republican State
Committee, Hon. Garret A. Hobart, was
L Cf.v,rr L.
is townsman of yours, you should have
consulted him while you were ON the
history of railroad taxation. 1t is well to
be thorough in such matters. You pre-
ferred, however, to start with 1888, the
year you entered the Senate, and you en-
lightened your audience with the follow
ing infOrmatiOn:-
In 1888, before Ahbett was elected Governor
the subject of the taxation of railroad corpora
tions was brought up in the Legislature and both
houses decided in favor of equal aud even taxa
tion of individuals and corporations, and before
that the matter had been agitated In 1888 in
troduced a bill In the Senate to provide for the
taxation of railroad companies, before Alb
bett read his inaugural. The bill contained all
the essentials of the present law, and the COPY
can now be seen on file at the State Library. 1t
was discussed two days on the floor of the Senate
All papers contained abstracts 1t did not pass,
but the effort was made.
So we have it that in 1883 the House of
Assembly and Senate decided in favor of
equal LAXablOH. budU you introduced q
bill to provide for such equal taxation;
that the bill was discussed for two days,
and that it was defeated. / am puz-
zled, Senator. If, in 1888, before the
election of Governor Albeit, the
House of Assembly and the Senate
agreed in favor of equal taxation of
corporations and individuals, and you in
troduced bill to provide for what the
Senate and House had agreed upon, how
came it that the bill did not pass? Why is
it not upon the statute book? Was the Sc
ductive voice of the lobbyist heard between
the time that "both houses esdecidedin favor
of equal and even taxation" and the day
that the "bill did not pass" Fair and
square, now, Senator; when you say that
the Senate of 1883 decided in favor of
equal and even taxation" are you not
towing with truth? Your memory is ex-
cellent on most points, but on this ques-
tion Of equal taxation, it seems to play
you so many unkind tricks that you
will pardon me for refreshing it.
You say that you introduced a
bill for equal taxation in 1888.
No. 200. 1t was good bill 1t provided
for equal taxation of railroad property,
and was entitled San act to impose a
uniform State tax upon the property of
railroad and canal companies" !" You
knew that it would never pass the Senate,
and the record shows that you never in
tended that 10 should.
'sWhy, then" you may ask, "did / intro
duce it?" Let me tell, not you, but the
public. In 1882 there was a great State