The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-03-16
That County Division Scheme-The
Biggest Job of the Day.

r.
have disappeared as to the real motive
power behind the movement to divide
Hudson county. No person can doubt
that the Hoboken Land and Improve
ment Company is behind the whole
scheme.
The notion that Democratic poll
ticians We're engineering it for party
purposes is dispelled. The idea that
the "tax-ridden'' citizens of Hoboken
We're clamoring for divorce from the
extravagant and dissolute Jersey City
is utterly exploded.
The principal, if not the sole demand
for change, comes from the great land
monopoly, and the only purposes TO
be accomplished II its purposes what
ever they may be.
And just here the whole question
comes in:-
What is the motive of the Hoboken
Land and Improvement Company?
Is it philanthropy2
Not likely.
Is it politics?
Hardly.
Is it profta
Well, that is just about what it is.
J The company see it's way to make an
enormous profit by the establishment
Of the new county.
"Here's richness" as Mr.. Squeers
remarked.
Tie new county will need a jail, and
aYoorhouse, and a lunatic asylum. OF
cours nobody cares for prisoners and
paupers, and some very undesirable
land may be sold at a fancy price as a
site for these institutions.
But, besides, the new county will
need a court house-a fine stone build
ing, of course, with a pretty park all
around it, just like own upon the
Hill. For this purpose also the
pu~blic5spirited company is ready to
supply the ground.
And, in doing so, realize a double
profit.
For not only will the county have
to pay a~sufficiently handsome sum for
a handsome plot for it's court house,
but, furthermore, the wilderness which
surrounds the site selected at once be-
IN as a land flowing with dollars
and cents for the public spirited com
pany. Public offices and courts are
sure to attract population. Law
offices, gin mills, restaurants and other
resorts are apt to crowd around them.
And for such there is need of many
building lots. Then who so ready as
the public spirited company to provide
the lands at a goodly figure, to meet
the growing needs of the thriving
county seat?
Oh, it's a great scheme; new streets
to be laid out; roads and drives graded;
buildings erected; money lent out at fat
interest. In the language of the vul-
gar, "There's millions in it.n
But does the scheme stop here?
No, indeed. The public spirited
company has long ago realized how
fine a thing it is to own a city. How
much better to own a county tool
1t opens up an endless vista of adj
vantage. TO own your own Sheriff!
What a pull that would bel And
you own Senator and A~ssemblymen.
And then think Of the shore front to
be gobbled; the schemes of public
improvement" to be worked.
1t is simply immense. Who can
wonder that Colonel E. A. Stevens
and his henchmen, William A. Macy
and Ramon N. Cooke, are working,
tooth and nail, to persuade the people
of Hoboken that they are red hot for
a division of the county.
RI -
DIR. TANNER, the once famous
faster, has a new plan for winning
popular attention. He says that he
has discovered the occult knowledge
which enabled the East Indians to be
buried alive and suffer no harm, though
they remained under ground for