The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1891-03-25
oENTRALlzING POWER IN ALBEIT.

|
Rule of the GoveTn0r-An
Interesting HiStory.
|
BY the grace of the subservient Legis
lature which adjourned yesterday Leor
| Albeit has more power and patronage al
his disposal than any other Governor In
the United States. Step by step, the Gov
ernor, by the aid of the Legislature, has
increased his authority and so hedged
himself about with offices, commissions
and boards that he will go down to poll.
teal posterity as the prince Of spoilsmen.
BY the laws recently passed New Jer.
sey's Governor is almost an autocrat.
His legislative henchmen, doing his bid
ding, boldly legislated out of office all
but halt a dozen Republicans.
He controls two hundred and fifty -four
appointees who yearly draw from the
State treasury about $4S3, 900 and be also
uses his authority to influence appoint
ments in local communities over which
he has no direct power.
| The aforementioned appointees may,
by the Governor, be doubled by the power
vested in him through the agency of the
County Liquor licensing Boards and the
Pinkerton detective scheme that ia mas
querading as State police force to sup.
| press riots.
Leon Albeit has this year managed the
Legislature with rod of iron. More
than one Democrat chatting under his or.
ders has felt the Governors foot upon his
neck. Partisan laws were all submitted
to the Governor for his approval, and
once introduced In the House they were
railroaded into laws without regard for
parliamentary usages.
Among the new laws made for the ag-
| grandizement OF Governor Albeit and per-
haps the Democratic party OF New Jersey
are these:
The amalgamation OF townships In Cape
May, Monmouth, Camden, Burlington,
Gloucester and Cumberland counties to
insure local Jacksonian supremacy; the
| gerrymandering OF the lines Of Congress
| sional districts for like purpose the
State Police-Pinkerton law, authorizing
the Governor to appoint any number OF
police he sees ft to subdue mobs and en-
towering him to fix their pay Newark's
Board of Public Works law, which ia APP
pointed by the Mayor and usurps the
management of that citys government ex-
cept Its finances; the County Board Of
Liquor Licenses Commissions that may on
petition of 100 persons be appointed by
the Governor, giving him in political
emergency sixty-threc new appointments !;
establishing District Courts in all FIRST and
| second-class counties and authorizing Gov
ernor Albeit to name the Judges abol-
| ishing the Trustees OF the State School for
Deaf Mutes, and also wiping out the State
Board of Education and giving the Gov
ernor authority to appoint successors to
the members Of the last-named body, who
are also to act as managers OF the mute
school; another, vacating oil the District
Court Judges and authorizing Leon to
name their SUCCESSORS still another placed
the Morristown and Trenton Insane Asy-
lums under one board of managers, who
are to be selected by the Governor; an
other leaves the tenure of office of the
State Assessor in the hands of the Cover
nor, and another creates a commissioner
OF banks and insurance, TO be appointed
by the Governor.
These new powers aud new privileges
to bestow offices IRE but the beginning of
the list OF prerogatives bestowed by the
Governors satraps upon the functionary.
Here is another batch of bills that add to
| Mr.. Abbett's levers that will probably
| land him in the United States Senate and
perpetuate his party In the control OF the
| offices OF New Jersey for years TO come !:
To give the Governor authority to appoint
three trustees for the Industrial Home for
INDECENT Blind, eight commissioners to
the Worlds Fair, and authorizes the Gov
ernor to enlarge and improve the State
house as he may deem proper, and appro-
pirate money to pay for the work. He is
empowered to appoint commission OF
five lawyers to revise the code, and another
board of the same size to investigate and
report on the laws governing villages,
boroughs and towns; another gives him
power to appoint police to do dnty at
State institutions; an act giving the Gov
ernor authority to obtain from the State
Treasury money to pay his State police
men.
The Governors chief leverage In poll
tics is secured by his partisan control of
the judiciary which extends from the Su-
preme down to the appointment OF Dis
trict Court Judges.
These are a few OF the offices he has
filled or will fill Supreme Court Judges,
Chancellor, Law Judges OF the Court of
Errors and Appeals and Common Pleas,
public prosecutors In the twenty.one
counties; District Court Judges, Police
justices and Law Judges. In addition
to these he has appointed the State Board
Of Agriculture, Secretary Of State, Attor-
ney-General, Superintendent OF Public In
struction, Adjntant- General, State Libra
rian, State Biologists.
Then come the new creations OF the
year Bank and Insurance Commissioner,
Agricultural, Tax Commissions, and q
score or more heads of bureaus, public
institutions and boards of trustees.
The best citizens, irrespective Of poll
tics, have longed desired to have the State
distribution change, so as to make the ma
jority OF the offices named allowed cleo
tive, as Is done In neighboring States, but
the present form OF government is SO ad.
mirably adapted to the spells system that
the present vogue is likely to remain as II
is.
New Jersey people have annually paid
$3.50, 600 TO support the judiciary depart
ment. This year Governor Albeit per-
mitted the enactment of bill TO increase
the pay Of eleven Law Judges from $751;
900 to $42, 300. The Judiciary also includes
court officers, Clerks of Chancery, Clerks
of Supreme Court. Masters and a host of
minor places, oil OF which can only be
filled by consent of tho man who occupies
the executive chair. The Lay Judges,
who form the tail OF the Judiciary kite,
draw as pay for their services $40, 900
from the State Treasury. They are APP
pointed by the Governor.
There were number OF boards OF non
partisan character, on which prominent
men serve without pay, such as the State
Board of Education, Deaf and Dumb In
stitute and Lunatic Asylum. Those we're
abolished by Albeit on the ground that
they were unwieldy. The real cause was
that some Democrats had discovered that
majority Of the employees were Republi-
cane, and that such fragrant error should
not continue the boards were abolished
and the appointment given to the Cover
nor, who will see that only inactive Re-