The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-04-29
WANSHR ON GAS.
That Contract Would Never
Be Signed If He Could
Stop 1t.
IT is SURE TO GO THROUGH,
All the Pay Warrants Ready to Be
Signed-Municipal Matters.

Signed-Municipal Matters.
| Mayor-elect Wanser is beginning to
| wish he was not the Mayor to be.
His little office on Montgomery street
is crowded daily with Office seekers. with
men who wish to make suggestions to
| him and 'trimmers."
| Henry Gruber, the alleged labor advo-
| cate, is always at his heels, and it is ru-
mored that he wants to he made Presi-
| dent of the Board of Educa-
tion. in consideration of SER
is on deck. Every member has suggested
that he be permitted to run Colonel Wan
| ser's business. Mr.. Wanser, however. is
| skilfully avoiding making promises
which he knows be cannot carry out.
A LITTLE GAS.
He was in talkRtive mood this morn
| ing when JERSEY CITY NEWS reporter
dropped in to see him. His intro
| ductory remarks were upon the
| subject which is agitating the
minds OF taxpayers and officials most
at the present time, viz, Mavor
| Cleveland's gas contract. Mr.. Wanser's
| opinion Of the matter is the same as the
general conviction, which is that the con-
tract is monster job. but that it will go
| through.
IF I had anything to do in this matter
| at ALL" said Colonel Wanser, II would
break that contract. If was Mayor, my
signature would never be attached to any
such contracts as these are. The pro-
| ceeding may be regular, but 1t Is
an injustice. The matter was cut
| and dried some time ago. understand,
ar,1 hn mi NJ fnd xyifh h0
scheme knew exactly what they were do
| ing. I would like to see the job upset,
but doubt very much II the people can do
anything but submit"
President Edelstein was in consultation
this morning with City Clerk Scott, and
was the subject of discussion. President
Edelstein is still hopeful that the contract
will be broken, as he realizes what bur-
den upon the city it will be.
City CLERK Scott, when asked about the
| rumor to the effect that the contracts had
been prepared by City Attorney Huds-
peth and signed, replied that as yet he
had not seen any of the documents.
''Will you sign the contractsf" asked
the reporter.
"Well. there is nothing else left for me
to do. The Mayor has approved the reso-
and when he approves / must sign.
have no alternative. If I withheld my
signature it would be for a short time
only, because could be mandamused
aud compelled to sign the documents"
Mayor Cleveland and Bob Elliott are
holding secret conferences every day.
Mayor Cleveland Is still confident, and in
duloes in his characteristic SARCASTIC
comments upon the efforts of the CITY
officials to shake off the burden he has
fastened upon them.
MR. ELLIoTT'S FIGURES.
Mr.. Elliott. when seen this fnOruinQ nv
a reporter, assumed the position of an in
jured person by remarking;-"THE JER-
sEY CITY News is wrong In its attack
upon this contract. We are taking ad-
legally and right. The law provides
for the making of contract for
term of ten years, but we refused to enter
into an agreement for so long time. As
a matter of fact no contract is necessary.
The Board of Street and Water Commits
sioners have the power under the law to
enter into an agreement with any company
for the lighting of the city without the
making of contract 10 light the city
year by year is only to increase the ex-
pense. and claim that a five-year con-
tract is virtually saving to the city Of
more than $4,000"
Mr.. Elliott at this juncture proceeded
to do some calculating which was intend
ed to prove his assertion. When asked
for the figures, he declined to let them go
out of his possession. The saving. he
argues comes on $1,000 from gas, S2,500
from the electric lights. and VI, 500 from
advertising.
Officials who have scanned the figures
laugh at him and claim that the scope
given the company in the contracts made
will result in very short time in an in
crease of $4,000 per year. /
The appropriation for street lighting at
the present time is about $97, 600 In five
years the sum paid to the company upon
this basis will be $475b00. Persons ia
miliar with the working of the scheme
and the expectations of the officers of
the company, are firm in their beliefs that
about 500. 900 will have to be paid to the
company before the expiration of the FIVE
year term.
Assemblyman Potts is backed by num-
ber of influential citizens. who intend
fighting the matter in the courts.
Mr.. Elliott remarked to q reporter that
the Farriers were too slow and 1t was be-
cause they were so badly beaten that they
were kicking up such rumpus. 1t is
the intention of the Farriers to show Mr..
Elliott that they are not slow, and they
intend spending time and money In their
efforts to break the contract.
THE LAST BATCH OF WARRANTS.
City Clerk Scott and his assistants sue
ceeded this morning in preparing all war
rants ordered drawn by the various
Boards within the last two weeks for
Mayor Cleveland'S signature.
The immense batch Of warrants for the
election officers. Street aud Water Board,
Police and Fire Board employees will be
signed by Mayor Cleveland this after
noon. The warrants of the public school
teachers will be signed by Mayor-Elect
Wanser.
Mayor Wanser will have bur little
official business to perform for the first
week of his administration. After that
matters will probably be made very pleas
ant for him.