The Jersey City news., 1892-02-16
THE COMBINE BUGABOO.
Jersey Legislators Will at Least In
vestigate the Reading Deal.
Special to the jersey city Ne,cs.


TRENTON, Feb. 49, 1s92.-The great
the vast corporation which has just OBJ
tanned control of the Lehigh VALLEY and
the New jersey Central may be called,
was vigorously attacked in the Assembly
last evening. Mr.. Lane of Union opened
the battle with this broadside:-
Whereas, it is asserted in the public prints
that combination has been formed between
certain railroad corpora tions doing business in
this State tha object of which is to advance the
price of coal aud the cost OF transportation in
and through this State, and
Whereas, Such combination is clearly
against the welfare of the people, tending to
enormously enrich few by imposing upon the
necessities of consumers, and several of the cor
porations alleged to have taken part in said
Jersey, holding their charters under the I'M
Piled promise that their business would be con-
Quoted for the benefit of the public, be it
Resolved, That the Committee on Railroads
and Canals be, and they are hereby authorized
to send for persons and papers, and 20 report to
this House on or before the 22d inst, whether
carrier in this State has entered into any agree
ment with any other corporation or corpor-
atoms to advance on coal; and
Resolved, Tnat special committee of three
be appointed by the Speaker to prepare and
present to this House such bills as are necessary
to prevent cons ummation OF any agreement
entered into or winch may De entered into TO
advance the price of coal or prevent fair COM
petition between all railroads operated within
this State. Such committee shall report such
bills on or before the 22d inst; and
Resolved, That the Attorney General of this
State be and he is hereby requested to aid and
advise with. the Committee on Railroads and
Canals and said special committee.
Mr. Kalisch offered a substitute which
provided for a joint committee which
should investigate the affair and then
report to the Governor some time before
the adjournment Of the present session.
BUNCOMBE RULES
The resolutions provoked considerable
discussion, some of which was pertinent
to the question and of interest, while
more of it was nonsensical and had little
to do with the matter under discussion.
Mr.. Kalisch threw out skirmish line in
the shape of suggestion that the resolu-
ton should lie over ana be printed so
that the members could Carefully con-
slider it's provisions, but when he saw the
strength of the forces that were advanc-
called in his skirmishers and hastened to
declare that he had no idea of wanting to
impede the investigation.
The only member who came to the aid
of the Reading was Father Nash. He
was properly inspired and he denounced
the resolution. He said the whole trouble
was that the Pennsylvania Railroad Com
pany failed to gobble up the Lehigh Val :
ley. He was very severe upon Mr.. Lane
and as usual kept the galleries and lob
bies III q roar of laughter while he was
on the floor. He vehemently declared
that instead OF advancing the rate of coal
the combination would lower it.
Mr.. Lane answered Mr.. Nash's argu-
ment by saying that everyone knew th at
corporations such as this combination
were sitting up nights studying how they
could reduce the price of the necessities
of life. Mr.. Kalisch's substitute was
voted down and Mr.. Lanes resolution
was adopted with only one dissenting
vote.
WANTED-THE TRUTH.
Governor Albeit told me last night th at
he did not know whether the existing
laws were adequate to the necessities of
the present case. Before he could an
swer that question he would have to sit
down with the Attorney General and go
through the laws with him carefully. He
said he was most undoubtedly in favor of
investigating the new combination if it
would bring out the truth which after all
was what was wanted.