The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1892-05-28
ROTTEN YANKEE beer.
That Is What a German
Socialist Calls the
International
Beverage.
WITH A "STIcK."
The Swiss Referendum Not Likely
to Be Popular-Mr. Ransom
Thinks Jersey City Has
Had Enough of 1t.

Some twenty-five or thirty persons, in
cluding several reporters. and number
of visitors. were present at the meeting of
Prohibitionists called last evening at the
headquarters of the Prohibition county
committee, at No. 522 Newark avenue.
The main object was to discuss the prop
osition to engraft on the State and ma
tional platforms of the party plank ia
voring the adoption of a system similar
to the Swiss Referendum, which virtually
throws the making of all laws directly
into the hands of the people, instead of
their representatives. The initiative
phase of the law gives a certain proper
tion of the people. through petition, power
to demand that sucn and such proposed
law shall be submitted to the people.
The proposition to adopt such plat
form was submitted to the recent State
Prohibition Convention, but too late for
discussion. A committee was appointed,
however, to go through the State and dis
cuss the matter with the various Prohi-
bition clubs. If the majority approve Of
it, it will be adopted by the next State
Convention which meets in August to
nominate a Governor.
Messrs. ]. w. Arrowsmith, of Orange.
and George Strobel, of the Essex County
Prohibition Committee, explained the
modus operandi of the Swiss Rereren-
DUN.
HAD ENOUGH OF IT..
Many questions were asked that in
dicated skepticism, and at the close of
the meeting when an effort was made to
adopt resolution favoring the propo-
sition, venerable STEPHEN b. Ransom,
questioned the right of the meeting to do
SO. as it was not representative gather
ing of the Hudson county Drohibitionists,
nor did he think thatit had been properly
called. Mr.. Ransom did not favor the
proposition anyway. He claimed that
Jersey City had had q sufficient test of
the matter when the new city charter was
submitted to vote Of the people.
Besides, Mr.. Ransom had just been
listening to ranting speech In badly
fractured English by Secretary +. E. Nc
Mann, of the Socialistic- Labor party, who
somehow had been turned loose upon the
meeting. Mr.. McMann is smooth
faced, youthful but somewhat stout Ger
man, with prodigiously pompadour cut
of light hair. The pompadour is divided,
however, by black sUring that fastens a
green google to his left eye. But while
Mr.. McMann was handicapped by his un-
fortunate appearance and his inability to
speak English, he made it understood
that lie was not posing In the attitude of
Pron1DltlOnlSC.
AMERICAN BEER ATTACKED.
81 likes mine glass of pier, and dot man
wot calls himself Prc-Pro-vat you
calls him? Yah, yahi Pro-Pro-he-
beeshuneest, cannot himself consider that
he is Won friend of mine, If he wishes to
take dot glass of pier from me. Twill
admit dot pier is Won rotten stuff. l."
Ibid understand you to say beer was
a rotten Stuff" interrupted an aged gen
tleman, as he held his hands behind his
ears.
"Vell. pier yot ish made in dees coun-
thry ish not pier"
But Mr.. McMann agreed that "der
laws should gone before der beebles."
This much Mr.. McMann made plain.
But when he commenced to talk of ''Der
Mr.. McMann's dialect was
But he wanted beer first,
last and all the time. So he got it-even
rotten American beer. 'der Presidency.
der Weiss Presidency''-he was evidently
thinking of weiss beer just then-"und
der protective dariff" might all Ego by
der tuyfel mid demselves."
Some one suggested that he would like
a little more Referendum" in his, and
Mr.. McMann said he would got down py
dot boint pretty soon already yet if he got
some dime"
Then boy who misunderstood wanted
to know if would put the ''dime" into
beer and Mr.. McMann subsidized.
A WENDELL PHILLIPS SCREAM,
In justice to Mr.. Arrowsmith, who
opened the meeting it must be said that
le ntade a mastery exhibition of his
study of the Swiss system of Government,
but his assertion that our American sys-
.em of government by representation is
farce. delusion and a snare, and that the
of the United States was
adopted as compromise between central.
zation ana individual sovereignty was
lot swallowed by all present. The reso-
ution endorsing the Swiss system was
adopted by vote of to 4. some of the in
crested ones going with the outsiders in
lot voting.
TRENTON SALOON FIGHT.