The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-01-23
TUESDAY, JANUARY %, 1894.
Governor Werts' Findings.

The action of Governor Werts in
dismissing the charges against the
Street and Water Commissioners will
be the cause of deep disappointment;
but, of course, every one will accept
the findings as the conscientious re-
suits of a painstaking review of the
case. Perhaps the difference between
the conclusions of the Mayor and the
Governor may be viewed as the differ
ence between the layman's and the
legal mind. The Mayor. viewing the
charges and the evidence as an ordi-
nary common sense individual, finds
the accused guilty. The public fully
sympathizes and comedies in this con-
clusion. Governor Werts looks at the
law of the case in its technical bear
ings. The question is always present
to his mind as to how the Supreme
Court would view the issues if sub
mitted to it under a writ of certiorari.
1t is always hard for a layman to
grasp the subtleties of this mode of
considering the array OF facts and
arguments; but, we believe, the Gov
ernor's view of the law is sound and
unassailable.
The breakdown OF so strong a case
on legal technicalities places the
principal prosecutor in a somewhat
ridiculous light. Mr.. James s. Err
win, at present pretender to the Of
fee OF Corporation Counsel of this
city, organized his own boom for a
good fat salary by jumping into the
breach as prosecutor of these charges.
From the outset we pointed out that
the charges were SO loosely drawn as
to be practically Intellectual. We
further demonstrated to the public
the faulty of Mr.. Erwin's method of
prosecution. His cool proposal that
the accused should prove themselves
innocent to begin with, excited the
sneers of every law student in town.
Il vas hoped that Judge Douglass
charges. which were prepared and
proven in lawyer-like fashion, would
have supplied the deficiency of the
other line of attack, but the brass
band which accompanied the Erwin
boom drowned out all other music
and SO the present collapse is the re-
suit.
The fight against the Street and
Water rascals is not yet over. 1t is
hardly begun, indeed. Having failed
with the attack on their Offices, the
people will now turn their guns on
the men themselves. The Grand Jury
will be the next resort. The acts set
forth, or rather limited at, in the
charges before the Mayor are for the
most part criminal. The proof is
ample, overwhelming, if it were once
properly marshalied. The man who
will conduct the prosecution is not
the man to ,blunder in a case of such
enormous public Importance. The
Judge who will hear 1T is not
the man to permit scoundrels
to escape through blunders and
teehnicalities. Tt is o sad thing
that Jersey City will once again have
to- see her public works officials ar
raigned as criminals at the bar, as she
did five years ago when Kern and the
big -Four" were tried, in vain, for
their crimes. We had hoped that
when our present band of criminals
were arraigned, they would no longer
be- officers of the city. But we sup
pose the city can stand it as she has
many other painful experiences, and
the conviction of the ~rascals, of which
we have no doubt. will be the dawn
of a brighter era.
Two Ili-Judged Yetoes by Mr.. Brugge-
mann.
Through a misunderstanding of the
law, two vstoes by Director Brugge-
mann have become operative, which,
while specifically attractive to enc
mics of the greedy corporations, are
in fact mere pieces of tuppenny dem
agoguery and are calculated to seri-
ously initiate against the public in
terests. One of these is the veto of
The single span bridge over the Penn,
sylvania Railway cut at the line of
the New Boulevard. The other is the
veto of the resolution permitting the
Consolidated Traction Company to
double track the Newark avenu
bridge over the Hackensack.
We have heretofore expressed our
vie ws at length. regarding the Rail-