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

Governor Werts' Findings.
The action of Governor Werts in
iismissing 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 II
Ease. Perhaps the difference between
the conclusions of the Mayor and the
Governor may be viewed as the differ
snce 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-
elusiou. Governor Werts looks at the
law of the case in it's technical bear
ings. The question is always present
tO Ills IuluQ de- W EOH GhC ohPASAAO
Court would view the issues if sub
mitted 20 it under a writ of certiorari.
It 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 w 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 Il 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 was 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. It 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 we're once
properly n~arshalled. The man who
will conduct the prosecution is not
the mar to blunder in a case of such
enormous public Importance. The
Judge who will hear 1T is not
the man to permit s~coundrels
to escape through blunders and
teclinicalities. 1t is a 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 IIl-Judged Vetoes by Mr.. Brugge-
mann.
Through a misunderstanding of the
lo.v 4vvo xhtoao hx, nfraotor Rri1 ooa.