The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-03-14
More About the Referendum.

Lille Is diLlOSt 100 stlOEG W cApoS0 LA
the errors of all the cranks that mod
ern politics develop. Here is one j.
w. Sullivan gravely introduced to the
General Assembly of the State, a body
supposed to possess some wisdom. He
talked to the members for half an
hour. and positively in all that time
he did not utter one word of common
sense We do not know who he is.
His name is new on the list of cranks-
his hobby Is the Referendum-but we
feel sure that for total ignorance, com
plete absence of thought, and hopeless
stupidity he has never been surpassed.
tits an outrage on the State that the
time of It's servants should be wasted
In listening to the alterations of such
a mar.
In the course of his harangue, he
launched a number of chuncks of
wisdom such a. this
Under this system Zurich, with $40, 900 In
habitants and 50, 200 voters passed four laws
last year. Today its taxes are direct and paid
by the rich.
1t is easy to comprehend that the
Referendum system might be applied
in a community with so. 900 voters, in
which four new laws a year are suf-
ficient to meet the requirements of
change nd progress. 1t might be
still more successful in San Marine
or Andorra, with four Oh five thou
sand voters each, and passing, on an
average, about two laws a century.
But it takes a gentleman with the
brain of a j. W. Su llivan to arrive at
the remarkable induction that it is,
therefore, adaptable to a communi ty
with half a million of voters and re-
curing an average of nearly three
hundred laws a year. But a n
wonder at anything from a man who
says, sits taxes are direct and paid by
the rich" This epitome OF all posi-
BILE ignorance of the laws of taxation
is sufficient to give an exact measure
of Mr.. Sullivan's fitness to talk upon
any public question. 1t is as
wise as the remark we so often
hear, Il am not a taxpayer.
Trent my house" For the enliglten-
ment of Mr.. Sullivan and his adj
mirers, who made him their spokes-
man at Trenton, we will merely indi-
cate that the man who rents a house
really pays all the tax OF it. The
fundamental, bed rock principle is
4Lok khn ko- on Uvoo1fh 10 noid in
reality by the user or consumer.
When taxes are directly assessed on
the wealthy alone, the poor pay their
share-or more than their share-all
the same. The rich make them pay
it in rent, make them pay it in the
price Of bread and fuel and clothing,
make them pay it, perhaps, by reduc-
ing their wages. But the law is that
the consumer ultimately pays the tax,
and any political scheme which as
sumes to alter this law or escape from
it, is a product of ignorance and folly
and is certain to become Intellectual
is c~ongenitally inefficient. in fact.
In the report of Mr.. Sullivan's
TRADE, published in THE NEWS, yes
terday, we find this, also:-
Many Massachusetts, towns refuse to become
Incorporated aud stick to the old form even
When they have over $1,000 Inhabitants. The
aggregate debts OF the New England towns in
which this system prevails Is less than the
aggregate debt of any similar area and popu-
alton In other States.
OF course. SO long as a community Is
content to remain in a primitive con-
dttion of organization and develop
ment. primitive methods will suit it.
When it reaches out for the conditi ons
of municipal existence, it must
abandon many things which no longer
apply.
In conclusion, it should be re-
marked that the Referendum is, in
practice, not by any meal unknown
in New Jersey, and it has by no
means been a uniform uccess There
are three notable examples of its APP
plication in this county. They are
the Public Library, the Hudson
County Boulevard and the New
Charter of Jersey City. All these
things were voted upon by the people
and approved by large majorities.
Not one of the three has since met
with undivided approval. The Library
has grown exceedingly popular, but
it now has and has always had it's
enemies. The Boulevard has been
more assailed than any enterprise
ever undertaken in the county. 1t is
true a majority of the people still
favor it; but a large minority have
ALWAYS denounced it as unwise and
extrayagant, NOT in administration
but in conception. As for the Charter,
it would be waste of words to point
out the failure of the Referendum
system as represented in the popular
vote by which it was adopted. Over
and above all the practical difficult
ties or rather impossibilities OF the
system, it may be assumed as certain
that it would have no good effect
whatever upon Legislation.
If the judges of the Supreme Court
are going TO decide that they have no
jurisdiction in the Senate quo soo,-
kL1~x 4~fs-~