The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-10-28


suppressed. His vote k led the amendn enl
Now, for arguments sake, let US say
that Senator Griggs peheyed i,, sbnld Inatd te es
cape taxation, that 1t is right that they
should escape. Atnlit that he believed
fusing to allow an annual statement
from official sources to the people snow
ing how much this exemption is worth 70
the corporations2 Can anything be more
preposterous than the claim of the man
who voted for these exemptions and IN
his last moments in the state e. senate .,lfare
voted against giving the people the lnforc
nation which. would show the state OF
their burdens--the claim that he makes
upon the stump and that his. partlsans
favor of equal taxation?
GOVERNOR ABBETT'S GOOD WORK
In 1854 Leon, Albeit came the Governor
ship. In his inaugural address he insist.
ed upon equal taxation Mr.. Griggs set
to work at once A joint committee on
taxation was appointed, and 1t fusseq
@ith the question until the people feared
repetition of the trickery of 1855 The
introduction of bill in the house OF as
and bill for equal taxation was rep9}r,t,,,s PIT,
ed It was introduced as Assembly oili
No. BE- and it provided that the properly
of corporations should be taxea a. me
same rates as the property or private
owners.
senator Griggs signed the report of the
joint committee recommending tne pass
age of this bill, and he was bound IL
honor to give it his support when 1t
reached the Senate. The bill passed the
House of Assembly and was referred 70
special Senate COMMITTEES, OF Whlch Mr..
| Griggs was chairman. Now, did the gen
tiepnan from Passaic resume ms manlpu-
lation.
AS the bill was reported by the COM
mittee, as it passed the House and came
to his hands, it provided for equal taxa
ton. His first step in the way of alter
alton was to insist upon an amendment
that exempted the roadbeds, waterways,
tracks, depot buildings and all personal
property of the railroad and canal com
| panies from all forms OF local. taxation'
and imposed upon them only tax of one
half of | per cent. for State uses.
AFRAID OF PUBLICITY.
This amendment accomplished, there
remained but about 900 out of $780,
100000 of railroad and canal property to
contribute local taxes. But the Senator
was not satisfied. He. insisted that the
property should never exceed L per cent.
no matter what the rate of tax should
be imposed upon the adjacent property OF
private owners. Some of the true men
in the Senate made bitter fight against
those amendments, but the corporations
and Senator Griggs prevailed and his
amendments were incorporated IN the bill.
The House of Assembly refused to con-
cur in the amendments, but the corpora
tions had the upper hand in the Senate,
and the House was forced to recede or to
adjourn without affording= the people re-
lief So the amendments went upon the
statute book. This is the record of the
Republican candidate fer Governor during
the years 1888 and 1884. 1t is taken from
the official records. These records are
open to the inspection of every citizen
of New Jersey and can be obtained in the
'7''''e "A AN ENEMY OF LABOR.
Mr.. Griggs served two years in the
House of Assembly and six years in the
Senate. During the entire time he was
either an open or a covert enemy of every
bin introduced in the interest of organized
labor He is now seeking the votes of
! the wage earners of the State: Many OF
them will be present at meeting in Pat
erson where Mr. Griggs will speak in
a few days. If he should devote the en-,
tire evening to the subject he would not
NAL or extenuation. the whole of his rec>
ord and he should tell the good people
of Paterson whether he has yet the idea
that organized labor is huge joke and to
exnlain his record for the single year 1887.
That was the one in which the united
efforts of labor organizations of the State
tanning the legislative recognition of
day to be know as labor. day.
At the session of 1887 there was passed
bill entitled can act to regulate the
hours of labor of employees of surface
and elevated railroad companies" twas
approved by Governor Green on April 8,
1887. and provided that ~ hours labor,
to be performed within II consecutive
hours. with reasonable time for meals,
not less than half an hour for each, shall
constitute days labor on the operation
surface railroads owned and operated by
corporations incorporated under the laws
of this State for the employees of sucn
@ rI N 4 opeTangE IS sueh nR Tar1ads R
Now, even so hard working a man as
Mr.. Griggs will admit that twelve consec-
utive hours form fair days work The
bill passed the House and was referred
to the Committee on Labor and
industries Mr. Griggs was Chair
man of that committee. The bill
was amended, considered, recon-
sidered, laid over and fooled with until
it's advocates preeeived that it was the in
tention of the corporation lobby to bury
the measure The demand for it's passage
was not acceded to until Monday, April 4,
three days before final adjournment. 1t
was considered Immediately after the
IAN act relating to the Improvement of
the water supply in cities and towns OF
In examining the legislative record of
always on hand and voting whenever
water bill was up for action. He voted
for this water bill. The next bill taken
up was the one to regulate the hours OF
labor of railroad employees.
Mr.. Griggs was in the Senate Chamber
and his name was called; but he daodged
was interested in many roads affected by
the bill, and Senator Griggs declined to
B1te a vdf d4r &c zee Journal of e Senate is
page 44S). In his speech at Paterson it
will be well for Mr.. .GriggS to say whether
he thinks u hours are now enough to
constitute fair days work. If he has
changed his mind. let him tell of his re-
pentance. If not, let him tell why he re-
fused to vote for the bill.
There are several thousand men en-
ployed on the surface railroads of New
Jersey who will read that explanation
with more or less interest
AGAINST THE WORKINGMAN.
The same year the House of Assembly,
passed bill to make wages a preferred
debt in all cases of insolvency. Nothing
fairer could be asked than the protection
of workingmen from the sharks who
take advantage of the insolvent laws. The
bill was known as Assembly bill No. 20.
When received in the Senate 1t was re-
ferred to the Committee on Labor and
Industries, of which Senator GriggS was
chairman He is yet considering 1t. Once
in his bands, it was dead.
VIII Senator Griggs tell the working
men of the State why he refused to re-
port that bill for action by the Senate2
Its provisions have since been enacted
and have protected many workingman
in New Jersey.
On April a. 1887, Senator Chattle of
Monmouth. introduced a bill entitled "An
act to make SATURDAYS, after p O'Clock
April 6, Senator Griegs voted to kill
the bill. and 1t was killed AS the Sena-
tor could have his Saturday afternoons
to himself. unless called upon to attend
an important meeting of the directors of
a water company, he could not, compre-
acted. After, Mr.. Griggs had left the
Senate and the working people of Pas
sale had secured better representative
this bill became a law
But his final fling at ORGANIZED labor
was the most remarkable one Of the ses-
Efrn1r To7 inn f< Na1sf sf@, to