The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-23
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City is in hard straits. The Committee
on the Revision of Laws, to which 1t
was referred, had a meeting yesterday
The committee is against the bill. and
unless the citizens of Jersey City come
forward and show the members that
tn really want M i !. n the eii i Will mnst never ever
spoken in his opposition to the measure.
He says he believes in keeping the Sink
ing Fund In the hands of a board COM
posed of men of standing and reputation
in@the financial world. He would have
the board ~non-partisan, if possible. He
does not take much stock in the cry of
the number of the members, as Mr..
brakes bill provides. He says it is bet
ter to spend a few dollars iii salary to
secure good men as the benefit il will
do the credit of a city to have 1t known
IN the financial world that the Sinking
Fund is in good hands will more han
compensate for the amount paid out in
giving a hearing on the bill if the com
mittee wants it. The Riparian Commit
tee will give a hearing on. Mr.. Black
Tuesday afternoon the Committee on
Municipal Corporations will give a pub
lie hearing on the cheap gas bills.
GRUBERS TALKY VICTORY.
Mr.. Gruber achieved a victory today
over Leader Storrs and made a reputa-
ton Tor himself as a debater and parlia-
m~entarian. The fight began in the
prohibits the employment of any ex-
cept American citizens upon public
works in cities. came up on final pass
age. Mr.. Gruber advocated the measure
in the name of American labor, and
said that If q man did not think enough
OF American institutions to take out his
papers he had no use for him..
Mr. Olcott jumped upon the measure.
and declared that it would seriously
cripple contractors and municipalities.
Americans, he claimed, were, as a rule,
opposed to working on streets, and con-
ploy aliens.
In his usual pompous way Mr. Storrs
proceeded to demolish the bill by stat
ing that if it became a law 1t would
pauperize the foreigners who came to
our shores by compelling them to remain
N idleness while they were waiting for
the time in which they could become
citizens to expire. 1t would overthrow
the very foundations of our liberties,
and he appealed to all lovers of liberty
and fair play to vote against it.
y am a cigar maker, n the gem
Mr.: Gruber. but in this case the cigar
maker knows more law than the lawyer
He then proceeded to show how Mr..
ton of the naturalization laws.
Mr.. Storrs said he had sent for a copy
of the United States statutes, and moved
that the bill lie over until the afternoon
tAAo q a. -dAQ liz
the House met again Mr.. Storrs frankly
admitted that "the cigar maker had
v~ancuished the lawyer and said that
Mr.. Gruber was right and he was wrong.
A NEW ASSAILANT.
MI. Skinner, a bright young lawyer
from Newark, opposed the bill, and be-
gan to G it to pieces. He said it
cause it was deficient in phraseology and
construction. He declared that he was
in sympathy with the measure, and
tellisible. He showed that in section 8
1T provided that any disbursing officer
who should. knowingly or willingly pay
out any funds raised by taxation to any
clared his Intentions of becoming a citi-
zen, hould be liable to the municipality
for that amount. He wanted to know
now low t Inc o adn,e. re eon nid tsn whether the
faith.
Section 4 provided that if any en-
ployer hould .~negligently make false GER
tifieate that his employees had declared
their intention of becoming citizens, he
should be liable to the municipality for
the amount paid on the contract. How
was It to be determined that the CON
tractor or employer had n~egligently GER
titled? Mr.. Skinner declared that such
provisions were absurd and ridiculous.
He wanted the bill recommitted so that
those kinks might be Strengthened out,
but q motion to that effect was over
whelmingly defeated.
Mr. Gruber, in reply, said that the
very fact that a man had taken out
his first papers showed that he had acted
n good faith.'' AS to the false certif-
cate clause, that was to compel the
employer to find out if his employers
were citizens or had declared their in
tention OF becoming such.
Mr.. CoGding asked Mr.. Gruber If he
could think of a case where it would
be impossible to obtain laborers who were
citizens. Mr.. Gruber said he could not,
and having gotten him into the trap. he
had thus prepared, Mr.. Codding told of
the difficulty the Street Cleaning De-
partment of New York had in finding
citizen laborers to clear away the snow.
There was some further discussion and
the bill finally passed by a vote of A
to IA. Those who voted for the bill
were:-
Alpaugh, Austin, Baker, Barnard, Bene-
DICT, Blackshaw. Bullock, Burger, Gag
ney, Christie. Codding, Davis, Derousse,
Drake. Duncan. Eisele, Exton, FlemT
ing, Frederick, Ginder, Gruber, Harri-
son, Hicks, King. Lower, Matlack, Minch,
Nutzhorn,N Parslow. Reading, Robert
son, Schober &C. A.), Schober (F.), Slower,
Smart, Smith &c. Ii, Snyder, Somers.
Stafford, Stranger, Tice, Usher, Voorhees,
-M
Those who voted against it we're
Bates, Coursen, Cross (Speaker), Denise.
Francis, Ludam. Mock, Olcott, Powers,
Skinner, Storrs, Wilbur, Wildes. Ia
briskie-1A.