The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-05-20
BEST IN The LAND
Voorhees, Committee Con-
dennis Then Praises the
New Jersey News
papers.
QUEER SENATORIAL CoNToRTION
Mercer Grand Jury Secures a
Transcript of the Evidence
Before the Committee.
specia1 to tho Jerscu city Nears.

day shortly after two o'clock. This TO
a great extent was due to a mishap from
the committees point of view JUST
before the adjournment on last Tues-
day Mr. Corbin. who had been dipping
into the contract for the electric ght
plant and elevator in the State House.
announced thai he wanted a little more
time to look into the matter further ana
he thought that by Saturday he Would
be prepared to proceed with the inquiry
into that subject.
on Saturday, however, he did not touch
the matter at all. 1t was SAID that ms
Investigations had not resulted as he
expected they would. and therefore 1t
was deemed wiser to drop the subject
for the time at least.
Saturdays session closed with an ex-
hibition of contortionism on the part OF
the members of the committee which was
extremely ludicrous.
THE VEXED PRINTING QUESTION.
Mr.. Corbin, as stated in 'The Jersey
City News of Saturday, went into the
subject of printing the laws in the news
papers. This method of promulgatlng
the laws, he said, had been a burning
question in the Legislature, among the
State officers and the newspapers Tor
years. It had led to bitterness ana TO
continual friction If members OF the
Legislature could not get papers desig-
mated which they wanted
they would have the law hanged.
In 1885, the newspaper printing OF the
laws cost 1888; 1856, $780,; 1887, s9o,O52;
1883. $685.: 1889, SIS, i23; 1890, $105. 824; 1891,
$50, 374; 1892, s74,51; 1888. ~ j,3l4; 1894. $as,-
Egg. In 1856. Mr.. Corbin Explained, the
= x-:rk,-1 -,,-11 n 1auv that 9E0 ON he
spent for printing the laws. and the ex-
penditure was kept within that amount.
However, thirty or forty papers not
designated printed the laws, and the
next winter had influence enough to Sc
cure pay for doing it.
He said that the expense this year for
the laws so far signed by the Governor
will be s11s, SAT. and by the time the Leg
islaturo is through will foot up to s1a5,-
Geo. This was without the Atlantic City
charter, rejected by the people of At
iantfc City. but which would have to be
printed unless the Legislature passed an
act to the effect that it should not be.
The committee had stretched a point,
and had the Secretary of State to hold
it pack until the Legislature meets again.
If printed, 1t will itself cost the State
Sc. 600. although imperative.
HOW THE COUNTRY PAPERS DO IT
Then it was that he showed how many
of the papers buy the laws all ready
printed from other papers and circulate
them at an immense profit.
The following papers received the laws
in this fashion:-The Herald. Orange;
Courier, Plainfeld; Star, Washington;
Central. New Jersey Herald, Elizabeth;
Daily News, Passaic; Home News, New
Brunswick: Hunterdon Gazette, High
Bridge; Democrat, Clinton; Union Demo-
crat, Railway; Constitutionalist, Plain
field; Democrat, Somerville: Messenger,
Somerville; journal, Orange; Press,
Princeton; Times, Montclair; Times, New
Brunswick; New Jersey Advocate, RAN
way; Times, Long Branch; Record, Sum
init; Gazette, Hackettstown; Bulletin,
Boonton; Herald, Passaic; Gazette, East
Orange; Sussex Register, Newton; Apollo,
Belvidere.
JERSEY PRESS MUZZLED.
cit is political bounty, and nothing
else" Mr.. Corbin exclaimed, with more
heat than usual. There are 231 papers
in the State. Why should 80 be singled
out to print the laws? 1t is simply poll
teal preferment, unfair and grossly ex-
~travagant. without a parallel in the
other States. A still more serious side
to it is that to papers in the country the
500 or $500 or $1,000 profit is a serious
matter, and they are stfhed and
do not talk out as newspapers ought to.
They should not have their voices choked
by 1000 a year from the State Govern
ment."
Mr.. Corbin went on to charge that
many of the papers are practically
bought by being designated to print the
State laws. or, if not designated, by the
hope that they will be next time, and are
afraid to speak out against any fraud or
wrong-doing. They are made, he
claimed, afraid even to attack the mis-
doings of the opposing party. All re-
forms, he said, are begun by papers
outside the, State, and those within only
take part when dashed to it or are com
PEELED by public sentiment. He held that
the only remedy would be in the wiping
out of the whole thing. He closed by
saying that he was giving his own per-
sonal views and hat it va a serious
matter, as if the State kept on giving
away money to favored persons it would
have to raise funds by a State tax to
meet the demands upon its resources.
TRYING TO HEDGE.
Senators Skirm and Ketcham conceded
with Mr.. Corbin and were particularly Sc
we're in their denunciation of the State
press. Wise Mr.. Voorhees, said nothing
but thought a great deal, while Senator
DAILY grinned as he used to when Sena-
tor Bradley fell into some pit he had dug
for the Autocrat of Asbury Park.
For a while the Counsel and the Essex
Senator wed with each other in saying
the hardest things they could about the
muzzling of the newspapers of this State.
Then all of a sudden something struck
Mr.. Ketcham all of a heap. He stopped
In the midst of a TRADE, looked surprised
as if he had been struck somewhere
about the stomach with some particular
and rushed to the other extreme. All
that had been said. he went on, could
not be applied to the Newark newspa-
pers. Oh. no, these were paragons of
journalistic propriety and morality and
bAnesty, and no amount of public print
i1g could muzzle them. This acted as an
e~ye-opener upon Senator Skirm, and he
said that the Jersey City papers were
also u-npurchasable with a paltry page
or two of laws.
Senator Herbert then discovered that
he knew a New Brunswick paper which
could not be muzzled with a train load
of public printing. and so it went on
until the committee and counsel We're
thoroughly agreed that whatever the
shortcomings of New Jerseys news
papers might have once been they are
today an example. of all the journalistic
virtue for the entire world.
Mr.. KELSEY'S Kennedy.
The Secretary of State, who was an
amused listener of this was ea11ad IN