The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-03-23

The Republican Record I'm the state
As the session of the Legislature draws
nearer and nearer to its close. criticism
becomes more and more in order. Elk
cuses and promises and all sae other
"wait-till-you-sees'' deserve less and less
attention and the bare. naked truth lies
before the people for appraisemen..
The record. as it stands today, is one
to make the heart sick. The volume Of
deception. treachery and abuse embraced
in the record of the dominant party since
the beginning of the year is unsurpassed
in the annals of political profigacy.
The brand new reform Governor
figures before the people as an incom-
petent nineompoop or a ~falsifier of every
one of his ante-eiection pledges. His in
augural address was admitted. at all
hands, to be the most disappointing
document ever addressed to the Legisla-
tuse of New Jersey. It disclosed neithe~
ideas nor plans. 1t outlined no scheme
ofsbetterment for the State; it suggested
no progressive movement. If there was
any germ of purpose in it,, it was that of
making the least possible record of any
Next after the Governor came the
brand new reform Legislature. pledged
to bring the millennium to the State.
Here there is no question of incom-
pntanra W. al 49, ~, ,la+ 49,
nave to deal with. 1t is deliberate vii
lainy. The things that are dom are
blood curdling in their insolent defiance
of right. The things that are not done
are horrifying in respect to the perjury
which they fasten upon the men and the
party thai are responsible.
1t is not going too far to say that not
one good thing has been done by the Re-
publican party, since the beginning of the
year. The appointments made and con-
1irmed have been with at most one or
two exceptions either vicious or trivial
The Deficiency bill shows that almost
every department of the State Govern
ment has been spending money in excess
of its appropriation. an offence, which.
in the case of municipal officials. would
lead to Indictment and condemnation to
State Prison. The Appropriation Dill dis
closes a scheme of organized plumber
and corruption in connection with the
Presidential campaign which passes any
thing New Jersey has ever seen before in
cynical effrontery. The Equal Taxation
bill has been killed. So have cheap
ferriage, cheap gas, cheap. fares. The
Erie Track Elevation BILL, the one poor
boon to Hudson county. is a mockery, a
delusion n a snare. 1t is an elevation
bill that does not elevate; but that, in
stead, plunges Jersey City into a ]. long
and costly litigation 1t is a bill die
tated by the railway company 1t is the
embodiment of the insolent demands
made by the railway lobbyists from the
time the subject was first preached. 1t
be the political ruin of the Republican
Senator, who used it to kill the just and
fair bills advocated by the Democratic
Hudson representatives.
Then there is the abolition of the fees
Of the Chancery clerkship. Was there
ever such a hollow mockery? The Legis-
lature cuts $4,000 of the compensation
OF the clerk. and promptly adds $1,000
of it to the fund for clerk hire. so tina a
regiment of G. Q. P. sinecurists may be
paid by the State all the year. while they
hustle for the party. The figures tell
the story of this grand reform" The
sworn testimony of the voorhees, Com
mittee shows the total income of the
Office to be sS3, 900 a year. The appropria-
ton for it's maintenance in 1867 is $4,000;
net saving to the State. $1,000. with next
years Deficiency bill yet to be heard
from. And, with all this, the office has
been dragged into politics and made a
part Of the Republican machine.
There are three dogs left of the ses-
sion. it is understood; let us hope. no
more. What fresh denominations Of mis-
government these days may bring forth,
who can tell? There are vast possibili-
ties of evil in the final tumult of such a
session as this has been: There is only
one relief from the dread which the people
would ordinarily feel at such a crisis.
So much of the work of the lobby and
the party leaders has already been done.
that it is hard to see what further mis-
chief can be invented. with which to
crown this earniva of partisan reckless
ness ana corporation greed.
The Great Financial Juggle.
The Griggsite papers last week printed,