The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-05-27
WEDNESDAY. MAY q, 1896.
This paper is Democratic in principles
and is independent in ITS rieOs on all local
Questions.


Subornation ofthe Press.
When Senator Foster M. VOORHEES, and
the Republican majority in the Legislao
ture Of 1895 passed the statute which
abolished the printing of the laws of each
session in the newspapers, they used the
argument. more than any other, that the
publication. or the fee therefor, was in
fact a bride to the newspapers, that 1t
was used as a political weapon. that it
was a vehicle of corruption and that its
continuance was inconsistent of a free
and independent press.
This was fine in theory. 1t was ridicu-
lous in fact. for the history of twenty
years of Democratic administration did
not afford a single case where a Repub-
lican newspaper had been excluded from
official designation for doing its duty to
its party and the people. The Evening
year or two; but that was done by the
votes of Major Anderson and Colonel Tof-
fey on personal grounds. AS soon as
Mr.. Gray n Colonel -Heppenheimer
superseded these gentlemen, the Journal
was restored to the official status to
which its Importance as a newspaper and
a party organ entitled it.
It has remained for a Republican adj
mi%nistration to make the official publica-
tiens of the State a means of corruption
and of vengeance. The story is told in
another column. Through the votes Of
President Williams of the Senate, The
Jersey City News is to be excluded
from the list of newspapers which are to
publish the Constitutional Amendments
on which the people are to vote in No
vember. The reason for this exclusion
Is freely stated. It Is because this paper
has been severe upon the present admin
istration and the recent Legislature
Here we have indeed a misuse Of the
States printing patronage in the nature
of subornation Of the press, and we do
not hesitate to denounce 1t AZ shameful
and villainous.
OF course, 1t will be said that we do
20 because we are deprived of the emolu-
ments Of this publication. We do not in
the least mind saying that ''The News
is published to make money and its man
agement Is not Indifferent to any means
by which money may be honestly earned.
The publication of State advertisements
Is a source Of income which one of the
leading party papers in the State has a
right to look to, and we have a right to
feel aggrieved when we are unjustly and
~outrageously shut out from it. 1t may
be we'll to state just here. however, that
the amount Of money involved pom the
present occasion is exceedingly small.
The payment for Constitutional Amend
ment advertisement will probably be
something between one and two hundred
dollars, certainly not more. It will,
therefore, be understood that the protest
which we raise here is intended to bear
proportion not to the financial wrong
lone The News which Is Insignificant,
but to the moral injury lone the pub
lie in the use made of the patronage OF
the State to wreak vengeance upon the
press for the exercise of it's duty Of
criticism upon the Legislature and the
State officials.
The Constitutional Amendments are not
partisan matters. They concern the
whole people. Republicans and Democrats
alike will be called upon to vote for
them. This makes 1t all the more scan
dalouss that no official notice should be
given Of them in the organ of the Demo
cratic party in a county which polled
$500 Democratic votes in the last cleo
ton.
If the Republican party and Its repre-
~sentatives in office can stand this sort
Of thing, we certainly can endure it.
.sThe News will not stop publication on
account Of the blow aimed by Mr..
Derousse and Mr.. Williams. 1t will keep
on doing its duty to the public according
to its lights. When the time for voting
comes near. it viii see that the Democrats
of this county are duly posted on the
provisions Of the Constitutional amend
ments gratuitously.
The present duty is to denounce
Derousse and Williams IS corruptionista
and w~ould-be suborners Of the press Of
the State. and to hold them and their
party up to their record in these prem-
ises, that the voters may deal with them
az they deserve at the next opportunity.
Republican F~alsehood.
We print in parallel columns, today,