The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-06-09
JERSEY JUSTICE.

From the Evening Sun" of Today.
The war between the Law and Order
League and the Liquor Dealers Associa-
ton in Jersey City has developed into
an invocation of blue laws, of which the
statute books of the State contain so
many samples. Under an enactment of
1871 travelling, worldly employment or
business, ordinary or servile work, or
labor, excepting works of charity or
necessity" are prohibited. The same
statute forbids the sale of any wares,
merchandise. fruit, herbs, meats, fish,
goods or chattels upon the first day of
the week. commonly called Sunday"
This law being invoked by the Law and
Order league against a saloonkeeper
who keeps his place open on Sunday for
the sale of temperance drinks, he was
fined 81. The Liquor Dealers Assoeia-
ton retaliated by arresting one Of the
leading spirits of the Law and Order
Leagues ga grocer. for selling a box of
sardines on a Sunday morning, and he,
too, was fined g. The liquor dealers
threaten to convert Jersey City into a
straft-laced Puritan town on Sundays
unless some consideration is shown them
by the League. They talk of stopping
the trolley cars, preventing the delivery
of provisions, and even of s%uspending the
employment of hired organists and sing
ers in the churches. Apparently they
have some warrant for this programme,
since Justice Douglass is quoted as say
ing that under the law of 1871 it is lawful
only to eat. go to church. or stay at
home on Sunday. and that the only work
which may be done is work of charity
or necessity.
In a State where women may be fined
for scolding and it is no uncommon thing
for a man TO be hailed to court for say
ing Damn the existence of very blue
laws is not surprising. Jersey justice.
in fact. is p~roverbially crude, Anticipated
and odd, sometimes bearing on its victims
with unnecessary harshness. An instance
IN point is the detention of Charles Fl.
Jackson, who on Saturday last was COM
mitted to Jail to await the action of the
Grand Jury in September on the sus-
picion of a Coroner's jury, sitting in
secret, that he had shot his young wife.
The Coroner not only excluded news
paper representatives from the inquest,
but when it was over he refused to dis
close the evidence on which the verdict
was rendered. Why a judicial hearing
like an inquest should be secret is a
question that can be answered probably
only in New Jersey. The evidence which
has been brought to light in the Jackson
case indicates that the young man is
guiltless of the awful crime with which
he stands charged by the Coroner's jury,
and his friends intend to resort to habeas
corpus proceedings to secure his release.
If he is innocent the secret inquest has
done him an injury for which be has no
redress, besides throwing a shadow on
his reputation. At that cruel burlesque
of a hearing he was unrepresented by
counsel, and admittance to the inquest
room was denied him while the wit
nesses summoned by the Coroner were
testifying. A demand should be made
on the next Legislature in New Jersey
to do away with the secret inquest,
which is alien to the spirit of American
institutions. And while the lawmakers
are about it they might go further and
sweep all oppressive and impracticable
laws from the statute books.