The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-06-03
This paper is Democratic in principles
and is Independent in its uieiOs on all local
nNesfaons.


We reprint from the Evening Journal
of yesterday a hysterical letter from ex-
City Clerk E. w. Woolley and a truculent
TRADE from ex-Publisher Joseph A. Deal
upon the subject of the liquor license
~overeharges. The burden of their song
is that the o~vercharges were not over
charges, and Woolley pretends to quote
law to that effect. We would be glad
to find we had been mistaken and that
Woolley was right. 1t would mean sew
eral hundred dollars in the Golfers OF
THE News" Unfortunately, Woolley is
wrong. His dense ignorance of the law
and his ~incapacity for logical thought
leading him into gross error.
woolley speaks of Chapter s44 of the
Laws of 1895 'supersedfng Chapter II of
the same year, Chapter II being the
statute which governs the payment for
the liquor license advertisements. The
statement is idiotic Here is the full
text of Chapter 3A:-
CHAPTER CCCxLIv.
"a Supplement to an act entitled "An act
to regulate and establish a uniform rate
Of charges for legal advertising in New
thousand eight hundred and fifty
seven.
Il. Be it enacted by the Senate and
General Assembly of the State of New
Jersey, That hereafter the price for pub
fishing in the newspapers published in
counties of the first class in this State.
the legal notices designated in the act
to which his is a supplement, shall be
at the rate of ten cents per line for
the first insertion, and five cents a line
for each subsequent insertion, and no
more; provided, that in computing any
such charge per line for said notices the
2. And be it enacted, That all acts in
consistent herewith be n the same are
hereby repealed, and that this act shall
take effect immediately.
Approved March 25, 1895.
This, 1t will be seen, is an amendment
of an act passed in 1857, which act is
known to lawyers as the taking act"
as it refers entirely to the costs of notices
published in aitigated proceedings, such
as Sherifs' ~Surrogates' or Chancery adj
vertisements. The scope of the amend
ment is, of course, no broader than the
scope of the original act, and no classes
of publication which were classified
apart from the operation of the original
act can be affected in any way by the
amendment.
But the liquor license advertisements
were so classified apart. The original act
ordering their publication, passed in 1892,
thirty-five years later than the taking
tact," so set them apart by providing a
special method and rate of payment for
fhem, the rate of 40 cents a nams for
each insertion, which, as the "JSdrnap'
says, was unreasonably high. This
special classification was expressly re-
newed and maintained by Chapter II of
1895, which in express terms removed
these notices from all operation of the
law of 1857, by establishing the special
manner and rate of aymen of 10 cents
per name.
Thirty-nine days later, as MI. Woolley
says, came the amendment to the law of
1851. but it in express terms is made appli-
cable only to notices already coming un-
der the influence of tina statute and to no
others. in these words:-"The legal no.
tices designated in the act to which this
Is a supplement-"
We do not hin Mr.. Woolley was such
q fool as to believe in his own law. His
reference to Chapter S4 of the Laws of
1928 is an -afterthought. He and Mr.. Jo-
seph A. Dear found themselves in a bad
box, and after four days hard thinking
they hit on this impudent juggle to de-
celye the public. though they can hardly
have expected to shut up the eye of the
Corporation Counsel with it. Ii would
have been much better for Mr.. Dear to
have made instant restitution of the over
charge He might then nave said that he,
was in ignorance of the provisions of
Chapter II of the Laws Of 1895, and peo-
pie would rave thought he told the truth.
though they would still have wanted to
know why Mr.. Woolley did not know the
law. The present attempt to uphold the
-oveseharges, about which there is no room
for doubt, simply places the primary Of
fence in the worst possible light.