The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-11-20
The sugar House water Rent a
the s.Journai.s


For no reason which it is easy to see,
except. perhaps, that qualification of per-
sonal malice, the journal yesterday re-
published the details of the scrap Which
took place on Thursday between Mayor
Hoos and w. d. Edwards. lawyer for the
SMEAR House. The article was three
columns long and yellow from end to end.
1t did not contain a single new fact-un-
less it may be the doubtful one that the
"Journal' was itself the cause of all the
trouble-but it put the facts in a new ana
ingeniously malignant light.
The malignity appeared to be mainly
directed against Mr.. Edwards. The rea-
sons for it will, no doubt, occur to most
people. Incidentally, Mayor Hoos was
treated with considerable cruelty, and the
interests of the Sugar House, the most
important industry in the county, were
wantonly assailed.
The attack on Mr.. Edwards appeared to
be based on the circumstance that MI
Edwards was counsel for the city in GER
tain legal proceedings in the past, whereas
he now appears in a proceeding in when
the interests of his clients do not cor
respond with those of the city. 1t IS only
necessary to point out in this connection
that Mr.. Edwards is practising law as a
business, just like any other lawyer. lie
has no general retainer from the city.
The fact that he has been counsel for 1t
in some cases in no way bars aim from
holding briefs against it in other cases and
at other times.
The deadIiest stab inflicted by the
Journal" though probably not SO IN
tended. was that which Mayor Hoos re-
ceived. The Journal represented him as
pleading the baby act, and, still worse,
sc being entitled to the benefit of it. The
Mayor. it said, was deceived, deluded,
buncoed. In a word, he had, the jour
nal, said, signed away, in his capacity
as Mayor, the city's money and rights,
without even knowing what he was doing.
Nothing that the journal said ABOUT
GIis Honor in the bitterness of the Mayor
alty campaign was half as cruel as this.
This is to represent the Mayor as incem-
petent-even imbecile. OF course HIS
Honor Is not. He is a highly successful
business man, and politician, and it is
most unjust and unfair of the journal
to assert that he signs public papers with
out understanding them, commits the clty
to agreements which are not to its inter
est and secures the payment of money to
the city under false pretences through
sheer blundering. Accusations of TINS
sort. we say, should not be made by the
s.Journar' because anyone who reads the
account of the facts in the Journal or
any other paper can see plainly that they
are not true.
AS for the position of the Sugar House
in this matter, it is just this:-It is one OF
the largest consumers of water in the
city-if not the very largest, then the
secona or third. 1t therefore k the po-
sition thai it should get its water at a
reduced rate. In other words, being a
wholesale customer of the city, it should
get a wholesale price.
In the past, it has enjoyed such a rate,
and it has been kept in constant operation
for years, even when other refineries were
closed, giving bread to about eleven hun
bred citizens of this city.
Last year, just before the public kicked
it out of office, the Republican Street and
Water Board made an infamous water
contract with the East Jersey Water
Company, which is very rapidly driving
the city TO bankruptcy. Alarmed by the
consequence of this act, which at once
stared them in the face, the Commission
ers next enacted a readjustment of the
water rates paid by consumers. This re-
adjustment has been the subject of fierce
mar itself. 1T deserved all that was spent
on it. 1t is simply %villainous. One feature
of this readjustment is the increase of the
price of water to very large consumers.
In 0t4er WORDS, II IHdkeS tHe WHOieSdiS
buyers of water pay far more than the
retail buyers.
That is what the Sugar House protests
against. This is h MIR. Edwards, act
ing for it, asked to have adjusted. This
is what was adjusted by the resolution
which the Street and Water Board adopt
ed and which the Mayor signed. The adj
justment is what the Mayor later OBJ
jected to-. 1t was wiped out by the re-
SENDER and Mr.. Edwards protested
against the rescinder because it re-estab-
lished the old unfair and unreasonable
price, and because his clients had paid
$4,000 to the city on the faith of the adj
justment being permanent. which they
would not otherwise have paid, but would
have allowed the city to sue for.
The point made by the Mayor is that if
the adjusted price is allowed to the
Sugar House, one or two railroads, which
are equally or almost equally large con-
c,,mers nav come in and ask 1t likewise