The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-05-24
EXTRA Session TALY
RumoTs That Efforts Will
Be Made to Pass Sew
eral Measures.
AN EAST JERSEY SCHEME
Law to Be Passed to Give the
Company Jersey City's
Contract.
IspeciaI y .-rhe Jersey city News."l

~ ~ ne a GOOD zeal OF political Jockey
Ing in Tuesdays special session of the
Legislature. A number of Senators and
a good many Assemblymen will come
with blood in their eyes. for among the
bills which Governor Griggs buried in the
Executive graveyard were pet measures
of many of them and were worked
through both branches only by the exer-
ton of all the influence possible to bring
upon them. In several instances there
were little side dickers and arrangements
to secure passage, and now hat their
pets are apparently dead the statesmen
feel in anything but a pleasant frame of
mind Indeed, the State House atmos-
phere is full of rumors of probable moves
to resurrect some of these measures and
TO block the machinery of the special ses-
sion until some effective compromise is
made The State leaders will probably
all be IN hand tonight with the hope
of shaping things up for Tuesdays gath
ering of the statesmen. The farmer mem
bers do not take kindly to the idea of the
extra session, for they are in the midst
of their spring work, and this may have
some effect in cutting the session short.
The statement that Governor Griggs
had filed the eighty-nine vetoed bills
with the State Librarian, thereby pre-
venting their recall from his hands,
seems to have been premature. The
measures nave not yet come out of the
Executives hands, and if they do not
thus appear the Legislature can get at
them, and if the sorry ones succeed in
having other matters considered they
may get some of these bills out and cor
rected to meet the objections mad to
them. If the vetoed bills are not filed
by tonight they Will be returned to the
House in which they originated. In this
event, judging from the temper Of the
majority of the House, it is believed that
legislation other han that for which the
session is called will be enacted. The
awhat in doubt as to his right to file the
vetoed bills since the calling of the Leg
islature passing them
Certainly some probably effective effort
will be made to secure the correction and
+ passage of the Teachers Retirement bill.
The Governors objection to this bill was
kthat it was incorrectly engrossed, and its
Eadvocates have been very busy ever since
1.-THE extra session was called in eXerting
all possible influence to have the Senators
and Assenblymen take it up. Miss Al
len, of Hoboken. who has been one of
the sturdiest and most earnest advocates
of the, fund, has left no stone unturned
to reach the members of the Legislature
and urging them to act. She will no
doubt be here tonight. along with Prof.
Manners of Camden and other supporters
of the bill, to do what more is possible
to be accomplished. They argue that the
only fault the Governor foundi in the bill
was the hiunder of the engrossing de-
Of correcting that blunder and putting
t teach eIll o fhf the E State u als noa + Unit the la
support of the Retirement Fund, and a
deal Of Opposition to the scheme was ap-
Another Of the disauieting rumors is
that a move is to be. made by the East
Jersey. Wafer Company. magnates-that
is. IL the headers can be induced to agree
to it. M masnates, backed by most
powerful State and National influences,
want a law passed validating the contract
some months ago and vetoed by ex-
Mayor Wanser. Mayer Hoes is urging
the construction Of a water plant by the
hopeful Of Carrying sRrough the sc seneme.
The men who are behind the project are
both Democrats and Republicans, and
1t has been repeated SO often that the
East Jersey Water Company was back
OF the Delaware Dam bill that a good
many, people have come to believe it,
and should a bill be offered to enable the
company to secure the Jersey City con-
tract it will not openly state its purport.
1t viii be a yelled measure, and viii be
such that the Governor cannot veto or the
courts upset.
will, of course, be IN hand early and
stay late to see the prospects are
for curtailing the power of Mayor Hoos
recovered from the unpleasant shock of
having that obnoxious Term Extension
bill given it's cuietus by the courts. They
will probably make another effort to re-
cover their lost ground, for certainly the
rank and file Of the party in Essex and
Hudson counties are grumbling deeply
for which Lentz and Dickinson were al
most wholly responsible. The decision
the matter before the session ended and
then came the hurried election, for which
the Republicans were totally unprepared,
Jersey city and Newark. There was
no installing the sentiment of the people
of those two largest cities of the State.
They repudiated such partisan methods,
and it IS very doubtful that Lentz and
Dickinson will make any Roadway in
their plans.
Everything depends upon whether the
Legislators can be kept in line to act
upon constitutional amendment error and
then go home without fooiing VIII VIII f 1aanv
members who know that they will not
be returned, and these may spoil all the
plans for doing what they are called to-
gether for and then departing in peace.
There may be q deal of fun, with signif-
cant influence upon the coming compaign.
The question has been raised that a
special session is unnecessary, on the
ground that the error in the quoted
amendments would not have affected the
ballots that the Secretary of State would
issue for the special election. Those
who have advanced this argument base
it on the presumption that the Secretary
VI Oldt6 WOutd QoC IL -
amendments that nave passed the Legis-
I lature, and are now on file in the Sec
rotary of States Office. But his is an
error.
Inquiry brings out the fact that the
Secretary of State is governed entirely
by the provisions of the act in which is
I the error. The act authorizes h Secre-
tary of State to prepare ballots and says
what shall be printed on those ballots
If the error had not been detected by
the Governor, the Secretary of State
would be obliged to send out all the
tickets containing the constitutions
amendments, just as they have beer
copied and inserted in this particular act
The office of the Secretary of State
is purely a ministerial one, not Judicia
4 in any way, and. whatever the Legislature
Directs him to do he does, so that 9
presumption hat he would use the cor
amendments Is not well based, because
the law directed him to use the amend.
ments as they are copied into a bill.
1t is a fact that laws have gone on thu
statue books with errors In them, errors
b have escaped the notice of the en-
crossing clerk and even the Executive
Department, The only way that the Sec
Rotary of State could indicate the error
was by using the right word In ~parenthe.
sis and making mote in the margin of thu
error.
IN this connection it has been suggest
ed that it might be a good thing tC
have a law passed which would enable
the Secretary of State when such 8
triling error occurs, to certify the fac1
to the Attorney GereFa1Tzwho could &c
before the Supreme sCodrt and have the