The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-03-27

object that can be credited to this law
which viii justify the distinctions? All
cues hold municipal or charter elections.
Every city is divided into election dis
tIlcts, which are each to contain not less
than one hundred and fifty nor more
tnan six hundred voters Gen. Stat. p
1893, Sec. 1850. Related to population. the
expenses of election, the Inconvenience to
voters, and all other matters. are prac-
thing to each election district. The pc
cullarlty upon which this legislation is
based Is population in excess Of 600
What beneficial legislation can be right
| ly bestowed upon cities possessing this
population and denied to all others in the
matter OF elections? In substance, the
| act says that, in cities having a GER
| tain number of election districts, the nlu-
nicipal elections shall be held on general
| election day-that in large cities CUES
| tons of municipal government shall be
| bound to questions Of national policy.
In re Haynes, %, Vr. %, Chief Justice
Beasley said:-"It is true that streets and
all cities, no matter what their grade;
but this legislation does not attempt to
deal with these things in this wide point
OF view. What it deals with is exclusive
ly the machinery by which such interest
are to be regulated. If, therefore, mu-'
nicipal population, when it is large, does
not reasonably require different kind
of machinery from that which is suitable
to a small population, then it would be
plain that the position of counsel, OF the
REALTORS just referred to would be inn
/ the court, there is not any attempt to
provide machinery for electors in cities
of the first class different from.
that used in other cities. Voters
are to be registered, nominations must
be certified and ballots must be official.
The proposed differentiation is net one
of form-it is not sought to provide
novel system of government for cities
of the first class. 1t is proposed to diff
ferentiate these cities on question of
public policy that has been discussed by
every writer on American politics, and
upon the elective system elsewhere. One
form of government may be adapted to
smaller divisions, but there cannot exist
IN one class of cities reason for nor
an objection to the consolidation Of
municipal and national and State cleo
tons which does not exist in every class
If the provisions of the act are such
that they would be equally appropriate
to the other counties of the State, then
the classification adopted is illusory, not
real. and the legislation is special. al
though sounding in general terms, -. Mort
ject of this bill is to tie questions of
municipal government to State and ma
deprive ef Cities Of S the Z otter her. classes a Of
the benefits? If the object is economy,
why limit the benefit? If the object is
invitation to cities of the first class? If
this classification is not illusory neither
would be one, confining the act to cities
Of the first class on the Hudson River,
because it could be argued with more
force than will be found in a mere popu-
lation classification, that many residents
return late on election days, and will not
take the. trouble to vote twice a year;
or to cities having a certain percentage
opportunity of instruction only at the
fall canvass. The masks of economy
@ and large population, are transparent;
behind them is seen the desire to unite
municipal issues with questions of State
and national policy. This is the .prin-
eiple, OF the the act. and if the Court will
be at once seen how promptly this 'sprin-
ciple'' would have been rejected, if the
bill had not been confined to cities where
in it was supposed that some partisan ad-
vantage would accrue from linking mu-
nlcipal issues with, for instance, the
proceed, in "a hurry and independent Of
other nations, to the free and unlimited
coinage of silver That the enacted pol
icy of the State to keep municipal and
other elections apart was not born OF
irrldescent4 dreaming is shown by his
tory In the past twenty-one. years Jer-
candidates for Mayor, in 1876 in 1884 and
1892 Each of these was Presidential
year. in the autumn of which the city
was carried by a large Democratic ma
jority. Had tile elections been united Il
is safe to say that Jersey City would
not have elected Republican Mayor in
the last twenty-one years. Why sho,,id
less populous cities be outlawed from
the municipal felicity which would have ave
But cities of the first class are not all
treated alike. Section 2 of the act pro-
yides that hereafter the terms of all
municipal officers shall commence on the
first day of January next following the
election of such officers
Under the act of 1889, the annual nauni-
some other day than the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in November. It
IS therefore quite evident that as Pater-
son ana other cities grow into the first
class, there will not be any officers to
pc elected therein at the November cleo
ton ton IN Immediately following the transla-
LION OF the cities into the prime class
ana an they will be left without Offices un-
Il tll the following November. This trou-
PIE PIE vas perceived by the draughtsman,
Jersey. City and Newark.
for THESE cities a scheme of government
is provided. All municipal officers holding
office in these cities on the first MonTiayy
n n May, 1897, are to remain in Office until
the first day of january next succeeding
fhe date when their terms would expire
But what is to become of the officers
holding office on the first Monday in
May, IN the years to come, in cities which
grow into the first class? similar query
fourth section of the act So in Secfinn
Q, providing that no person vested with
soie authority, whose term is extended by
this act shall appoint to fill vaca,7cv
occasoned by other than death or resigns,
ton, etc. This will not apply to any per
son vested with sole authority in any
CITY growing into the first class, who holds
by virtue of a provision that he shall
ho-d his office until his successor is
qualified. =
It VIII be seen that the act relates to
cities of the first class, Regulating the
terms OF elective and appointiye ofiicers
thereln only when those cities are found
IN the first class ON the first Monday in
May, 1897. =
There is not a provision in the act
regulating the terms of elective and an
poantive officers which can ever apply
20. 70 any city CITY other than Newark and Jersey
Clty; The government of cities which
shan hereafter have 100000 population is
consigned to chaos
II the act can be construed to be a
general law, it is nevertheless void for If
violates the constitutional Injunction that
no general law shall embrace any pro-.
vision of a private, special or local char
acter. Sections three, four, five and six
can never apply to any other than New
SIX, ask the supporters of this act to
give their views of when the annual orr
ganlzation or first stated meeting of elec-
tive boards in cities of the first class
other than Jersey City and Newark, are
to be held?
1T would seem to be reasonable that
where an essential part of an act is un-
constitutional, and fails for that reason.
all other parts of the act which depend
upon 1t for force and effect must neces- e,sss-
sarily meet the same result" State '.
New Bruins wick, Vr., 322. If the scheme
OF government provided by this act to
meet the change proposed in the election
law is unconstitutional, the whole act
must fan The conjunction found in the
propositions of its title Indicates that the,
Legislature would not have enacted only
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