The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1897-03-06
st VI EXN q
THE WORST ON RECORD
Present Legislature Has En-.
acted Only Seventeen
Laws inx Eight
Weeks.
FINAL ADJOURNMENT IN SIGHT
Constitutional Amendments, Rail-
road and Jersey Commission
Bills Yet to Be Acted On.
speetal to the ysrsep can Ne.s.

TRENTON, March 6, 1S97.-Eight weeks
of the session of the n hundred ana
twenty-first Legislature of New Jersey
ave come n gone. and but seventeen
bills have been enacted into law. None
of these new statutes are of any general
Importance, each being for some special
purpose. Not in the history of New Jer-
sey Legislatures has so little been ac-
complished by any body of lawmakers.
1T is given out on very good authority
that the session will not sit more than
three weeks longer, and the impression
obtains that very few laws will be en-
acted.
Most of the gossip up to the present
week centered on the Executive appoint
ments. but Governor Griggs put an end
to gossip in that quarter by sending a
list of the lucky men to the Senate last
week. The appointments made by the
Governor himself were generally satfsfac-
tory. The appointment made by General
Sewell will not meet with hearty endorse
ment. There is a very friendly feeling
throughout the State for Senator E. c.
Stokes, and the fact that Governor Griggs
turned him down. for the Secretary of
State portfolio. to- make room for Mr..
BEETLE. will not weigh much in the Gov
errors favor 1s
There are several questions of import
ance in the 43S bills which have been in
troduced so far. First come the con-
stitutional amendments, then the railroad
commission il ;snextf in order the equal
taxation measure, the Gledhil1 bicycle
bill. and the jury. commission bill.
The Railroad Commission bill will not
have the rosy path tossthe statute books
able to the railroad companies, however,
and this is a most important considera-
ton in the present Legislature.
The Gledhin bicycle bill is also in a pre-
carious condition. It is likely to pass the
House in its present form, but the SEN
ate. it is understood, will kill it. The
wheelmen of the State are making every
effort to have the bin pass. They are
willing and anxious to have the bill so
amended as to make 1t the acme of fair
ness to both railroads and. wheelmen.
The Constitutional amendments have
been made the special order for Wednes-
day morning next
While the members of the Senate are al
most a unit ON the question: of the adop-
ton of the majority Of the proposed
amendments. there will in all probability
be a hard fight over those affecting the
Judiciary. especially as Senate Johnson
of Bergen County, will do his utmost to
have the plan of the Lawyers Commit
tee adopted Senator Voorhees,. the lead.
er of the Senate, WIZ, however, urge the
passage of the amendments which passed
the last session, and it is said that he has
a requisite number of votes to insure their
adoption.
The judiciary amendments without
doubt are the most important of the entire
list. inasmuch as they affect, in a great
er or less degree. all the residents of the
State. OF the two plans offered to the
10th Legislature, the one proposed by
Frank Bergen. a we'll known attorney %
Elizabeth. was accepted as the simples,
and most suited to the demands of the
times. /.
First-For a new Court of Pardons, con-
sisting of the Governor and President
Judge of the Supreme Court, and the AT.
torney General, inSteadaof the Governor
Chancellor and the lay judges. who con-
Stitute that court at present.
Seoord-A new Supreme Court, consist
ing OF three dtyisionss9Law, equity and
appellate. .-se ..,-Y w.s
sThird-The removal Of the Court Of Err
rors. commonly eased the lay element.
Fourth-The merger of the courts of law
and equity as far as. practicable.
Fifth-A division of the, Supreme Court
so that terms may he held anywhere II
the State by or more judges.
Sixth-Transfer of causes from the law
to the equity division, and vice versa
whenever necessary, to render mple
justice IN a pending cause.
Seventh-AaCourf of Last Resort as in
dependent efsthe inferior. courts, as sucf
a court cam, be without danger of tbecom,
ing an o-ver-technical and impracticablt
tribunal; and siAA sHss
EighthACourts OF Equity in each county
whenever the LEGISLATURE thinks propel
to give chancery powers to the Circuit
Courts, thus extending the beneficent prin
clples of equity over wider range of con
troversies n a larger number of Sudtors
Besides these advantages the adoption o
the pending amendments will make reces
sary a revision of the practice and cour
rules, and lead to the abandonment O
what still remains of the ancient and alb
surd forms of pleading
h jury commission bill, by
Senator VOORHEES, is practically a coddfl
cation of all the jury laws of the State
with the old jury commission law includeS
n such laws as conflict with the worl
of the commission omitted. The essentia
difference between the former jury com
In the old act the commissioners wer'
appointed by the Legislature; in TIL
Voorhees, bill the commissioners are ap
pointed by the Circuit Court.
There are forty sections in the bill, al
of which, except sections 8 to 10, inclusiv'
are laws already. on the. statute book
cod.fied and simplified in language so a
to farm a plain and consistent enactmen
throughout. A great deal of work ha
been done in preparing the bill, and it !
believed to be a. nearly perfect as 1t cal
be made.
Sections l and 2 of the bill designat
respectively what persons are qualified t
serve as jurors and what are exempte'
from jury duty. The age of a juror mus
not be less than twenty nor more tina
sixty-fve~ If any. exception Is taken t
the bill it might. properly be to Section
;. on the ground that it exempts to