The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-02-08
THOMPSON WINS.
He Gets His Bill For More
Than One Bar Through
the Senate.
CHURCH PEOPLE MUCH DISGUSTED
They Deluged the Legislature
With "Reminiscences But
the Measure Went
Through.
Especial to .eThe Jersey city News."l

Especial to 1.-THE Jersey City News.'
TRENTON, Feb. s, 1S99.-The religious
element of the State realizes today,if they
never did before, the utter hypocrisy otthe
Republican party. They have been ac-
customed heretofore to look upon the Re-
publicans as the personifcation of all that
is good in the State as the great defenderS
of law and order and the suDpressers OF
gambling, horse racing and all otner
forms of vice. So, therefore, when the
notorious William ]. Thompson, OF
Gloucester race track fame, came TO the
Legislature and asked to have a Dill
passed allowing him to run several bars
on his picnic ground, just below Giouces-
ter, known as Washington Park, these
good souls, VINO had been brought up TO
consider the Republican party of the salt
of the earth, thought all they would have
to do would be to call the attention OF the
Legislature to the iniquity of the bill and
request its defeat
They did so. AT the opening of yester-
days session, both Houses were deluged
with petitions "numerously signed as
the clerk said. from Women's Christian
Temperance Unions, Ministers Unions,
church societies and numerous other
religious and temperance organizations.
At the opening of the Senate yester-
day Afternoon the bill came up. Senator
Martin, who introduced the measure,
spoke for it. He referred to the large
number of petitions and remonstranees
which had been received from the tenn
perance and church people, and SAD Ihey
had been based upon a misapprenenslop
of the bills provisions. 1t was not IN
ended to give Mr.. Thompson or any one
else any additional privileges, but 1t mad
been introduced to clear up some DOUBT
which existed as to the effect OF the law
of 1895, governing the licensing OF
pleasure grounds. By some courts 1t nao
been held that under one license nquor
might be sold only from one par, py
others the law was held to cover various
bars in order that pleasure seekers might
not be compelled to go from one end OF
a resort to the other, perhaps, for re-
treatment. 1t was in the line of public
convenience. A separate fee was required
for every bar.
Mr.. H. w. johnson also thought the OPP
position was due to Misrepresentation on
mart of the w. c.. T. u. The bill carried
no extraordinary privileges. Even a tenn
perance man might support 1t.
No one spoke in opposition to the meas
IRE. nor did one of the highly virtuous
Republican Senators who voted against 1t
attempt by his voice to defeat the wicked
measure. The vote was then taken with
this result
Afirmative-Barber, Braun, Foster,
Francis. Hand, H. w. Johnson, Martini
McDermott, Packer, Reed and Van Cleer-
NegativACross, Evans, Hutchinson, W.
NJ. johnson, Ketcham, Pitney, smith,
Stanger and Stokes.
Senator Miller did not vote.
a despatch from Camden says tnat
Thompson's lawyers have made no oelay
in taking advantage of the bill. Al
though it has to run the gauntlet OF the
House and the Governor, Thompson seems
to be SO sure of his hold on the Repupn-
can party that his lawyers nave alreauy,
so the despatch says, applied Il 10 tne
courts for the extra licenses. rms ls
hardly to be believed, as a court Wnlcn
has the feeling toward thompson That
the Camden court has is not listening 70
his LAWYERS until they have to, ana tney
VIII not nave to until the bill becomes a
law. bu,
It is by no means certain that the Dill
VIII pass the House. In the counties OF
Hudson, Essex, Passaic and Union, there
are numerous of these shootlng parhs,
picnic grounds and summer day resorts
where several bars are run under the one
license and no one ever questions 5he
proprietors' right TO do so. But unoeI
the Thompson bill each bar will have 70
have A separate license. This the upper
COMMITTEES will not stand. and If they hold
together they win defeat the measure.