The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-03-22
LEGAL INTEREST.
Mr.. Martins Bill to Estab-
lish the Five Per cent
Standard Defeated.
WARM SENATORIAL DEBATE
Mr.. McDermott Opposed the
Measure-Gebhardt Pen
sion Bill Passed.

Especial to 1.-THE Jersey City, News.'l
TRENTON, March %, 1899. tele-
| grams with which the bank officials OF the
| State deluged the Senators and members
of the Assembly yesterday, praying them
to take no action on the bill making five
| per cent. the legal rate of interest, had no
| effect upon the legislators. The measure
| came up in the Senate yesterday after
| noon and was defeated. When the bill
was taken up Mr.. Keteham moved that
| it be recommitted to the committee. He
did Sc. he said, because of the numerous
kilograms he had received-ffty-which
came pouring in upon him asking for a
hearing.
Mr.. Martin opposed the motion and in
| dignantly declared it was a scheme to kill
the bill. The measure had been pending
since the earliest days of the session and
no request for a hearing had been made
until the closing hours of the session.
"And who made this request?" he asked,
"the very people who have all along been
known to be against the bill; the people
who tried to kill the measure with amend
ments last week, but the vote of the
| Senators at that time, showing that the
bill had a chance of passing, has aroused
those opponents to action" Mr.. Martin
severely took to task the committee on
the revision of the laws for it's dilatory
action in regard to the matter.
That aroused the ire of Mr.. Pitney,
chairman of that committee and jumping
| to his feet he declared that the bill had re-
| ceived fair treatment at the hands of the
| committee, but that there was a DISPOSE
ton to misconstrue his motives. He
| asked that the motion to recominit be
| amended by sending the bill to some
| other committee. Mr.. Ketcham consented
to this and suggested that the Committee
on Banks and Insurance be substituted
| The motion to recommit was favored by
| Mr.. johnson of Bergen, who said that
important interests would be endangered
by a five per cent. rate of interest.
| Mr.. McDermott said he did not believe
in usury laws at all, such laws were a
hardship to the man who had poor
| security to offer. If the Legislature low
| cred the rate of interest it would make 1t
| harder to borrow except on gilt edged
| security. He favored recommitting the
| measure SO that it could be killed.
President Reed called Senator Cross to
| the chair and opposed recommittal at
length. Let the bill be discussed on the
| floor of the Senate, he urged, and its
merits thoroughly considered. Mr.. Mar
tin also opposed the motion to recommit.
AS a substitute for the motion to recon-
| nit. Mr.. McDermott moved to indefinitely
postpone, which was lost by a vote of 10 to
7. A vote was then taken on the mo-
| ton to recommit, and that was lost by 10
to 10. Finally the bill was taken up on
\ third reading and inal passage, and de-
| feated by a vote of s to u. The vote IN
the affirmative was Senators Barber,
Braun, Foster. Martin, Muller, STANCES
and Van Cleef. A motion to reconsider
was lost by the same vote.
Among the bills passed by the Senate IN
| the afternoon was House allowing the Ho-
boken Police Commissioners to pay a
| pension to the widow and children of Po-
.iceman Charles Gebhardt, who was muir
dered by a thief he was was arresting;
| authorizing %Irvington, Essex county, TO
| purchase lands and erect water works.
House, providing for a pension for the
| family of William H. Hensing for thirty
years keeper in States Prison, who is
| hopelessly insane from the effects of in
iuries received at the lands of a'rebellious
convict; House, providing for fire escapes
| on apartment houses and stores.