The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1899-01-06
TAE pIFFERENcE IN LAWS.

The recent decision of the Supreme
Court which fixes the status OF Norris
town as town corporate, brings to mind
the unsatisfactory, incongruous and null
tipicity Of laws now on our statue books
relating to municipalities generally.
First, we have cities which, for the pur-
poses Of legislation, are divided into four
classes; then there are towns, boroughs,
and townships. All of these are governed
by laws peculiar to each, and SO numer-
GUS have these laws become that it is diff
ficult. nay, almost impossible, for even
the best informed lawyer to understand
and apply them, and the average layman
istotaliy lost in the maze. This. too, not
withstanding the efforts of our judges,
who are being constantly appealed to, to
solve problems arising almost daily.
About seven hundred pages of the
General Statutes are devoted to these
laws, and the end is not yet, for the sim
pie reason that each session of our Legisla-
ture grinds out untold numbers of them.
Let us localize the subject. A person
entering our county at Chatham will find
the form of government at that place to
be borough, constituted and conduct
ed in many respects different from the
borough of Madison, which joins it on
the west. If he is able by close and per-
sistent application to learn how to live
a law-abiding citizen in Chatham, and
desires to remove to the larger and more
thriving borough OF Madison, he is
obliged to begin his studies all over
again in order to know what duties he
must perform and what acts he must
eschew to be classed as a law-abiding
citizen in the latter place.
But this is not all, nor, in fact, one
half. If he is at all peripatetic in his
habits, lie will find that what was good
law in Madison is bad law in Convent,
where the Township Committee may
have him arrested for some crime
unknown to the good people of Madison
and esteemed a virtue by the authorities
Of Chatham.
Morristown-ah, indeed Morristown
is law unto herself. So is Boonton
SO is, or rather was, Dover, all being
constituted under different laws which
differ very materially from the other
municipalities in the county. And there
you are. Buy the time our traveller
has made his rounds of the county and
visited our many numerous. though
eminently respectable, municipalities,
his hair will have become gray, if not
from age, from worry, and if he should
be wiser, unquestionably he will also
be sadder man.
Is there remedy for all this9 Yes
but it is not to be found in patchwork
amendments to the present system of
laws.
All municipalities, save townships,
should be constituted cities, and all
cities should be classified as to their size
and requirements into cities of the first,
second, third, fourth and fifth, sixth and
seventh class. They should all be ar
ranged on the same footing, with laws
suitable to the condition and needs of
each. Wipeout towns, wipe out boroughs
and borough commissions and then we
will have municipal governments adj
ministered under uniform and just laws.
There is no difference really between
city, town or borough, except in size,
perhaps; and even that is sometimes
hard to distinguish. In England. city
was said to be an incorporated town, the
" see of bishop. In the United States
the courts have held that a city was /" an
incorporated town." but the bishop and
see were dispensed with.
MEM NnpK,C NnNEDMnD