The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-12-08
Atrocious Republican Legislatiev
Plans.


The people having totally rejected them
at the polls, the Republican leaders of TINS
CITY are as usual Matching schemes by
(which they may appropriate some of the
pfflcial patronage. They rely on the ma
zority, which their party has In the Legas-
aature 10 realize their schemes. Iney
know that Republican Senators and AS
semblymen will have no scrupies ABOUT
a-ppropriating anything in the way of pap
that can be reached, and the only diff
Guilty in their way, as they imagine, IS the
eulkiness of those who think that, If Hud-
son Republicans cannot win anything for
themselves, they should be let go hungry.
This sentiment the local leaders think
nhey to some extent bluffed out of exis-
tence by their bulldozing visit to Trenton
on Tuesday. Therefore they took the pub
lie into thedr confidence yesterday, and in
the columns OF the Evening journal
told what their ways of gaining patron
age were to be.
They propose legislation for the estab-
iishment in Jersey City of what are
euphemistically called bipartisan boards
Thus far the bills, actually drafted. pro-
vide for a Police Board and an Excise
Board, but it is rumored that one or two
more are in contemplation, for the Fire
Department, and, perhaps, the Street and
Water Department.-in a word, for every
Department which controls the employ
ment of any considerable numbe of men.
We all know the old bipartisan plan.
It is always a favorfte with Republicans
when they have been beaten at the polls
and when the people have taken all power
from them and confsded it TO Democrats.
Then the how for their share, and a
nice fat bipartisan half is surely a plau-
sible and duly pharisaical way Of grab
bing II. In truth there is nothing more
utterly opposed to all rational or sound
principles of government than the bi-par-
tisan board, especially when it is elective.
It is a board made up equally of members
of the two parties polling the highest
number of votss-in plain English, of two
Republicans and two Democrats. There
is therefore. neither responsibility resting
upon 1t nor means OF visiting the popular
anger upon the members when they are
guilty Of wrong doing. In one conspicu-
Gus case in which Observation-Disclosures
its least Objectionable form, the appoin-
tive-has been the characteristic policy
for many years, viz: in the New York
Police Department, it has been the cloak
and the shelter for THE most monumental
system of corruption and maIadministra-
ton that this country has ever seen. 1t
Is almost unbelievable that, within five
miles of the Mulberry Street Palace of
Infamy, any set of men, in their sane
minds and having any regard to their
own regulations, should propose to enact
q similar system in another city.
OF course the defenders of the new pro-
posals may differ from us and say that
New York's Bipartisan failure is due to
the appointive system, and that the plan
OF election by the people will make the
plan work better. It only needs a mo-
ment's thought to show the utter futility
OF Y a p%retence. How are the people
to place the responsibility for the acts
OF a bipartisan board. Where both
parties join in all that is done, how are
the people to judge as to vino is to blame.
The board must have either a deal or a
deadlock, and in what way is efficiency, in
what way Is moral tone to be improved
by either. and since one or the other is
absolutely necessary. which are the people
to resent?
And how can they resent anything such
g board may do? When the election must
go both ways, ms choice haye the peo-
pie. A nomination becomes equivalent to
an election, and the ballots only ratify the
action of the party machines. II by the
use or abuse Of their power. the incum-
bents for one term can secure renomina-
tion for a new one, even though they be
the worst ~scoundrels unhung. the people
have no choice but elect them. again and
again and again,
Fortunately, the bills which are pro-
posed to put this outrageous system in
operation are to be submitted to a vote
Of the people. This Is not out of any
virtue. 1t is because this is the only legal
trick by which Newark can be exempted
from their operation, and It is expected
that Essex Republicans can be got to vote
q milestone about our necks which they
would not, for a moment, hear Of having
In their own city. This popular vote may
be our salvation. We cannot imagine that
the people Of Jersey City would adopt this
scheme Of their own %yolition. They are
not to be caught BY a mere word. Behind
the spacious pretence Of bi-partisanship
they win see the lurking greed and cor
ruptior.