The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-03-23
BENNY'S BILL.
Railroad Measure Lost By
a Vote Of Twenty-eight
to Nineteen.
HINTS OF A SCANDAL
Mr.. Bradley Asked the As
semblyman's Meaning and
Was Reassured.

Especial to sThe Jersey City News."l
| TRENTON. March %, 19O0.-When the
House adjourned early this morning II
was to meet again at 1890 o'clock, put
| it was after eleven when the Speaker
rapped for order and there were many
vacant seats in the chamber. The nrst
matter taken up was Mr.. Benny's rail-
road bill. which provides that hereafter
no locomotive shall be run Wlthout an
engineer and fireman thereon. no tram
shall be run without crew consisting o.
engineer, conductor, one fireman (Wooteh
or similar fire box engine, two hremen9'
freight trains to have two brakemeh lof
forty loaded or sixty empty cars anu
one brakeman for each additional ntteen
cars. All persons hereafter employed TO
receive or transmit dispatches or tram
orders must be twenty-one years OF age.
Mr.. Benny arose to speak on the DILL
when Mr. Wakelee moved that ne pc
given twenty minutes in which to lalk,
which was carried. The Bayonne states
mans argument was in the main
Philippe against the representatives OF
the railroads at the Legislature. lie pe-
gan by disclaiming that he drew the Dill
or that it was his measure. 1t was given
to him, he said by the Executive Com
mittee of the railroad employees of the
State Then he referred to the trouble he
had had to get the bill out of the COM
mittee. 1t was introduced on the first day
of the session and reported on the last
and then only when the majority was
threatened with scandal. Next Mr..
Benny took up the arguments which the
ho them
advanced against the bill before the com
mittee. He called them by name and
scored them numerically. There is no
DOUBT he declared, that these people 10
defeat legislation would buy your soul and
mine for a nickel and then sell them for
seven cents for the sake of the two cents
they would make He closed with a fer
vent appeal to the House to rid itself OF
the lobbyists.
Mr.. Bradley of Camden made very long
speech against the measure. He SAID ne
was member of the committee to which
the bill was referred and said that the
committee had given it more consdera-
ton than any other bill that had come be-
fore it. In all that time only one man
saying that he represented the railroad
men-appeared and requested the passage
of the BILL
Mr.. Bradley then took the measure up
section by section and objected to almost
every clause He denied that he was in
any way connected with railroad and
said that neither he nor any other mem
Der of his family ever rode on a pass
except those which had come to him le-
ultimately as Member of Assembly. Mr..
Bradley referred to Mr.. Benny's re-
marks about an impending scandal and
asked the gentleman from Hudson what
he meant.
Mr.. Benny replied that he did not intend
to cast any reflection upon the gentle
man from Camden who, he believed, was
a perfectly honest man. But when these
railroad lobbyists appeared upon the floor
contrary to the rules of the House, fol-
lowed members all about and button
holed them on every occasion, great
scandal was impending and would break
before long.
The bill was lost by a vote of rs to 10.
The House passed Senate bill making it
unlawful to issue a fire insurance policy
containing co-insurance clause.
In the Senate Mr.. McDermott oHered a
concurrent resolution expressing SYM
pathy with the Beers and supported his
resolution in an eloquent address.
On motion of Mr. Pitney the resolution
was referred to the Committee on Federal
Relations, where it will probably remain.