The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1900-09-19
BYA SNAP vOTE." !"
Board Of Trade Minority
Uses It's Unusual Power
to Cut the .Secre-
retary's Salary.
MEMBERS EXPRESS INDIGNATION
Unfair Advantage Taken of
First Meetings. Slim At
tendance Officers
Nominated.
MEMBERS EXPRESS INDIGNATION

Once in great while a Board of Trade
meeting become positively interesting.
That event took place last night when a
minority of the Board unexpectedly find
ing itself in the majority, by reason of
a slim attendance, rubbed out an old score
by looping off half of the secretarys
salary. Messrs. Myron j. FNurst and
Joseph A. Dear were the authors of this
act, which may or may not be endorsed
at the next regular meeting. The chances
are that it won't, because there is a great
feeling of Indignation at what some menu
/! bers denounced last night as a SNAP
/ vote
1t occurred this way; Messrs. F'urst,
Dear and Cleary were appointed last
night to nominate officers. They did that
and more too. The first two gentlemen
/ added a rider to the report recommend
ing that during the coming year the sec
retary's salary should be s150 instead of
$500 as present. Having a majority of
! the eleven members present it went
through. but not without a fight on the
part of the minority to lay it over until
there was a larger attendance.
/ President VIM. E. Drake having resign
ed Mr.. s. c. Mount was called to the
! chair and there were present Messrs.
James J. Hasking B. L. Stowe, D. E.
Cleary Robert Anderson. Joseph A. Dear,
| Frank Stevens, M. j. Furst, H. w. Carr,
O. H. Lohsen and Secretary w. j. TAFT.
Beginning with routine matters the sec
retary read a letter from the managers of
the Pan American Exposition to be held
| in Buffalo, asking the Board to agitate
| the enterprise. None of the committees
| Of the Board having anything to report
but progress" the constitutional change
recommended at the last meeting to the
| effect that the election of officers should
| take place in September and not in De-
/ cember as hitherto, was taken up and ex-
planned by Mr. Dear, approved by Messrs.
1 Furst and Cleary, and adopted unani-
/ mously.
| Then in accordance with the change came
| the election of officers, and Chairman
| Mount appointed Messrs Dear, Furst and
/ Cleary to make the nominations. They
! retired, and subsequently returned with
/ this ticket:-Presdent, Samuel c. Mount
First Vice-President, Mungo ]. Currie
/ Second Vfce-President, Robert Anderson:
| Third Vice-President, B. L. Stowe; Treas
/ urer Frank Stevens; Secretary, w J..
/ TAFT; Directors, D. e. Cleary, H. v. Con-
| dict, A. J. sorcoran M. M Cahill H. w.
Carr, ]. A. Dear, M j. Furst DR.. L. j.
! Gordon, O.. Fl. Lohsen, M. T. Cough and
Geo. W. Russell.
| Il would prefer" said Chairman Mount,
''that you would elect some one better
| able to preside over this Board than my
| self. Take for instance Dr. Gordon"
81 nominate DR.. Gordon" said Mr.
| Hasking and the nomination was sec
! onded.
This brought Mr.. Dear to his feet. He
opposed DR.. Gordon's nomination for the
reason, he said, that the doctor had not
attended the meetings with that regular
\ ity which entitled him to be elected Presi-
dent. He esteemed Dr. Gordon as much
! as any man, he said, but this was mat
| ter for the welfare of the Board
| Mr. Furst jumped up too. He regretted
to enter into any personalities he said,
but he did not approve of DR.. Gordon
after a recent experience. Had Mr.. Hask-
ing consulted the doctor he, the speaker,
thought he would not have nominated
him
Was Mr.. Mount consulted first before
you nominated him?' asked MIR. Hasking.
| Mr.. iFurst didn't reply. The vote on the
two nominees was taken with this re-
suit t:-Mount, 6; Gordon, S.
Mr.. Dear then read the last part of the
report of the Nominating Committee,
| recommending that the secretary's salary
from now to the end of the year be at
the old sum, $500 per year, but after that
| it should be $3.50.
| The members looked surprised and the
| secretary turned red. Mr.. Hasking,
quickly turning to the chairman, moved
that the resolution be laid on the table
Mr.. III. w. Carr seconded that.
Mr.. Robert Anderson said the fixing of
the secretarys salary was the duty Of
the directors and not of nominating
committee.
Mr.. Dear however, defended his and
whole board, he argued, was master of
its proceedings.
| IF we have rules interrupted Mr..
Anderson, 1--WE should stick by them. They
say that the directors shall fix the secre-
! tary's salary"
| Mr.. Dear was about to contir1ae the
| discussion when Chairman Mount inter-
vened saying that the rules gave the
BOARD as a whole the right to legislate
| tha. matter. Mr.. Anderson's point was
/ out of order.
Mr.. Hasking's motion to lay on the
table was put. Two voted for it, three
against and the rest didn't vote.
| Mr. Dear, feeling that some explanation
was necessary, said that the reduction of
| the secretary's salary had long been un-
1 der discussion. Mr.. TAFT, he said, had
been elected for a year at a salary of $500
and the committee was in honor bound to
respect that arrangement. Hence they
recommended that until the expiration of
Mr.. Tait's term it be nat disturbed. After
| that term had expired, however, the COM
mittee felt it should be reduced.
| Mr. Frank Stevens thought the motion
should be referred to the Board of Di-
rectors.
| Mr.. B. L. Stowe thought 1t only court
| esy to defer action on the motion of Mr..
| AnO1d ana Well Tried Remedy