Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-03-07
The Passing Of Spring elections.

When the bill abolishing Spring elections
in the cities of the State was under con-
sideFation in the Senate, Senator Hudseph,
of Hudson, exploded the only rational plea
for its enactment, that Of economy, as
follows -
"Who wants this bill ?' he demanded.
Is there any voice crying in the wilder
ness for the consolidation OF the elections !!
Who asks it /? The press of the State, with
very few exceptions, are arraigned againsi
it, and | viii assert here that if the ques-
ton was submitted to the AGO. 600 registered
voters of the State, SO per cent OF them
would vote against it. Who are these
people whom the bill is intended to protect :?
Il know, and the Senator from Essex
knows where the largely increased vote
cast in the Fall really comes from. 1t
comes from the people whose interests are
in New York, who spend their days in
New York and sleep in New Jersey. They
have no interest in us, don't care for us,
don't care one red cent what becomes of
us SO long as their sleeping places remain
undisturbed. What do they care about the
local government All they care about is
whether Richard Croker and Tammany
Hall shall control New York or whether
Thomas Platt sandSt the Republican machine
shall be in CONTROL
43f b DROVE IT HOME
Taking up the plea of economy, Mr..
Hudspeth said that he had never known in
state or national legislation of any attempt
to force through vicious measure that it
was not heralded as an economical move.
The bartering away of the right of the peo-
pie to elect the local officers at local cleo
ton was not economy. The cost per man,
woman and child in Jersey City for an cleo
ton, Mr.. Hudspeth said, is mill and a
quarter on each 500. That in itself, he
declared, could not be regarded as extraya
gance. staE
Speaking of the effect of the law, an
exchange makes the following comment =
A somewhat homogeneous condition of
affairs will prevail in almost every county
in the State by reason Of the fact that the
law will apply to cities only. In Essex,
Hudson, Camden, Mercer, Union and
Passaic counties this application will affect
a majority of the voters, but in some of the
rural counties that are without populous
cities a comparatively small number of
citizens will feel the effects Of the measure,
while in several counties it will not apply
at all
New Jersey has many towns, townships
and boroughs that are more populous than
some of the cities, but as they do not come
within the provisions of the act, their Spring
elections will not be disturbed Thus the
voters of Brigantine City, in Atlantic
county, which, according to the recent
federal census, boasts population of ninety
nine, will have its elections combined,
while the town of Montclair, in Essex
county, with it's 1892 population, will go
on the old way and hold Spring election.
ONLY 6,253 OUT OF 78, AL.
Out Of Bergen county's total popula-
tion of 70, AL only the 6,253 who live in
the city of Englewood will come within
the purview of the act, but the 8, 443 who
reside in Hackensack, the county seat,
will escape, because Hackensack is a town.
In Burlington county the city of Beverly
will consolidate it's elections, but the town
ship Of Northampton will not, yet Beverly
has but l, $50 population, while Northamp
ton has 5, 1913.
Down in Cape May they have two cities,
the combined population of which is 1864,
and they will have to come in line, but
township, whose name is Dennis, in the
same county, has 2, 778 people, who will go
ON voting in the old way. Cumberland has
two cities, Bridgeton, with 1898 people,
and Millville with 1858, but Gloucester
only has one, that being Woodbury., with
population of 4,087.
Hunterdon, with its population of 49,
567, also has one city, Lambertville, in
which 4,637 persons reside. Over $4,000
of Middlesex county's population live out
side of the cities of New Brunswick and
Perth Amboy, and Monmouth has S2,057
population, Of which but A, 14S reside in
Asbury Park. Morris, with its 65, 156
population; Somerset, with 80, 948; Sussex,
with "a, 1874, and Warren, with 81, 7S1, are
without single city among them, so that,
all told, the Meeker bill will effect only
about sixty per cent. of the voters of the
State.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
The Suabedm is opposed to the scheme to
abolish Spring elections. Municipal affairs
should be settled by themselves, and not
COMPOUNDED with the tariff and other politi-
cal disturbers that are always present with
us in the Fall. Those who are agitating
the abolishing of the Spring elections on
the score of economy are men who never in
their lives tried to save their municipalities
cent. Rather their practice has always
been the other way. [Salem Sunbeam.
'To elect members of the Common Coun-
Gil of the city of Trenton once in every two
years, in November, when the Coal Trust,
and the Sugar Trust, and the Tobacco Trust,
and fho lard Oil 41o
Nicaragua Canal, and the Ship Subsidy, are
blowing in their thousands for the sake of
getting their millions out of the Legisla-
lures and out of Congress, may constitute
very agreeable prospect for the Republi-
can politicians who expect to handle the
money-but it is a death blow to decent,
responsible municipal government"
Trenton True American