The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1901-03-19
TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1901.
Notes and Opinions.

Referring to the rumor that Senator
Stokes friends are pressing him for Gov
ernor, the Hackensack Republican says:
1t is well known that Senator Stokes Is
an open and above board advocate of the
nomination of Franklin Murphy, and he
is not the kind of man that would per-
NIT his name to be used in antagonism to
Mr.. Murphy. Besides Mr.. Stokes is
about to become Clerk in Chancery. Ex-
Senator William M. johnson would no
doubt make an admirable candidate for
Governor, and would be just such man
as New Jersey ought to have In the
executive chair of the state But Mr..
johnson is not candidate for the nomi-
nation, and it would be utterly useless to
name him in that connection in opposition
to Mr.. Murphy, whose nomination he
most sincerely favors. The Republican
nomination for Governor is not mort
gagged to any one, and the discussion of
the availability of various prominent Re-
publicans to become the standard bearer
VI oHO PoA1y HCAt laAi 10 d very pAOPOi
and legitimate one, and fair and open
inquiry into the merits of every suggested
candidate will in all probability lead to
the satisfactory and unanimous conclusion
by the Republicans of the state that Mr..
Murphy is altogether the most desirable
man they can nominate for Governor"
Discussing compulsory voting bill
now before the Pennsylvania Legislature
the Newark News says: '"There is point
at which compulsion becomes necessary as
protection for the public interests, and
hence some duties incident to citizenship
are enforced by law. Jury service is an
instance, and occasional service in the
army. No such necessity indicates com.
pulsory voting, inasmuch as the interests
of the individual man himself are at stake
in his ballot in sense in which they are
not in jury service or in the army. Vot.
ing is something more than duty in this
country. 1t is privilege. perhaps the
most exalted prerogative of free man,
the very highest dignity to which the ordi-
nary man may hope to attain. 1t is the
expression of his individual will as to the
government of city, State and nation, an
expression that counts, as he well knows,
in the management of affairs. If he has
not sufficient interest in pending problems;
if the men and measures upon which he is
called to express an opinion, do not appeal
to him with sufficient force to elicit that
opinion; if in short, he is so careless of
his heritage and holds his dignity SO very
lightly as to refuse to vote, the question
would seem to be not as to forcing him to
the polls, but as to whether he should be
permitted to vote at all. Compulsory vot-
ing was tried in Belgium some years ago,
but failed, just Jas it would fail in Penn
sylvania or anywhere else, where ballot
means something. But irrespective of all
this, the evils of absenteeism from the
polls are not sufficiently grave in this coun-
try to justify any such invasion of person
al liberty as is contemplated by the meas
ure.
The Newark Ad0erttser. in referring to
an embryo water trust says: Several new
corporations to dam the Delaware river
were chartered under the State laws last
week. Their incorporation is worth moth
ing if the Pennsylvania Legislature at its
present session fails to pass bill author
izing the construction of dams in the Del
aware. The object is to utilize the water
power for private profit, and the value of
this power'is estimated up in the millions.
The New Jersey Legislature passed gen.
eral law several years ago giving up the
Delaware and all the interstate streams of
the State to private capitalists, but sim
liar law in Pennsylvania is required for
damming the Delaware, an interstate
stream. The New Jersey Law and the
bill now in the Pennsylvania Legislature
give extraordinary powers to corporations.
They can seize property, overflow river
banks, submerge land and do other things
by exercise of the right of eminent domain.
All the profit accrues to them. The State
gets nothing. 1t is one step from selling
water power to selling water. 1t will be
comparatively easy for the corporations,
under the law, to get the law amended to
give them such power, and then New Jer-
sey, as well as Pennsylvania. if the bill in
its Legislature becomes law, will be in
the grasp of water monopoly to hold
the municipalities at it's mercy"
There is more Catarrh in this section of
the country than all other diseases put
topether and until the last few wears was