The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1905-10-06
money they asked for and without any

history which if ii ever comes to be
touches upon a chapter of Legislative
printed in detail will furnish amusement
to gods and men.
Unsuspectingly and with the utmost
good faith for three sessions of the
Legislature | lent what influence | pos
sessed in support of the Record-Fagan
bills. Some of them Were passed and
some of them We're not. At last my
eyes were opened when | discovered,
what others in Trenton had discovered
before me. that most of the Record bills
We're insincere and were not presented
with a view to having them passed. but
solely for the sake of using them as
tolatoms for the gallery.
The widest. crazlest most impossible
bills We're the ones that Record delight;d d
in. He stopped at nothing He came to
be spoken of in Trenton as being the big
gest fakir and political tr.ckster that
ever haunted the lobby. He practically
lived in the State House during the ses-
siens. Although protesting to be a Re-
publican. and accepting office as such. he
lambasted the Republican party when
ever he could thereby boost himself for
ward as an oracle.
The fact that many of his bills were
pronounced clearly unconstitutional and
ludicrous made no difference to Record.
He was out for gallery plays on all oc-
casions and succeeded in attracting at
tention to himself and making trouble for
his party and for all who had anything to
do with him. which. it might be justly
inferred. was the end he had in view.
Fagan. of course. trai ed after Record.
unconscious. apparently. of the spectacle
he was cutting
Last winter ] made up my mind to
have nothing more to do with Records
gallery bills. had got into too much
trouble over them III years previous.
Record had made a positive nuisance Of
himself in the State House. The legis-
lators all looked at him askance
Not single Republican member in
either house would introduce any of his
bills at the last session. They said his
bills We're loaded. regarding him as a sort
of political charlatan. He had lied to
them the year before. regarding the Jer-
sey City Board of Health bill. He as
sured the legislators that it was not pro-
posed to build a new City Hospital under
that bill and that the Board of Health
would not undertake to do so.
What happened? Almost as soon as
the bill was passed the new Board of
Health, acting on Records counsel be-
gan TO make plans for the building of
| new hospital. 1t was only when the
courts interfered. after n long lapse of
time. by declaring the old hospital board
a valid body. that the plans ceased. Thus
was the Legislature tricked by Record
lhlO dSSFuFdtlnR serious puhilc Scan-
dal in Jersey City and bringing 4 mea-
sure of contempt upon the Republican
party in the State.
The Record statement says that my
opposition several months ago to the
mo0ted denomination of Mayor Pagan
was at the behest of the corporations.
Let us look into this charge in passing
and then / shall state frankly what my
! opposition to Fagans third term aspira-
tions really were.
When Pagan first ran for Mayor four
years ago he was nominated and elect
ed on an anti-corporati0n platform. I
/ assume it will be granted that / had
some slight influence in securing his
nomination, and that | did my share of
the hard work which resulted in his
| election.
The successful fight which the Rec
ord party made that year was an anti
| corporation fight, the most bitter ever
known in this State, and | gloried then,
| as | do now in the share l took in that
| battle.
| Two years later, after fairly good
| administration. Pagan was again nomi-
| mated, and ON an anti-corporation plat
form. think that even Mr.. Record will
! admit that / was right in the thick of
| that fight, as ! was in the fight two
years previous. and that my antagonism
to the encroachments of corporal tions
upon the rights of the public was neither
concealed or gentle
Ny recollection is-and / don't think
Record will deny it-that / led in the
anti-corporation crusade with all the en-
ergy of my being. If had not done
so in both elections it is quite possible
| that Record would never have been Cor
| poration Counsel and in position TO
bile and bespatter the party which has
honored him and lifted him from OBJ
| security.
After Pagan had been elected Mayor
and when | became Secretary of State
| supported the Record anti-corporation
bills, as | have stated, every year until
last winter, and then / withdrew nv
support from them only when / came to
believe that there was not sincere hair
in Records head, and that his bills were
| drafted for buncombe
SO that IT, as Record says. | am now
a corporation man, | must have UNDER
gone change of heart very recently.
/ The fact is-and no one knows ii better
than Record-that / had cherished
hopes of seeing Republican Mayor and
| a Republican Sheriff elected in this city
and county this fall-and elected on an
anti-corporation platform. at that: not
on a wild, Socialistic, Record platform,
| perhaps, but on an anti-corporation plat
! form that would anneal to sane and
fair-minded American citizens.
No; / have not undergone a change of
| heart on the anti-corporati ton question.
] stand exactly where I stood during the
successful fights the Republican party in
this city has waged to elect Mayor Fa-
gan in the past two Mayoralty cam
| paigns.
Ny opDosition to the renomination of
| Mayor Pagan for a third term was be-
cause l did not think he could be re-elect-
| ed. And why? Simply because Mayer
| Fagan's second term has been a failure.
1t has been the most extrayagant ad-
ministration this city has ever known.
exceeding in current expenses by hum
| dreds of thousands of dollars any admin
| istration Of the past. The financial man
| agement has been bungled and even the
| city's credit has been called in question.
| The water problem is as far from so u
| ton to-day, in my opinion. as it ever was.
The city never had such a large inc oI,le
| as it has had during Fagan's admins
| tration- Ii gets more from taxes and
more from the railroads than ever before
| yet the bonded debt has increased. the
temporary debt has increased and fhe
| sinking fund has been stripned to meet
| the ever growing demands The improve
loans and the salary list has grown I'M
to nearly $1.400000 year.
So expensive has been the administers
| tion that last years financial statement
/ suppressed much of the detail usually
| published and this years financial state
ment has been entirely suppressed. Ey-
| cry means for raising money has been
| exhausted, YET the money has not been