Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-06-26
MACHINE MEN WORRIED.
IRON the Hoboken Observer.)

NO eXpert carpenter with pract1ced
eye ever hit a nail more squarely and
fairly on the head than did the writer
of an editorial in the New York Eve
ming Post last week that was headed
Troubling New Jersey"
Its very title told the story that is
being felt by all machine men in
the state. What its effect on them
was can only be imagined, but 1t laid
bare the truth before them in words
that they could not deny and it made
them sweat.
The opening paragraph describes in
detail the situation just as it is, be-
tween the Colby movement and the
workings of the sadly creaking repub-
lican machine. This is how the edi-
, torial writer began:
Jersey republicans of the faithful
organization type, are looking for
ward to one Of the saddest summers
of theft lives. OF what availsfs it for
them to have made an appropriation
! to keep down mosquitoes, if swarms
of Colbyites are to buzz and sting all
over the state, from now till Novem-
Der? This threat of an all summer
campaign is terrible to the bosses.
The idea is simply appalling to them
that the exasperating and Internally
successful work done in the summer
months last year by Senator Colby in
Essex county is this year to be. ex-
tended to Morris and Union and Mid
dlocav ard sotbar nortc Of Nou low
Lsey. What are clouds of culeX and
anopheles compared with the horde
of organizers which the Colby Repub-
lican League is preparing to let loose
upon the devoted state to fight it out
on that line If 1t takes all summer"
There is not a regular party leader
in any town, in any county through
out the state who is not fearful of
the outlook.
The bosses men of Essex county
received their lesson a year ago when
Senator Colby triumphed and now
they realize that the work done in
Essex last summer is being repeated
in nearly every county in the state.
The machine men r at work, there
is no question of that, but they are
working along the same lines that
took them to victory year after year,
when there was no opposition.
They go among their own men and
supporters, promise them future jobs,
play them along with small presents,
take care of them in saloons, but that
is not organization.
They have the money, plenty of it,
to oil the machine, but still the ma
chine creaks and works with none
of the accustomed smoothness of old
and they do not know what to make
| of 1t.
What are we up against?" is the
question they ask themselves, and
the question will not be answered UNI
til September 25 at the primaries.
The answer they may not like.
There have been reformers, and
would-be reformers, before, and the
machine men have been amused with
their efforts. 1t is different now and
| the same writer of this editorial sums
up that situation in his closing para
graph. This is it:
What the bosses like is a reformer
who will admit some fine ge~neralities,
and then go away, not returning until
October to see what is the effect.
They do not know what to do with a
man who buckles down to a fight all
through the hot months, contesting
every ward, organizing in every vot-
ing division. 1t is this unprecedented
and wholly Irregular activity of the
! Colbyites that is making this sum