Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-01-06
GOVERNOR IN
HIS MESSAGE
Touches Upon Municipal Owner
ip---DOCumentS Comes from
the Printer Today.


TRENTON, Jan. Governor
Stokes message viii come from the
hands OF the printer today. 1t will
be In the usual pamphlet form and
viii De placed, as usual in one of the
vaults until Tuesday. The message
is said TO be Of the longest ever
prepared by q New Jersey governor.
About every subject with which a
governor has 10 heal will be consid-
cred. and if all the topics treated are
@traversed boy the legislature the ses-
sion will last until the flowers are in
full bloom. While the governor main
tains his reticence as TO the contents
it is understood there is much orig
inal thought shown, especially re-
garding the franchise and taxation
questions. 1t is reported that the
governor will favor a species of mu-
nfcipal ownership. That is, he will
suggest that cities might build troll
ley beds and other equipment and
then lease the right to use them to
various corporations. Such a sug-
gestion, however, would SAVIOR rather
too much of a sop to the extremely
radical element, and even Stokes
heartiest opponents would scarcely
charge him with such a palpable
piece of politictl trimming.
Attention has been called several
times of late to the vigorous meas
Ire that Senator Minturn, of Hud-
son, proposes to introduce. The fact
than Minturn will be the leader of
the sparse democratic minority nat
urally entities them to consideration.
He has announced several more bills
IN the last few days that he has ready
in addition to those favoring munic-
ipal ownership. One of these is. real
ly a supplement to the city
ship plan, only on an enlarged scale.
1t provides for the appointment of a
commission to consider the question
of state ownership of public utilities.
The commission is to have power to
take testimony, and to report, with
recommendations, to the session of
the legislature in 1907.
The democratic leader also intends
to join with some of the republicans
in an attack on the life insurance
companies. He wants such corpora
tons restricted further in the matter
of the investment of their surplus
funds. He has drawn a measure
which he thinks will accomplish the
purpose and safeguard the interests
of the policyholders. The bill pre-
vents life insurance companies in the
state from investing funds in any Sc
curities except those % permitted
to savings institutions. The invest
ment is practically by this cas-
ure, confined to national, state, u
ty or municipal bonds and to real es-
tate bonds and mortgages, to an
amount not exceeding so per cent. OF
the realty values.
Considering, apparently, that the
McAdoo people, the Pennsylvania
railroad and the Public Service Cor
poration were not furnishing or pre-
pairing to furnish adequate facilities
for crossing the Hudson river, Sen
ator Minturn says he expects to in
troduce a joint resolution soon after
the opening of the session next week
providing for the building of several
bridges across the river. These
bridges are to be erected from Ho-
boken to New York and from Jersey
City to New York, and are to be paid
for Jointly by the states of New York
and New Jersey.
The state house machine must
have received a little jolt the other
day, when it learned that the new
Passaic County Board of Freehold
ers was showing an independence OF
the bosses and a determination to
serve the people that were receiving
! the approval of the masses in that
county. Ever since the assemblymen
from Passaic were apparently cap
tured by the machine the state house
leaders have talked about the failure
of Colby and his contingent TO accom-
plish anything in Passaic. OF course
everybody but the machine knew that
was not true, but did not think 1t
worth while to correct this wrong
impression. Before the session is far
advanced the Pasasic members may
show that they know what their con-
stituents want.