Perth Amboy evening news., 1906-05-28
RECORD JARS
The MACHINE
Ring" Men Will Point With
Pride" to Last Legislature on
Great Public Questions.

TRENTON, May 2S.-With George
l.. Records formal and forceful dec
laration that he is an .out-and-out
candidate before the republicans for
United States senator, and the demo-
Gratis beginning to take notice, there
are some lively days just ahead for
New Jersey. Add to that the deter
mination of the Hillery commission
to make a real investigation of the
life insurance companies and the
long, hot summer days promise to be
full of political ginger. 1t is all such
an innovation that the oldtimer in
politics is rubbing his eyes and won
dering if this is another product of
the twentieth century pace. There
has been so much of newness and in
novation in that line, however, that
the situation really presents little
novelty.
Take the daredevil act of Colby,
for instance, performed without a
net and before an audience that fully
eXpected-and part of it wished him
to break his neck in leaping the
gap between the nee all-powerful
machine and independence. 1t was
such a tremendous risk to take, so
few had tried and none succeeded,
that even the performer himself won
dered, when it was all over, and the
applause of the multitude let loose,
how he had ever considered it hard.
why" said he once, ''that machine
is only a bugaboo. You can make the
leap as easy as rolling off a log" And
any boy who ever went swimming
knows how easy that is.
Then there was that other innova-
ton of a republican legislature, once
supposed to be absolutely controlled
by the machine, and, through that,
by the corporations, straining nerves
to meet popular demand for legisla-
ton. The looker-on who had witness
ed the construction of laws in other
years, and who had gained some fair
notion of the situation back of the
genes, was copelled to confess that
he could not understand all of it..
He could see plainly enough that
somebody was directly things into
such channels as to seek popular ap-
proval and prevent wreck, but he
could not quite fathom the entire
mystyery of how the M great act
was performed.
He couldn't quite grasp the mean
ing of the insistence upon the pass
g of an act that peeled off three or
four millions of dollars from the roll
of the railroads, while the railroads
were looking. And he isn't quite
through guessing, either.
Then came the proposition for the
investigation of the insurance COM
panies, which, through their subsidi-
airy companies, corporations and all
their political ramifications, held an
other grip hand on the throttle of the
machine.
That caused quite as deep a gasp
as the railroad peeling process, and it
the inquiry shall follow the lines laid
down by the Hillery commission, with
earnestness and sincerity, it is be-
lieved that a mass of intensely in
teresting material will be exhumed.
The probable effect of this inquiry
upon the contest for senator is caus-
ing widespread speculation, for ev-
erybody knows that Senator John F.
Dryden is the founder, president and
ruling spirit of the Prudential Insur-
ance Company; the practical, though
rak 4lnA aN~oina1 head ~ tho 0rnaf
Public Service Corporation, with its
gas, electric light and trolley fran
chises reaching into almost every
county of the state, and everybody
knows what an investigation that in
v~estigates can do in that direction.
1t might reveal some of the inner
workings of the political manage
ment for which these corporations
have been responsible and get down
to the foundations of some of the
workings. 1t might reveal how men
are nominated and elected to Office,
how even United States senators r
elected; the question uppermost in
the minds of those who watch things
is as to whether the inquiry will
really reach out in that direction.
The possibilities are almost limitless.
1t remains for the commission to act,
and 1t is no violation of confidence to
say that Chairman Hillery has prom
ised to see that it does act.
The commission is composed of
three bright, able and industrious
lawyers, and it will have the advice
- " - Vrys1Iso~o TT N-.La-
one of the most eminent lawyers in
the states bar, a man who has pilot
ed other successful Investigations in
New Jersey. !.