The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1906-05-22
THE COLBY
INVASION
1t Was Inaugurated at Dover
Last Week Many Poll
ticians Present.
FOR PERMANENT ORGANIZATION

The COiby-Eagan movement as IL is
commonly called was launched id Nor
ris County at a meeting held in Lii
brary~Hall, Dover, last Tuesday even-
ing which was attended by about two
hundred representative citizens Of
that place, besides a number from
other towns in the county.
G. f. AxteIl called the meeting to
order and introduced as the first
speaker Senator Everett Colby, Of Es-
sex County. He said that he under
stood that Morris County is able to
manage its own affairs and they did
not come to cause trouble nor engage
in combat other than the inevitable
combat Of ideas. The proposition
which it is desired to emphasize is the
need Of absolute and complete repre-
sentative government, a thing which
does not exist at the present time in
New Jersey. This it is desired to ac-
complish through the sheer power Of
ideas and principles. We must keep
the channels clean through which the
people must work. A year ago, ninety
nine per cent. Of the people believed
that perpetual grants to utility cor
porations are absolutely wrong, yet
the bill for attaining that object was
smothered in committee. Those who
stood for the right were declared to be
radicals.
There are two sets of politicians,
coward and the crooked politician and
the speaker told some of the exper-
fences which have come under his no.
tice, and offered as a remedy for part
of the work legislation to prevent
smOthering bills in committees. He
urged the formation of organizations
to nominate candidates SO that Morris
can do its share IN clearing the chan
nels of public expression.
George L. Record was the next
speaker and took up a few Of the prop
OSitions with which Jersey City has
had to contend under assessment Of
corporation property, refusal Of the
Legislature to pass bills for the benefit
of the city, etc, multiplying examples
of what he declared was the corpor-
ate control of New JERSEY which has
existed, he stated since the days of
the Camden & Amboy monopoly. He
reviewed the rising Of the people when
outraged by the proposed race track
and coal combine legislation, and said
that there is no difference morally be-
tween that and letting railroads pay
one-fourth of the tax that they should
for the past twenty years or more.
What eats away self government is
special privileges, secret-WOrking poll
tics and business lntermingled, and
the ramiticati0ns running through
both Of the great parties. There are
three cOu:eS open for relief. First for
a man to vote the opposite ticket from
what he generally does; but by this
course he only changes this apparent
master with the same interests TO
profit. We have been allowed for
thirty years to play with the pieces.
The second course is TO form an in
dependent party. This would require
enormous labor and without some
tremendous moral gu eStion such as
slavery is practically imf ossible.
The third, is the reason the speakers
are in Dover-to try tc get the voters
so aroused TO conditions which exist
in the State that they will, through
the primaries, drive out of power every
one suspected OF being the agent Of
the corporations. game in the open
is what Is wanted, not any gum-shoe
business. Primaries are held on Sep
tember 25, and the speakers showed
how to vote at that time. Ask the
candidates who they will favor for
Senator and see them smoked out. III
they say they cannot tell or have no
candidate, make up your mind that
their candidate is man unpopular to
you, The Colby candidates will stand
for the principle Of the adequate tax
alton Of franchises, vote in primary
or other place for the feeling of the
people in regard to q. S. Senator, ade-
quate water legislation, grand jury re-
form SO that sheriff cannot pick out
the men he wants.
John S. Gibson dealt with the his
tory Of corporation control, took up
the taxation question with direct COM
parisons with Dover property corpor-
ate and private showing the injustice
of present methods. He spoke in COM
mendation Of Senator Hillery, but
scored his maximum rate bill as sim
ply adegice to keep down the railroad
taxes at the expense Of the private
property owners, and also criticised
some of his other actions. Then he
took up the Morris Canal proposition,
recalling to his hearers the conditions
prior to the Lehigh Valley lease and
the Wiping out of the fourteen humid
red private boats by the restrictions
put on them. He reviewed the action
Of the company in selling water un-
lawfully, referring to the Wharton
furnance as an example and scored
ASsemblyman Mills for his part in the
build for abandonment.
The last speaker was Mark Pagan,
of Jersey City, c0mplimenting the
ladies present and announcing as his
platform the same virtues In govern
ment as In the home. The time for
action is at hand, Tt Is the everlast-
ing fight between right and wrong,
and 1t Is the duty of all men especially
the young to take an active interest
in politics. and so shape matters that
a young man can enter politics with
the opportunity to rise through his
knowledge and ability and not have
his destiny shaped by any boss or cor
porati0n. The present movement is
not superficial nor a spasm. He urged
organization Of every district in the.