Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-02-15

present day everything Mr.. Colby has
done or attempted to do has been
attributed by the regular machine
organs to unworthy motives and to
selfish and unwarranted ambitions.
They have acted as if they thorough
ly believed in the old German pro-
verb that HE who is found behind a
bush looks behind bush for every
body else Unable to understand
that conscientious ideas of reform can
exist in lawmakers, and reluctant to
believe that anything but ulterior de-
signs can move anybody who is in
politics, they seek to attach to Mr..
Colby the only motives to which they,
by inference, seem TO be themselves
susceptible.
And what the machine organs have
done has been but reflection of the
conduct of Mr.. Colby's colleagues in
the Legislature. They have given
him no chance to carry out reforms.
They have cpnspired to rob him of
the credit of anything and everything
he proposed by hastily drawing sim
liar bills and reporting their own in
stead of his. They have manifested
a kind of contempt that was wholly
undeserved. They have patronizing-
~ bOlCl ltCQ hAAns my AdNG dlldCu-
ed insinuations to their remarks
about him. Even the most insignifi-
cant of them, like Crowther, has ex-
ercised the courage of the ass that
kicked the lion when he thought he
could safely do so.
Yet upon the statute books is the
limited franchise act, essentially
Colby measure. The equal tax law
was the outcome of his fight, thought
1t was not his bill. He would and
did vote for any bill carrying into
effect his reform ideas, no matter
who introduced 1t. But the rest of
the republican legislators would vote
for no bill, however good, If Colby
fathered 1t. That shows the motives
and ambitions actuating both sides,
better than any guesswork or partiz-
an prejudice can do 1t.
Coming down to the present year,
practically every important measure
now before the legislature is the out
growth of the Colby reform move
ment. Governor Stokes, in his mess
age, recommended civil service, anti
corruption laws and the choice of the
United States senator by the people;
every one of them Colby measures.
Last year Mr.. Colby sought to repeal
the promoters liability act and was
defeated. This year another man has
introduced a repeater, and it will
probably pass, but it is really Colby's
measure. Do these things show any
motive or ambition other than to OBJ
tain reforms for the people? Are not
all these measures, so reluctantly
adopted by the regular republicans.
Colby measures pure and simple, and
are they not, one and all, in the in
terests of the people?
Mr.. Colby has had no help, no en-
couragement from any other legis-
lators, except in the fight he made
against Senator Dryden, whose re-
election he prevented. The only
thing that controls him is an honest
purpose to do what is right. If any
other motive or ambition had actuat-
ed him, he had only to do what the
bosses and the machine required him
to do, and he could have had any
thing he wanted. But he has been
honest with himself and with the
people, and that's the whole secret of
his power at Trenton. If he has not
accomplished much in his own name,
he has compelled reluctant colleagues
to do what he would have done. The
Perth Amboy Chronicle knows all
this, but lacks the courage to admit
| it.--Newark Evening News.