Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-01-16
Governors Message

From the Elmer l1mes
The message of Governor Stokes,
presented to the New Jersey Legisla-
ture on Tuesday, was an optimistic
document, and an able one as whole.
awe have safeguarded the ballot,
provided an honest system of voting,
etc. reads the message. This state
ment reflects an opinion which the
laws themselves have not yet demon
strated. In counties where big fight
was waged at the last election, bribery
was carried on as of yore, and 1t was
further demonstrated that the voting
machine does not insure the secrecy OF
the ballot. If the Governor doubts
| this statement we refer him to Cape
May county for proof of its correctness.
He gave figures showing the advan-
tage of the present taxation laws and
discusses the Necessity of Equaliza-
tion.n
While there has been an outward at
tempt at the equalization of taxes, we
believe that the effort has not been
such, on the part of the County Boards,
as to cause many of the members of
these Boards to turn prematurely gray.
The County Equalization Board"
theory may be correct, but as long as
the appointments on these Boards are
made to give politicians fat berths for
services rendered, the law will fail in
its object. In many of the counties a
berth on the Equalization Board has
been one of the fattest snaps within
the gift of the Chief Executive. There
have been some good appointments
and lot of poor ones, and this condi-
ton will continue to exist to the detri-
ment of the service until some mode of
selection is devised which will divorce
the appointment from practical
politics.
The Governor may have had in mind
this truth when be penned the follow
ing under the heading "Civil Service" !"
"Good government demands both
probity and efficiency in public officials.
1t is difficult to induce the best men to
enter public life. Much less can they
he induced to do SO where position is
the plaything of partisanship, instead
of the sure reward of merit.
Patronage is the blight of Office. 1t
impairs the usefulness of an admins
tration by dividing its energies between
appointments and policies when the
latter should have exclusive attention.
1t creates enmities and hampers an
administration in the execution of its
proper functions. Every patriotic
official would rejoice if he had no pat
rvnage at his command. In the hands
of an ambitious partisan, patronage
builds up an offensive machine, creates
an office-hOlders' trust and demoralizes
public life. Of1iee-hofdefs, whose
position depends uIon the seFpice they
render to the appointing po@er, nee
osse riis, give sheit FIRST allegiance to
that power in preference to the people
Public business should be conducted
ul on the same basis as private busi-
ness and appointments based upon
fitness and capacity-a judicious civil
service law, providing that appoint
ments-municlpal, county and State
be based upon efficiency is well worthy
of your consideration"
There is lot of sound sense in this
utterance on "Civil Service" applied
to State and municipal affairs, with
which office hunting politicians will
not agree.
To overcome one phase of election
corruption he suggests that ballots be
confined to polling places SO that
bribers may not have the chance to
place identifying marks on them.
Voting machines are favored, as is
also constitutional amendment pro-
viding for Assembly districts within
counties, and the divorcing of Munich
pal, and State and National elections,
by arranging for Municipal elections
once in two years and National and
State elections every other year.
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