The evening star and Newark advertiser., 1907-10-29
STATE PAPERS ON CAMPAIGN
Forts Attitude Uncourageous.

[From the Hackettstown Gazette, DEM
will not, If elected Governor, consent to
the repeal OF the Bishops bill. 1t
is advanced legislation on the regulation OF
the sale OF liquor.-J. Franklin Fort.
If elected to the Assembly / will sustain
the Bishops bill with vote and voice, and
will not consent to its repeal or modifica-
tion.-George A. Angle
Judge Fort is lawyer of distinction,
and has just retired from the Supreme
Court bench. Mr. Angle is a lawyer of
ability, and has served ss Prosecutor of the
Pleas of this county.
Is it charitable to presume that they are
playing TO the w. C. T. U. In the political
gallery?
Both men are familiar with court pro-
ceedings, and both know that the Bishops
law is beyond their aid or opposition un til
Its constitutionality Is finally determined
by the Court of Errors. 1t Is fair to pre-
sumo that Judge Fort, by reason of recent
association, is familiar with the present
status of the case in that court
The clause in that bill which deprives
an owner of the full lawful use and emolu-
ments Of his property-the two clauses in
fact. for both are Identical in purpose
seems to every reasoning mind unconstitu-
tionaL 1t was so declared by eminent law
yers at the time of its passage, and this
precise point was urged by Governor
Stokes when the Republican party assumed
Responsibility for Its passage.
1t was carried in a perfunctory way to
the Supreme Court, where Its constitution
ality was affirmed, and Is now before the
Court of Errors on the appeal of Meeham
VS.. the Mayor and Common Council of
Jersey City. The constitutional objection.
as stated above, has been fully argued
and the court still has the case on the
points raised before it.
1t is the Judgment Of the best legal
minds in the State that If way can prop
erly be found to eliminate, by court con-
struction, the admittedly faulty provisions
leaving the rest Of the law to stand, that
the law will be saved, but If that may not
be done the whole statute will go down
beyond the aid of Mr.. Fort or Mr.. Angle
to save 1t. The Bishops law makes pos
sible the enforcement of the Werts law,
and 1t is hoped that the parts pertinent
to its purpose may be saved in the ad-
Judlcatlon OF the court of final resort. A
layman on the stump seeking the fran
chises OF the people might be given credit
TOT the courage of conviction In taking the
posltlon that Messrs. Fort and Angle have
taken, but with lawyers, knowing that a
maj decision is pending and that the meas
ure may be entirely eliminated as an issue
or dignity.
Mr.; Katzenbach is both a lawyer and
Ganuldate for Governor AS a lawyer, he
declines to discuss on the hustings an is
sue pending in court, and as candidate
feIuses 1, to accept as an issue a question
that may at any minute be eliminated by
a decision of the court If the RepnbIiean
party can make the issue of the campaign
moral question now pending in court, Of
very doubtful constitutionality In parts,
and thus divert the public from a record OF
ineflcient and extrayagant government, of
Illuminating Nsubserviency to corporation
DOMINATION, so much the worse for the peo-
be dragged into the Improbable discussion,
and persists in driving home those ques-
tions of efficiency, equality and fairness in
people.