The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-16
ATTACKS PROSECUTOR RIKER
FOR HIS COURSE IN NEWARK
TROLLEY DISASTER.


WORKED To save the Traction Company
Onsciais From Individual Indictment.
EAST ORANoE. N. j.. Aug. lS.-Some
secrets OF the Grand Jury room were
told tonight by Alden Freepan, the civic
reformer and chairman Of The county
committee Of the Independent party. at a
dinner given by him at his home in East
Orange to Frank H. Sommer. Sheriff Of
Essex county. and a candidate for nomina-
ton for Governor. Mr.. Freeman made a
speech to his guests which was probably
more sensational than any that has been
made since the campaign for good govern
ment opened in New Jersey several years
age. He attacked Chandler w. Riker, who
is spoken of as a possible gubernatorial can
didate; his brother. Supreme Court Clerk
William Riker; Chief Justice William s.
Gummere and ex- Ex-senator James Smith, Jr.
81 would warn the people of New Jersey
against electing to public Office, especially
to the G~overnorship, any man who has been
appointed to the judiciary, to a public prose-
cutorship or to any State Board Of Taxation
or Assessment" said Mr.. Freeman. THE
exceptions are so rare as to prove the rule
that appointments by Governors Of this
State, whether elected as Republicans or
Democrats, are made of men who are care
fully considered as to their being safe men
for the interests. who can be counted on the
side Of special privilege and who have no
idealistic or old fashioned notions about
popular rights.
Il feel that I made the acquaintance of
the real Chandler Riker when a member
of Sheriff Nicoll's first Grand Jury, the
December jury of 1902. On that terrible
10th day of February, 1908, which New
arkers will never forget, / was still on
duty in the Grand Jury. Aside from the
horror Of it, which grew as we examined
the crippled victims On crutches in the
jury room or in their cots at the hospital,
nv most vivid recollection was the strenu-
GUS effort on the part Of both Chandler
Riker and Chief Justice Gummere to pre-
vent the bringing in Of an indictment.
The jurymen were most unanimous in
favor OF separate individual indictments
for ~manslaughter against various officers
Of the North Jersey Street Railway Com
pany and each member of the executive
committee Of the corporation and directed
the public prosecutor to prepare such in
dictments: For n week we kept asking
for the indictments ordered from the prose-
cutor. Different members OF the jury in
the meantime told me that they We're being
approached from the outside. One man
told me he was offered fifty 81 900 bills by
the son Of one of the officers Of the COM
pany 10 use his influence to quash the in
dictment. The same nan told me of loans
called by financial institutions of Newark
and contracts held up.
After this week Of suspense Mr.. Riker
finally brought in an indictment OF all the
men in a bunch (something like those cor
p~orations kill their victims, in bunches)
instead of the separate, individual indict-
ments ordered protested with all The
power / possessed n was ably supported
by some of the finest men | have ever met,
but the weeks delay of the prosecutor
had lone the work. although he trick Of the
blanket indictment was fully exposed.
Mr.. Riker was greatly excited. ] recall
his hands shook as though with palsy,
although his face remained immobile.
He made his final effort when he said the
Chief Justice wished US to go before him
and let him advise us. | resented the in
vasion Of the rights of the Grand Jury: l
said that if MIR. Gummere had anything TO
say to the Grand jury let him come before
US like any other citizen. that the functions
of the Grand Jury and those of the Chief
Justice were distinct and separate and that
had no right TO thus encroach upon the
of the Grand Jury, which was a
part of our judicial system and
the only weapon left in the hands Of ar out
ragged people with which odlous tyranny
can he assailed.
chandler Riker's pleadings finally pre-
against me in the Grand Jury, lust
az two years later the pleadings of his
brother William in behalf of the vested
which control the State of New
Jersey prevailed against me in suppressing
the Train Of the Serpent circulars in the
Colby headquarters, and a committee was
appointed TO wait upon the Chief Justice.
II was insisted that / should go along.
The Chief Justice resolved US and we
MIR. Gummere even more agitated
than the Public Prosecutor. He also had
violent shaking of the hands. This
I particularly noted in both men. Tie
Chief Justice made a long argument against
indicting. He said we must ave reasonable
ground to show criminal negligence. We
brought up the warning OF Mayor Doremus
in his message and various warnings Of a
similar nature by citizens and particularly
the words Of the president of the Lacka-
wanna railroad. Samuel Sloan, who told
the trolley people before they laid their
rails across the railroad tracks that there
would inevitably be an awful slaughter
there some day and that asa mere matter Of
business it would be much cheaper to carry
the trolley tracks over the railroad on a
bridge than to pay the damages in civil
suits which would follow the death of the
victims of parsimony.
Il cited the testimony Of officers Of the
trolley company that there were twenty
one other trolley grade crossings equally
dangerous in Essex county and finally
asked the Chief Justice il, knowing of the
collision OF February 10 Il cannot call il