Perth Amboy evening news., 1907-03-19
EDITORIAL COMMENT.
STRONG, OF MlDDLEslsx.

IneOQOr6 otTOuS, lAC ~ .'hplicdh
boss of Middlesex' county. who, like
Colonel Samuel D.. Dickinson, wants
Governor Stokes to reappoint him 10
office and thereby vindicate him to
the teeth OF the people Of hts county
has been for years the right hand
man of David Baird 10 the state
Board of Assessors, which formerly
valued all, and still values two-thirds,
of the railroad property. Of the state
for taxation.
Strong walked out of the state sem
ate into his present JOB. He made
the transfer, in fact, before his term
in the elective Office had expired, and
during two-thirds of the year 1908
drew two salaries, in defiance of the
constitution.
His reputation by the voters Of
Middlesex last fall was direct and en-
phatic. He had selected William H
G.. Jackson for denomination to the
senate.9 Alexander r. Fordyce, Jr
challenged the rightsof any one mar
to pick 2out the republican nominee,
sought the nomination and denounced
Strong as a boss. q.
Strong admitted and defended his
dictatorship in a series of letters to
the newspapers, and, with his ma
chine, crushed Fordyce at the primar-
les. Then he renominated his man,
Jackson
During the campaign that followed,
the only issue was Strong. Excise,
as the returns show, played no part
in the election. Every candidate on
the republican ticket carried the
county by majorities ranging from
700 to 1,700, with the exception OF
the boss particular nominee, who
was beaten by George S. Silzer, dem
ocrat, by 106 votes.
Strong's reappointment would be
an insult to the decent people of
Middlesex, who have shown a deter
mination to get rid of him, but there
is another reason why he ought to be
retired.
All of the state is still ringing with
the scandal of tn differentiation of
| railroad property by the board, OF
which Strong is member. When
the assessment of second class prop
erty was shifted from the Baird
Strong board to the local boards. the
/ local assessors found that the state
boards assessments had been out
rageous.
For instance, the Jersey City board
made an increase from 24,00O,OOO
to SAT, 100000, and on appeal the
higher figures were found to be about
LIS per cent. of true value. Baird
and Strong must, therefore, have val
ued the property at 81 or 3S per cent.
of true value.
Every other local board in the
state made similar increases, each or
which revealed the former favoritism
of the state body. Newark, Trenton,
Perth Amboy, Paterson and Eliza
beth separately repudiated the Baird
Strong figures.
That other property had been un-
dervalued, too, is no answer to the
revelations of the past year, for the
reason that private property was TAX
/ ed at full rates; railroad property IN
the aggregate, at less than half rates.
There is no reason to suppose tnat
the state board has taxed main stem
property at any higher percentage
than it did second class property, SO
that the undervaluations must nave
been worth hundreds OF thousands OF
dollars year to the railroads.
There could be but one reason TOT
kutting Strong back into the state
Board Of Assessors, and that is be-
caese Baird wants him, and the ran
roah corporations want him. his re-
nomination would be an Insult, not
onlA to the voters OF Middlesex coun-
ty, but to the taxpayers OF the entlre
state. .EHoboken Observer