The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1909-03-22
LOCAL OPTION
HAS NO CHANCE
At THIS SESSION
Only Seven Out of Twenty-0ne
Senators Will Vote for
Plummer Bill.
[From a stan correspondent

lfTOm a cLdL OoihSSpphucbt
TRENTON, March 22.-Local option
is dead for another year, or at least
will be as soon as the Legislature gets
hold of the bill. which is due for third
reading his week. Senator William
hPlummer, who introduced the measure,
has given up hope of getting it through.
As the prospective vote stands now,
the local optionists are conceded but :.
votes of the q, although some of them
claim 8. There arc bur three who are
certain to cast their votes in favor
of 1t.
They are Plumlner, the ~introducer,
and Minch, of Salem, and Ackerman, Of
Union. Several others. ON whom spe-
cial pressure has been brought by the
local optionists, are Gebhardt, minority
leader; Bradley. of Camden; President
Robbins, of Burlington; Gaunt, or
Gloucester; Wakelee, of Bergen; Hill
cry, of Morris; Brown, of Monmouth,
and Cornish, of Warren.
The chief opponent of the bill is SEN
ator Frelinghuysen, of Somerset. He
has been against the measure from the
first, and it wa to his committee. the
JodhSiofy, lldt i was TclcIItQ. lie re-
ported it, but will not help it along,
preferring to stand ON the present
liquor restrictions embodied by the
bishops law.
Senator Gaunt was elected last fall
over an opponent who declared for local
option. At that time he pulled most of
the wet vote in the country. That, how
ever, has not deferred the hackers of
the bill from trying to get him in line
for its passage.
Are BesiegiDg Robbins.
President Robbins, who comes from
a rural county, is also being besieged
with requests to vote for local option.
The president, however. is due to be the
next Commissioner of Banking and In
surance, and will, therefore, probably
resign at the end Of this session.
In Cumberland county, from which !
Senator Minch was elected, there are
but four places licensed to sell liquor, so
his vote is by no means In doubt. Sem
ator Minch would not be ayerse to be-
ing the next Congressman from the
Second District, which includes Allan
tic, Cumberland, Burlington and Cape
May counties. The only one of the fouI.
where there is any great amount Of
liquor selling is Atlantic. but Minch's
vote in favor of the bill would not he
resented there. as Atlantic has long
been DESTROYS of home rule on the
| liquor question.
Wilson Is for II.
Senator Wilson will vote for the bill
IL the proposed amendment to allow
those communities that vote wet to des-
ignate hours during which liquor might
be sold on Sunday is adopted. That
is where the whole thing falls
down. The opponents of the bill will
vote for it with that amendment, in
spite OF the Werts law and everything
else, and they won't vote for 1t without
1t. The hackers of the measure will
have nothing to do with it under those
conditions.
The most important bill to come up
his week, the n which will create the
real excitement, is Senator Leavitt's
measure to have the main-stem tax
money distributed to the schools on
June 15. The wording of the bill, how
ever, gives the impression that the dis
may be made at a later date.
Its passage would mean that this year
the schools would lose over 50, 900. 900 Of
the money coming to them. The money
VIII &c to the uses of the State instead,
and establish a sort of capital fund,
Jr. o. u. A. NJ. on Hand.
The Junior Order of United American
Mechanics will be in Trenton tonight to
oppose the bill. Letters have been sent
out all over the State by the %organiza-
ton, asking for support to kill the
measure.
In opposition to the bill is one intro
duced in the House by Assemblyman
Radcliffe, of P~assaic, which provides
simply that the State comptroller shall
distribute the money that is due the
schools at once.
Adjournment this week is unlikely.
The really big measures have not come
up for final passage yet. and there are
a great many less important bills that
must be acted upon one way or tho
other.
Oppose Night Sessions.
If possible Speaker Prince will pre-
vent the customary all-night session on
the day of adjournment. He will do
all he can to have the legislators get
six or seven hours sleep before the
final rush comes. This Is the way he
looks at it,:
Il want to get along without an all
night session at the end. If It's pos
sible, I am going to clear the calendar
and keep it free, so that we can adj
journ at the time officially fixed. If
that is impossible. / would like to see
a 'one-minute' recess taken in the eve
ming of the last day with the House
under call and nave the members
understand that they were to get six
or seven hours sleep and then come
back to. finish up work, closing the ees
sion without the grind that breaks men
down physically, and at the same time
permits the enactment Of laws that had
better be left Oft the statute books"
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