Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1910-10-28
SELF-MADE MAN
SEEKS SUPPORT
Of ESSEX VOTERS

Few, IL any, of the forty-four can
didates for member of Assembly, from
whom the voters of Essex county will
choose eleven to represent them in
the Legislature of 1911, .re more wide
ly or fayorably known In the business
and social life of this city thar for
mer Alderman Michael Leveen, one
of the eleven Democratic candidates
for the office.
While only Sc years old, Alderman
Leveen's life has been one continuous
round of activity since he came. to
this city In the early eighties from
New York, where he spent his child
hood days. His education was COM
pleted in the public schools, finished
in a business college and al an age
earlier than most boys make a start
nowadays he sought and readily OBJ
tained employment.
With him 1t was not so much a mat
ter of choice as of opportunity. The
first opening he found vas in a big
local shoe manufacturing concern and
he started there at a modest salary.
The shoe trade appealed to Candidate
Leveen as n capable Of considerable
development and he stuck to II.
After acquiring a thorough practical
knowledge of the manufacture of foot
wear his next move was to obtain all
the information necessary as to how
to sell them before embarking in that
line himself. To do SO he served as a
clerk in one of the big local retail
stores and then opened the store he
still owns on the "Hill,' which a
grown to be one of the biggest of its
kind in the CITY.
While devoting strict attention to
business Mr.. Leveen found time
enough to become affiliated with nu-
merous charitable, social n political
organizations, the latter including one
of which he is standard bearer, and
also to keep in close touch with local,
State and national affairs.
His knowledge along these lines
caused his associates to regard hin as
just the. man for public office. He re-
fused all overtures in that line, how
ever, until 1906, when he accepted tho
nomination for alderman from the Sec
ond ward and defeated his Republican
opponent, William Pennington. the
present president of the Common
Council, by a substantial plurality.
Last year Candidate Leveen was one
of the eleven Democratic nominees for
Assembly defeated by the Republican
eleven, nine of whom are seeking re-
election this year. With his Demo
cratic colleagues he does not believe
the people of Essex ara ready to be
fooled two years in succession by the
same men. N.sf +
That Is one reason why Mr.. Leveen
cheerfully accepted a denomination. He
wants to show by voice ard vote that
it is within the province of the State
Legislature by statute, to prevent rail-
roads traversing this State to make a
vast and unjust Increase in the rail-
road rates charged between various
points in this State. higher than those
charged from localities outside this
State. ~
In other words, Candidate Leveen
wants to know why the Pennsylvania
railroad should charge a citizen of
Camden twenty cents more to visit its
new New York terminal than It will
charge a citizen of Philadelphia. He
also wants to know why a resident OF
Newark should pay an excess fare OF
twenty cents for a return ticket to
New York over the new Pennsy short
line.
Another thing that Mr.. Leveen wants
| to know is why Edward e. Gnichtel,
the Republican nominee for Mayor, as
an assemblyman in 1902, voted for a bill
which %purported to give the Pennsyl-
vania railroad all the tunnel rights 1t
asked for without compensation or re-
striction as to rates. So confident are
Mr.. Leveen's friends of his election
and a Democratic majority in the next
Assembly that they are now addressing
him as Mr.. Speaker"