Perth Amboy evening news., 1911-09-19
FORDS CITIZENS
MAKE A REPLY
Discuss Matter of Having
Polling Place There.

SeNeTd VI OANS 49,
sent the EVENING NEWS the fol-
lowing communication in regard TO
their request that they have a poll
ing place located there:
Editor Evening News g. o..
While we are inclined toward
m~agnanimity, as We have always
been where the affairs OF our own
ship were concerned, we annot re
frain from taking up several points
embraced in the communication
signed a 'Fords Taxpayer" which
appeared in the Woodbridge Leader
of September LIST. We do this not
in a spirit of unreasonable resent
ment, not with a view to provoking
further hamboyant and pointless
~outbursts from our epistolary friend
above referred to, but in the sincere
hope that we may bring home to
THE Powers that be- a situation Of
growing seriousness. We hesitate TO
carry into a controversy In the pub
lie prints a situation which by eY-
erv civic and logical right should
have been disposed of with dignity
and satisfaction in our official
councils, but circumstances often
force issues. When pressed into h
firing line we are prepared to stand
for u convictions; nor do We lack
ammunition. We are not to be over
ridden by opponents, taxpayers or
otherwise, who deliberately misinter-
pref our motives and belittle our
honest efforts for the upbuilding
and development of the coRmuny in
which our hearts, as well as our Il
nancial interests, are centered.
How long are we to be looked
upon as aliens within the boundaries
Of our own township? For how
many years must we bend humble
knees and send up our supplications
for a privilege to which we are fully
entitled? Ancient Rome, pompus
and self-satis1ed, never received the
petitions of a vassal province with
greater indifference than attended
the hearing of u claims by the
Woodbridge Township Committee
on a recent date. Having within our
district of Fords and Keasbey enough
regular voters to warrant the destg-
mating of a new polling place at a
reasonably accessible point, we asked
that such action be taken. We point
ed out that over three hundred res
fdents in Fords and Keasbey are
Obliged to travel about -four miles to
cast their ballots in Woodbridge,
and that unnecessary annoyance is
caused thereby. Our claims we're
well supported, u figures told their
own story. We asked for no drastic
readjustment, 40 wholesale political
reconstruction; we sought merely to
have placed within fair reach the
voting accommodations to which ev-
cry American citizen Is entoitled, be
his residence in Woodbridge Town
ship,i sun-kissed Florida or on the
pine-clad slopes OF Oregon. We
made a sensible, practical request;
the method of its reception is q mat
ter of record.
Thelc+ownship attorney made it
cleaJseSat it was within the legal
an additional polling pls@s,
terr.t9-y erSSaeSS-Fords and
Keasbey. and that such action
might be taken without fear of com
plications. In short, there was alb
solutely no obstacle in the way of
the improvement for which we petit
toned, still our mission proved
fruitless. The statement of our com
mittee was received and apparently
ACl 5CLtCLAs COO6AAo I'm VANCI InA
Indication our representatives might
as we'll have been refused an audi
ence; at any rate we could not have
made less Roadway or obtained less
satisfaction. All this in the fact Of
a situation which would have aroused
the just ire of voters in almost any
other section Of our state long
months ago
Tho N~nvrnGnhnAnnf PV the 7 p0InT
referred to the benefits we have de-
rived through our allegiance to the
Township Of Woodbridge. True,
we have schools, roads and a water
supply, but In the name Of justice,
could we be given anything less?
We are not living in the dark ages,
the inclinations of some Of our
brethren to the contrary notwith-
standing, and surely the advantages
referred to were not forthcoming
until they were fully warranted.
However. we have made no effort to
belittle them; they were welcomed
as every indication of progress
should be welcomed by an energetic
community, but We do not care to
regard them as political sandwiches
passed out to a needy wayfarer with
SHC uuGSi oJdhuiuS mat lie "Oulu SO
his way in silence!
AS thinking me we desire to par
ticipateinthe PRONUNCIATION of Ideas
and movements which will put not
only our territory, but the entire
township in the way OF further i'm
proyements, and to that end we seek
to rally our workers, our lockers
into-the-future around the ballot
box. Is there a fair reason why this
effort should be attended to by the
present annoyance? Surely there is
none. That residents of Fords and
Keashcy have SO far made their four
mile trip to the Woodbridge polling
place at each election indicates that
they are of the staunch stuff which
worthy citizens are made. and that
they do not deserve to occupy the
ignominious position In which they
are placed. Schools, roads and what
eye other advantages we may have
obtained are appreciated at their
true worth, but even they do not
warrant u sacrificing a proper re-