Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1911-12-21
POLITICS AND COMMENT FROM
THE STATE CAPITOL.

and one OF the CHIEF topics of discus
sion was on the probable makeup
i of the committees Of the two
Houses of the coming Legislature.
which viii open January 8. The most
important committee in each house is
/ the judiciary, and by custom the ma
jority leader is always made chair
man of his committee, so that Senator
Edge, of Atlantic, Republican leader
/ in the Senate, will head Dhe judiciary
committee there. while Assemblyman
Whyte, of Camden, will be the judi
ciary committee chairman in the AS
sembly, as the Republican leader Of
that house.
There was considerable speculation
as to who would be made chairman of
the important appropriation commit
| tee This is a joint committee COM
posed of members from each house,
and for the past FIVE or six years
Senator VIM. j. Bradley. of Camden,
has been chairman, but he will retire
| from the Senate Jan. L. The gener-
al drift of the talk today was that
Senator Gaunt, of Gloucester county,
would succeed Senator Bradley as
head of this committee. Senator
Gaunt has been member OF, this COM
mittee for the past two years, and rs
he is the dean of the Republicans in
the Senate, he is regarded as the
logical man to lead the appropriations
committee. Senator Gaunt also s-ill
he likely to head the committee on
agriculture because of his position as
Master of the State Grange and his
knowledge of agricultural matters.
The probability is that the other more
important Senate committee posts
will go to the holdoyer Republican
Senators, who are Edge, of Atlantic;
Lewis, of Burlington; Hand, of Cape
May; Nichols of Cumberland: Leavitt,
of Mercer, not counting Senator
Prince, who will be President.
With the new Assembly in control
of the Republicans, the committees
there will have their political COM
plexions changed from Democratic,
as they were last year, to Republican.
Assemblyman Radcliffe Is the dean of
the House Republicans, and hence,
will be given some of the more i'm
portant committee places. Assembly
men DeUnger. of Camden; White, of
Burlington; Coles, of Camden; Nc
Allister, of Cumberland; Adams, of
Mercer, and Pikaart, of Passaic, are
members of the House, who, because
of their experience. will be given inn
portant committee assignments.
That the efforts of former United
States Senator James Smith, Jr., and
his chief Lieutenant, James r. Nu-
gent, to keep party control out of the
hands of Governor Wilson, will in
terfere with Democratic harmony in
the Legislature, is evident by the
struggle in the Hudson County Demo-
cratic Assembly delegation, over the
leadership. Two attempts have been
made by the Hudson County Demo-
cratic Assembly delegation to select a
minority leader, but both failed be-
cause of the influence former Senator
Smith used to keep some of the AS
semblymen from attending the party
caucus. The Hudson delegation, with
it's large membership, will control the
in it's membership between the VIII
son men and the Smith men over the
leadership has not only prevented the
selection of candidate for a minor
ity leader, but has also thus far him
dered the making of the party Legis-
lative program in the Assembly for
the session. Some of the party lead
ers are chatting at the situation, be-
cause the opening of the session is
only three weeks off.
- : =
The Robert Davis Association, of
Hudson county, after many years Of
noted and stormy political history,
has passed out of existence, and,
henceforth the organization will be
known as the Democratic Club of
Hudson county. The change in name
follows the modified form which the
organization has assumed since the
death of Robert Davis, the Hudson
County Democratic leader, several
months ago. In the days when Bob"
Davis was at the head of the organ
ization, it was one of the famous po-
| litical clubs of the East, and welded
a big influence in Hudson county po-
litics. OF late the prestige of the or
ganization has been crippled by the
fact that the two factions, one head
| ed by Mayor Wittpenn, of Jersey City,
and the other by the old Davisites,
headed by the big Six" are strug-
Cling for party supremacy.
| ssss
The present attack upon the prin-
ciple of the direct primary as now
existing in this State by former Gov.
John w. Griggs, has aroused some
criticism among other State Republic
can leaders who are not inclined to
favor this reactionary stand taken by
the former Governor Mr.. Griggs
made the attack a few evenings ago
in speech in Newark. He declared
that the direct primary was system
iof party rule not recognized by our
constitutional government. The man-
date of the direct primary law, he in
sisted, was inconsistent with consti-
tutional government. which, in poll
tics, only recognizes the election and
not any primaries. He argued that
the direct primary is a blow at poll
Il 4f<.x, fl,fs frreso+