Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-03-24
LET THE PEOPLE
HAVE FINAL SAY
ON GERAN BILL
Republican Senator viii Insist
on Amendment to Elec.
ton Measure.
COMMITTEE WILL REvAMP
WILSON.RECORD PROJECT
Neither Party Feels That Ex-
IRENE Radicalism Is Neces-
sary to Keep Pledges.
fFrorn q STAG Correspondent

frrorn q Staf Correspondence
TRENTON. March 2A-The Geran
election reform bill will be revamped
by the Senate elections committee to-
morrow afternoon.
The measure will unquestionably be
amended before being reported in the
Senate next week There are indica-
tions that the principal amendment
will be a referendum clause providing
that the bill shall first be submitted
to the people.
A Republican Senator today said:
ut is unfair to reyolutionize the cleo
toral system of the State without Civ
ing the voters an opportunity to pass
upon 1t. Neither of the two political
parties in their platforms promised
any such radical changes as the Geran
bill contemplates. Its passage by the
House amazes me. II will get
through the Senate in its present form.
The Nichols bills, extending direct
nominations to governors n con-
gressmen, are n fulflment Of the Re-
publican platform pledges. They have
been thrown into the House commit
tee. where they still repose.
Predicts Amendment.
II don't predict that the Geran bill
will be so treated by the Senate. but 7
do say that 1t will be amended before
it passes. The suggestion to tack on
the referendum clause is a good one
and ought to prevail.
III the Governor should attend the
elections committee meeting tomorrow
afternoon he will find other men be-
sides himself with views on the cleo
toral subject.
The Governor has expressed his in
tention of stumping he State In the
interests of this bill should 1t be held
up or defeated. Why not raise an
issue on the bill. Let the referendum
clause be attached to II. Let 1t be an
nounced as the peoples Let
Governor Wilson proclaim himself the
peoples advocate and spokesman. Let
him defend this bill, which nan insist
is not wanted by the people, and then
! let the people decide at a special cleo
tion."
Bradley Against Bill.
Senator Bradley Is now rounding
his fourteenth year of continuous legts-
latte service. having served five years
as an Assemblyman, and is conf
pleting his ninth e as Senator from
Camden. Senator Bradley's knowledge
of the financial condition of the State
and its ~our were acknowledged
this year by his retention as chairman
of the joint appropriation committee.
which has a Democratic majority. The
Camden man Is familiar with h cleo
ton laws as with State finances. and
he has already declared the Geran bill
should be very materially changed, II
passed at all in any form.
Conversations with several Republi-
can and two or three Democratic Sem
ators today brought out some inter-
esting remarks and views on the Geran
bill. It also showed that while some
Senator's are somewhat reluctantly
willing to talk about the bill tl.ey. with
few exceptions. insist that their iden-
! tity shall not be revealed, saying, gen.
orally, that they prefer to make their
fuller vie--g known in the open Senate. !
Senators Edge and Nichols were,
however, quite o%utspoken. The former
said that he was. in the beginning and
would be to the end. an advocate OF
what Is known as the "vest-pocket"
vote. He would a a law requiring
that every voter in the State should
receive by post copies OF all the
ballots and pastors, SO that every man
might, in the quiet of his home. pre-
pare his own ticket at his leisure, fold
1t and put 1t in his vest pocket n go
to the polls and vote 1t. This method
Senator Edge said, he believed was the
true method of obtaining a representa-
| tive vote n was the most popular
method of voting that had yet been
devised. The election bill introduced by
him provides for the v~est-pocket vote
and there is no more doubt that he
will conte 1 for it than there is that he
will not vote for the Geran bill In its
present form.
Senator Nichols said that he would
like it to be understood that he had
never said, u~nequivocally, that he would
vote for the Geran bill as passed by the
House. He has said that he felt very
kindly toward the Governor and there
were some features of the bill which
he was in favor of, but there were
others that he hoped would be changed.
Leave 1t to People.
The State Gazette today editorialy
prints the following:
LET THE PEOPLE SAY.
Why objection should be made by
Governor Wilson and his friends who
favor the Geran election bill in its
present form to a referendum amend
ment we are unable to understand.
They declare that the bill has been
demanded by the people, but, SO far,
there has been no public demonstration
either for or against the measure, and
there is a well-founded belief that not
one-haif of / per cent. OF the voters
know what changes in the present cleo
ton laws the Geran bill provides.
II 1t is the purpose Of the friends
| of the Geran bill to enable the people
to govern themselves, the right way
to do this would seem to be to let the
people say how and in what manner
they shall be governed.
AS was suggested by Assemblylnan
McCran, If his referendum amendment
adopted the people would have an
opportunity to study the measure and
vote intelligently upon 1t at a special
election to be held for the purpose of
giving them an opportunity to express
their opinion of the Measure at the
polls before the primary and general
; elections were heidi
If our Democratic friends are sure
that the people want the Geran bill in
Its present form. they should not object
TO the proposition that they be given
an opportunity to prove that declara-