Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1911-08-30
PATERSON VOTES
HEAVILY AGAINST
COMMISSION LAW
Present Form of Government
Upheld by Majority
of 1907.
WILSON'S INTERFERENCE
RESENTED BY VOTERS
Victory Is Great Triumph for
Mayor Mcbride and City
Officials.
IspecIal 10 The Nswark sLnr.1

RNEA' ~ "a
PATERSON. Aug. G0.-Opponents of
the commission form of government, as
embodied in the Walsh act, are elated
today at its defeat at the rolls, when
a majority of 3,207 votes We're cast
against it yesterday. Ranking as the
third municipality in the State in re-
gard to population, Paterson has
stamped it's emphatic d%isapproval of the
commission plan, in spite of Governor
Wilson's urgent advocacy of this form
of city government.
Not only were the advocates of the
commission plan defeated in point of
numbers, but they failed to obtain the
votes necessary to fulfil the 80 per
cent. clause of the Walsh act. They
were s93 votes short; 5,772 were re-
quired, while only 1879 were cast.
Against the plan S,0S6 votes We're re-
corded.
Every ward in the city, with the
exception of the Third, voted against
elective commissioners. The Third ward
favored the commission plan by only
enc vote, 49S to 497.
The total number of votes cast at
the election yesterday, exclusive of n
few rejected for defects. was 12,965.
This is the largest vote ever cast at a
special election in this city.
Wilson's Letter a Boomerang.
The letter addressed by Governor
Wilson to the editor of the Paterson
News, and published last week, was
little short of a boomerang. A telling
array of facts and figures were pre-
scented in the answer of the Good
Government League, published the day
before the election, and the answer of
the voters was significantly forclble at
the polls yesterday.
The Evening News was the sole news
paper to champion the elective commits
sion movement. The other three daily
newspapers upheld the claim of the
present form of municipal government
10 continued existence. AS an offset to
the Elective Commission League a God
Government League was formed. 1t
was composed of leading citizens of all
parties and included in it's ranks man
ufacturers and other heavy taxpayers,
professional and labor men.
Bitterly contested, the campaign was
exciting. Several suits for libel were
threatened.
The fact that the city for several
years had enjoyed pure and economical
government under appointive commits
sion rule gave the opponents OF the
Walsh act their principal weapons of
defense. They were fortified with sta.
tistics showing the progress of the city
under the administration of Mayor
Mcbride, a Democrat. and the fact
that great public improvements had
been achieved while the debt had been
decreased. Even many citizens who
were impressed with the elective COM
mission idea as advocated by Governor
Wilson made up their minds that they
would rather wait for two years and
see how the plan works in Trenton
and P~assaic. which have adopted it.
Vindication for Mcbride.
Today's result is a vlndieation of the
administration of DR.. Andrew +. Nc
Bride, the present Mayor, and of the
appointlve commission plan set in up
Grafton seven years g and slightly
modified two years later. Paterson still
has a Board OF Aldermen elected by
wards-two for each of the eleven
wards-but its power is limited to the
granting OF licenses. The important
business of the city is administered by
Tire bipartisan COillulSSlbHs VI AVut
men each. appointed by the Mayor, and
known respectively as the finance. the
fire and police and the public works
commissions Besides these there are
park and free public library commits
sions under older laws. These would
have been wiped out If the Walsh act
had been adopted.
The defeat was made double by the
peculiarities of the Walsh act itself.
The law requires, first, that a major
ity of those voting favor the chang
of government If 1t is to become ef-
fective. 1t then requires that this vote
be at least 30 per cent. of the sotal
vote in the last Assembly election.
This total vote last year was 1924.
Thirty per cent. would be 5.772. and
the advocates of the Walsh act failed
to get within nearly 1000 of this mark.