Gloucester County Democrat., 1912-02-08

state House This week IN an enueaVOr
to line up the; Hudson lawmakers to
vote for legislation he desires. 1t is
believed Mayor Wittpenn would like
to run for Governor on the Demo-
cratic ticket and his friends are pre-
pairing to boom him for the nomina-
tion. He is being opposed by Sheriff
~ Peter Wedin, of Hudson, who as
pires to the county leadership and
other honors. One of the tests be-
tween these two is the Fielder bill
to give Hudson county a small Board
of Freeholders. Mayor Wittpenn is
for the bill and Sheriff Wedin is OPP
posing it. The outlook yesterday was
that the Mayor would win. thereby
Strengthening his leadership in Hud-
son county.
Colonel Edwin A. Stevens, State
Road Commissioner, has compiled q
tentative formula for new method
of taxing automobiles, which he
thinks will help solve the problem of
keeping the improved roads in re-
pair. The new plan takes into con-
sideration the weight of the load car
ried by motor car as we'll as it's
horse power, on the theory that the
heavier the load the more damage to
the highways One purpose of propos-
ing the new method is to make the
heavy motor trucks pay larger
share of the cost of road repairs.
Officials of the State Road Depart
ment declare that heavy motor trucks
are the greatest destroyers of good
roads. AT present automobiles and
motor trucks are taxed solely accord
ing to horse power. Under the Stew
ems proposition motor vehicles are
to be taxed according to horse power
with certain weight of load for each
class of car and an extra OF 20 cents
for every 100 pounds of load carried
in excess of the allowed weight is to
be imposed. For example. truck
OF 35 horse power ard tons capac-
ity of load would pay fee of $4,000,
but as this class of car is only allowed
to carry load of 4200 pounds, this
truck would have to pay $236O extra
for 1880 pounds excess load.
The State Public Utility Commission
has just filed it's first report covering
accidents on electric railways of the
State, covering the month of January
and it shows that during the month
four people were killed and 36 in
jured on the trolley lines. The re-
port follows an order made some
time ago directing the electric rail
way companies to file with the Com
mission reports of all accidents. The
Commission for some time has had
soI 1f \,
steam railway lines, and took this
action to obtain accounts of electric
railway accidents in order that it
might have a basis for regulation of
the traffic on the electric roads.
Several hundred Commissioners o.
Deeds were elected yesterday at noon
at joint session of the two Houses
of the Legislature. President Prince,
of the Senate, presided. The Com
missioners to be chosen were nOmin
ated by the Legislators from the re-
spective counties and the election
followed This is one office in New
Jersey which women may fill and d
few of those elected were women.
There are more than 1000 Commis
sioners of Deeds in the State of whom
124 are women.
y y = = =
That Commission Government is
growing in favor in New Jersey as
a means of curing municipal short
comings is shown by the fact that
eight bills, on the subject have been
introduced into this session of the
Legislature. Four of the measures
aim to extend the Commission form
of Government to counties through
small Boards of Freeholders, and the
other four bills relating to Commits
sion Government in cities and towns.
One of the latter measures if it be-
comes a law will permit the smaller
towns and villages to adopt this new
method of government.
In his first report on the needs oe
the public schools, which was submit
ted to the State Board of Education
last Saturday. DIR. Calvin N. Kendall,
State Commissioner of Education, de-
clared that a great educational waste
is going on in the schools of the
State because of the lack of helpfll
supervision Dr. Kendall showed that
the education laws are not properly
enforced, and insisted that steps
should be taken to insure1a vigorous
enforcement of the compulsory school
attendance laws. He favored the bill
now before the Legislature which
makes the appointment of truancy Of
ficers compulsory. His report show
ed that 40 per cent. of the teachers
in this State are unframed and ne
declared that the State should pro
vide additional facilities, that the
training of teachers should be ade-
quate. Other school needs pointed
out by Commissioner Kendall were
additional supervision of teaching
particularly in the rural sections of
the State; a better observance of the
laws for medical inspection in the
schools, and the encouragement of in
dustrial education both in the cities
and the country. DR.. Kendall urged
the Board to give earnest consider
alton to constructive measures t.