Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-02-21

st6ted Inat ne mad neard q great uea,
Of me and wanted to help me saIl he
could. I naturally wanted to know
what / had to do with any bill thai
was to be introduced and he stated
that the bill would affect our busi-
ness aud shut us out of the State
"On the face of 1t Ii was a graft prop-
OsitiOn and my nrst impulse was to
throw him out of the Office, but ] did
not know what cards he held nnd there
fore thought 1t advisable TO play the
part Of the fool in his eyes and get
whatever Information 1 could.
IT asked him IL he had a copy of the
bill. He said no. / then asked him
how he knew the bill was going to
be presented and he said that he was
pretty well acquainted with what was
going on at the capital at Trenton,
as he had been representing interests
there for the past seven years and
knew them all and that a friend OF
his had told him that this bill was
going to be introduced. He was not
willing, however. to tell me who the
friend was or who had suggested that
he call on me.
He stated that he could furnish the
best of references among the most
prominent politicians Of the State of
New Jersey.
al stated that we could not make any
plans until we knew just how the bH1
was going to read, stating that 1T might
be drawn mp I'm such a way that IT
would not affect our business In the
least or, on the other hand, 1T might
shut ms ont of business. In any event
we could mot fight 1t In the dark rnd I
considered the best method of handling
the case would be to have the hill In
tr0du0ed and referred to h proper
committee. we cOuld then make our
plans and, to use my own words Mt that
time, we could then talk turkey He
finally agreed with me that 1t would
probably be Advisable to handle the
matter along the lines I suggested, be-
cause, as 1 explained to him, we had a
proposition that could stand ON its
merits.
HE again called on January 3, 1912,
at which time the interview set down
on the inclosed sheets took place, and,
as you will note, We went over practi-
cally the same ground as we did when
he first called, except that l insisted on
knowing how much 1t would require to
put the bill out of commission. You
will note that he avoided this question
by stating "a reasonable amount. On
the following day, January 4, he again
appeared at the office with a typewrit-
ten copy of the bill. which was finally
introduced on January %, 1912, as SEN
ate bill No. 70, by Senator Fitzherbert,
and / understand it was the last bin,
introduced that day.
Showed Copy of Bill.
"Dr. Rjdner called again at the Of
flee on January "a and told me about
it, and also showed me "a typewriter
COPY of another bill which was to be
introduced. l cannot recall the exact
wording of his copy but 1t was to pro-
hibit the production of acetylene in
any building less than 1000 feet away
from any dwelling, factory or other
building, street or public highway. I
explained to him that this bill was SO
ridiculous on the face of 1t that l did
not believe there was a man in the
Legislature of New Jersey that would
dare to Introduce 1t, because it would
wipe out practically every acetylene
installation in the State of New Jer-
sey. To operate an acetylene plant It
would be necessary to buy practically
a square mile of land and put the ma
Ciliiio IL tIo ttAiuoiC VI A~ - .
with me that this bill was very much
out of order and would probably not be
introduced
"From later developments 1t Is evil
dent hat he must have transmitted
this information to Senator Fitzher-
bert or someone else who was instru-
mental in drawing up another bill
which was finally introduced on Jann-
AIRY 30, 1912, as Senate bill No. ITO, by
Senator Fitzherbert, which is not quite
as drastic as the first cop which was
shown me and which is aimed directly
at our business. which consists Of man
ufacturing ~acetylene for commercial
purposes Whenever DR.. Ridner called,
and he a called on me on an aver
age OF two or three times a week ex-
cept the week of February A, when /
was out of town.
81 to get his price. I did
not succeed In this until February 13,
1912, when 1 told him hat IT was nbso-
lute1y necessary for MS to know what
1t was going to cost before we could
tell him to go ahead. 1 said the matter
would have to be submitted to our vice.
president, MIR. Frank :. Hastings, and
that he would also want to know what
assurance we would have that Ridner
could put these bills out of the way.
He stated that / ought to be willing to
take his word for 1t, thnt 1t would be n
reasonable amount, but. AS L still In
sisted ON knowing, he stated that he
could do II for $500, that $500 of this
he would keep for himself and the ball
ance would be distributed where 1t
would have the desired effect.
He suggested that Some OF the rail-
roads that were using acetylene ought
Eto be willing to put up something on
this SO that we would not be compelled
to bear the whole expense. He in
formed me that this, of course. vas
rather a delicate matter and that I
would have to treat 1t as such OF
course 1 fully appreciate that it is a.
delicate matter n that is the reason
that / am handling 1t in this way. Ills
final ultimatum when he left the Of
fee on Tuesday afternoon was that
unless i called him up at the Tren-
ton House by $3.50 Wednesday morn
ing, February IA. he would not be held
responsible for what might happen.
He stated that he had held the bill In
committee but that he had gone just
as long as he could and that unless
he got the word to go ahead, Senate
bill No. 70 would be reported to the
Senate Wednesday morning. I did not
call him up but ne called me or the
telephone from Trenton later in the
day and dropped in to see me again