Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-10-27
STOKES IS AGAIN
SCORED BY RECORD
Continued from First Page.)

While this commission was sitting
the State campaign was in progress,
with you as the Republican candi-
date and Charles c. Black as the
Democratic candidate. Mayor Pagan
and l went to the convention and en-
deavored to get the Republican party
to take a stand against the railroads
upon this issue, and failed,
In your opening speech in Jersey
City. you declared that Blacks rail-
road tax demand was an Impractical
BILE dream. Do You deny that? Why
was it impracticable in 1904 to make
the railroads pay to the State the
millions they owed in taxes? You
We're elected; and by the way, l see
YOU have been Boosting of the ma
jority of some $4,000 which you re-
ceived. But you forgot to say that
Roosevelt got over $4,000 majority and
YOU ran behind your party ticket 3d.
900 votes. thing never before known
in the history of New Jersey.
"A majority of the commission re-
ported with a muddy, apologetic and
ridiculous defense of the existing tax
system, and a recommendation for a
slight increase in second-class rail-
road property.
Charles c. Black submitted a mi
nority report denouncing the law;
which | consider one of the ablest
State papers ever filed at Trenton, in
which he showed, in the most conclu-
sive way, the glazing injustice of
allowing the rich railroads of New
Jersey to escape their fair share of
taxes, and pointing out that the State
was losing millions annually by that
special privilege. This report came
in the first year that you were gov
ernor and was sent to the Legisla-
ture by you with a curt suggestion
that the Legislature follow the rec
ommendation of the majority of the
commission. and a bill to that effect
was passed. But our bills, providing
for real reform, were again smothered
in committee and you made no pro-
test.
Indifferent to Appeals.
This brings us to the summer of
1905, you as governor thus far indif-
ferent to all our appeals on this tax
matter In preparing to continue this
tax fight in the next Legislature,
hunted up Everett Colby. He had
been one of the Essex assemblymen
for three years. He says the Repub-
lican party leaders tried to keep him
from voting for one of the railroad
tax bills, and when he refused they
first deprived him of the speakership,
to which he was entitled by party
service and custom, and then told
him, after his vote for our tax bills,
that his public life was at an end. /
showed Colby how under the new pri-
mary law he could fight the Lentz
machine, which he supposed to be in
vincible. ] helped him lay out his
program, helped him organize his
friends, and Colby made his now his
toric fight for State senator against
the Lentz machine on a platform OF
which railroad taxation was a promi-
nent feature
I'VE made the whole State ring
with our exposure of the alliance be-
tween the Republican leaders and the
Pennsylvania railroad. Colby was
triumphantly nominated and elected.
and with him eleven New Idea as
semblymen from Essex county. This
was political upheaval, and ii
looked as though the revolt would
spread all over the State. Mayor
Fagan's letter was having a powerful
effect upon public opinion, and a mill
tant force in the next Assembly was
assured, sufficient in numbers to ex-
pose the corrupt alliance between the
Republican leaders and the Pennsyl-
vania and other railroads.
men, ana not until LHeil, ulu you
take any public position in favor OF
this great railroad tax reform. You
wrote a message to the Legislature
when Colby and the Essex assembly
men took their seats, advocating the
taxation of the railroads on the same
basis as other people, and the Legis-
lature passed the laws. But at the
same session you showed your real
attitude toward this question by hav-
! ing introduced two bills designed tc
prevent these new tax laws from
| having their full effect upon the rail
roads, to wit: The Hillery maximum
tax law and the county board OF
taxation law. There was no public
demand for either of these laws. They
were pushed through at the tail enc
of the session by the Republican
party machine, upon your direct
orders. l believe one of them was
never passed at all, but was put upor
the statute books by fraud. They
were designed to compel every
municipality to increase its assess