Perth Amboy evening news., 1913-03-24
JURY REFORM
To Be PASSED
Expected to Have State Wide
Referendum Clause.
tFrorn the NEWS cOrrespomdcnt.)

tffoth the NE VS. correspondent
Trenton, March 24-State political
leaders who follow legislative affairs
closely predict that the outcome of
the present jury reform muddle will
be the passage of a jury commission
bill with a statewide referendum.
They make no prediction as where
the power to appoint the commissions
will be placed. There Is strong op-
position to placing this power in the
hands of the governor, but this may
be overcome if the legislators can
get together on the other provisions.
Following the conference at Wash
ington Friday between President
Wilson, Acting Governor Fielder,
Senate Leader J. Warren Davis and
State Treasurer Edward f. Grosscup
all seemed hopeful that a mandatory
jury commission bill without a refer
endum would be passed. 1t is ad-
mitted here at the State House, how
ever, thai it will take a hard fight to
overcome those who are seeking to
defeat jury reform by insisting upon
a referendum. This fight will begin
tonight when both branches
of the legislature will reassemble for
the final rush which is expected to
bring the session to an end on April
8. Without a doubt the jury reform
and constitutional convention battles
will make the session this week a
mighty interesting one.
The friends of Jury reform count
on the aid OF President Wilson In
getting a real reform measure enact
ed. The President has threatened a
roll CALI of those who are respon-
sible for the defeat of a jury reform
measure and the reputation Of the
party pledge on the question, and the
progressive Democrats hope that this
will bring in line enough votes in the
assembly to pass a proper bill. 1t
will be a bitter struggle. To start
with, James r. Nugent, right hand
man of James Smith, Jr., Is keeping
eleven Of the twelve Essex assembly
men arrayed solidly in favor of a
referendum In order to beat the pro-
position. Nugent camped closely or
the trail of the bill in the assembly
last week and may be expected to do
so this week. Mayor Wittpenn, of
Jersey City. was unable to hold all
the nine Wittpenn assemblymen OF
Hudson county in line against the
referendum, showing the strength Of
the referendum lobby. Assemblymen
Bredenbek and Mulligan, two of the
Wittpenn assemblymen, favored the
Martin referendum amendment,
while Steuerwald, another Wittpenn
member, absented himself when the
vote was taken. Most of the sheriffs
of the state r opposing the move
to take from them the control OF
drawing juries.
Lots OF Work Ahead.
There will have to be a lot Of hard
work If the lawmakers get through
on April 8. There are 226 bills
pending that have passed one house,
besides the scores Of bills that have
been reported and must be passed
by both houses. Then of course,
many more bills will be reported
next week, so that no small job COZ
fronts the lawmakers.
Acting Governor Fielder will also
have a busy time this week, as there
are 81 bills ready for his considera-
ton and many more will be sent to
him this week.
Tonight will be the last
opportunity of introducing bills, ex-
cept by unanimous consent, and 1t Is
expected that many will be put In.
The number of bills already pending
breaks all records for the state. So
many have been introduced in the
Assembly that an additional act of
record books had to be ordered this
week. The total number Of meas
ures introduced is LAO. In the
Senate there are 343 bills and 8 re-
solution, and the Assembly has 76S
bills and 20 resolutions.
Most of the big reform bills except
the constitutional convention AMI
Jury reform measures have been
passed. The fight on them will quite
likely take up considerable time next
week and it is possible that the dead
lcck may lead to the appointment OF
conferences on both measures. There
are other important bills that must