Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-08-06
F|ELDER'S ABSENCE
DELAYS LAW MILL
Governor Summoned Back Too
Late and Legislature AID.
iourns Until Tuesday.
COMMISSION GOVT BILLS
RETURNED TO COMMITTEE
They Are Characterized by the
Wittpenn Faction as Attempts
at "Vicious Legislation"
LFrom a stnfr correspondent.I

|
TRENTON, N. J., Aug. 5.-The alb
sence of Governor Fielder from the
State House yesterday afternoon at
time when the Senate was consid-
ering special session Assembly bill
No. 2, introduced by, Assemblyman
Thomas F. Martin, of Hudson, which
had passed the House by the scant
majority of one vote, caused the Sem
ate to adjourn until next Tuesday
without taking any action on the
measure The bill, which is aimed
to validate the recent commission
government election in Jersey City,
was in charge of Senator Peter j.
McGinnis, of Passaic county. 1t was
brought up for third reading and
| final passage on the latter's motion,
| only to be referred back to the COM
mittee, when he discovered that the
Governor had left the State House
and that one vote was lacking, in
spite of the fact that three Republic
can senators stood ready to vote
| for it,
With these three Republican SEN
ators, .Messrs. Colgate, Nichols and
White, there were only ten votes pos
sible for the measure IN the Sena re
when the bill was brought up on third
reading, because Senator Slocum,
! Democrat, is in Europe and Senator
Fitzherbert had left the Senate cham
Der something like an hour before to
go to his home in Norris County.
Word was passed out from the cham
Der for Governor Fielder to come in
and take his place as president of the
Senate, but when the word reached
the executive chamber ne - "i'nor
had already left the State House In
an auto to catch a train over the
Pennsylvania Railroad.
Then it was that somebody sent a
telephone message to the Clinton
street station to intercept the Gov
ernor and have him come back to the
! State House. The Governor was in
tercepted, all right, but that this had
been done had not been known to
| Senator McGinnis, who consented to
an adjournment because he knew he
lacked the necessary votes to get the
bill through the Senate.
When the Governor got back to the
State House the Senate session was
already over and the Senators and
spectators were coming out of the
| front door of the Capitol 1t was
too late then for the Governor to
catch his train and accompanied by
| Secretary Hermann. he went to the
Hotel Sterling for dinner.
To Probe Loss of Evidence.
The sudden adjournment of the
| Senate was preceded by an incident
almost as interesting as the fact that
| Governor FEEDERS absence prevented
| the passage. for the time being at
least. of one of the two acts for
which he himself had called the
Legislature into special session. That
incident was the adoption of resolu-
ton previously defeated that was in
| troduced by Senator Pierce, of Union
Republican. to have the procedure
committee of the Senate make an in
vestigation into the alleged fact OF
destruction OF evidence that would
enable the Supreme Court In quo
warranto proceedings to determine
| whether commission government had
been legally adopted in Jersey City.
| When Assembly bill No. came into
| the Senate from the House just be-
| fore 6 o'clock last night the Senators
| got down to business after a whole
| day of waiting around for the House
| to do something. Mr.. Pierce offered
| his resolution for the appointment of
| a committee to make the investiga-
| ton referred to and strenuously urged
| the measure which. however. received
| only four votes. It was after the
| resolution was defeated that Senator
| McGinnis had House bill No. 2
brought I'D on third reading. only to
| discover afterwards he had not
| enough votes to get the bill passed.
| It is understood that Senator McGin-
mis- did not know that Senator Fitz-
herbert had gone home When this
was discovered Governor Fielder was
sent for and he. too, had left the
State House. Recognizing that he
was beaten for the time being at
least. Senator McGinnis not only
asked to have the third reading of
the bill suspended. but he volunteered
a willingness for the adoption of the
Pierce resolution. which a few min
| which had been defeated.
Senators Meet Tuesday.
4 After the adoption of the Pierce res
| olution 1t was decided that the pro-
cedure committee, which consists OF
President johnson and Senators Ram
| say, Munson, Leavitt and Read
next Tuesday morning at 1890 O'Clock
to ascertain the facts as to the alb
sence or non-absence of evidence
which would enable the Supreme
Court to pass upon the question as to
whether Commission Government had
been legally adopted in Jersey City
1t was also decided that Corporation
Counsel John Milton, who was APP
pointed under the new Commission
/ Government administration In Jersey
City, should be invited to come before
the committees and that the like in
vestigation should be extended to the
Il