Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-03-17
LAWMAKERS FACE
BUSY SESSIONS
Much Work Is to Be Done Be-
fore Legislature Takes
Adjournment.
rFrom stan correspondence


TRENTON, y. j.. March 17.-Both
houses of the Legislature face a busy
week when they convene tonight.
There is considerable business to be
cleared up before adjournment is
taken April 3. and many night ses-
sions will probably be necessary IN
addition to those which take place
regularly on Monday nights.
The question of whether there Is TO
be a constitutional convention or not
MAJ be settled this week. The House
will probably pass the Hennessy bill
nroviding for the convention tonight,
hut the Senate is likely to amend or
fail to mass the bill, because in its
present form it will place the control
Of the convention in the hands of the
larger counties.
During some of the many argu-
ments on the bill which have taken
Mace in the House Assemblyman
Hennessy of Bergen the introducer
of the bill, has made the statement
! that one of the chief purposes of the
convention will be to grant home
rule to counties. and that this can
be accomplished regardless of the
basis by which counties are repre-
scented in the convention. His con-
tention has been and still is that
with home rule an assured fact it
would make little or no difference
whether thereafter each county had
one Senator or Ave.
Mr.. Hennessy, however. has not
been able yet to convince the repre-
sentatives of the smaller counties to
his way of thinking. They stand
firm in their belief that if the larger
counties had control of the conven-
ton one of the first things that body
would do would be to change the
present method of Senatorial repre-
sentation. by which there is one Sem
ator for each county, and give to the
larger counties more representation
In the upper house than would be
given to the less densely populated
counties. For that reason their OPP
position to the bill in its present form.
especially in the Senate, where 1t will
be most effective, Is likely to persist.
The jury commission bill, which the
House passed last week, will prob
ably be acted upon by the Senate this
week. Little doubt is felt that 1t will
be passed by the upper House and
signed by Governor Fielder In spite
of the reports which have stated that
the Senate was likely to act adversely
upon 1t because former Governor Will
son was understood to be opposed to
it, As q matter of fact. whatever
President Wilson's opinion of the bill
might have been at one time, he
expressed considerable qualification
when informed that it had passed the
House. according to press dispatches.
Another matter of legislation which
is due to receive considera ton soon
is that to put curb on the loan
shark business. The House has AL
ready passed Assemblyman Martins
bill touching upon this subject, but
the criticism has been made that It
will not be effective in putting a stop
70 the dishonest and usurious prac-
tises which exist in this business, and
for that reason 1t is probable that a
substitute and more stringent measure
may be introduced in the Senate
OF the s47 bills which have been
introduced, all but 800 of them EN-
anating from Assemblymen. compare
lively few have been acted upon at
ell, and still fewer have been enacted
into law Even when the Legislature
adjourns many of them will still be
unheard from.
Some of the measures whose
course will be watched with interest
by the general public are the no-seat-
no-fare measure of Mr.. McGrath ami
the five-cent- fare within-a- county
bills which he and Mr.. Nutting both
have put IN. Mr.. McGrath may add
to these a three-cent car fare bill
for cities.
Tomorrow night may see a large
number Of bills introduced in both
houses In the House. Assem- blyman
zisgen may offer a bill making small
boards of freeholders mandatory in