The Penn's Grove record., 1913-01-17

Il Z1N4 ~
sons and the purchasers must depend
upon their own Investigations to as
certain whether they are bogus or
based upon good business. They
should have the protection of the law.
Investment companies should be put
under inspection and regulation by
the State, and no one should be al
lowed to sell securities in New Jersey
without public license issued from the
department exercising the rights of
inspection and regulation. New Jer-
sey is very late, indeed, in affordins
her people this protection.
There is another matter that cries
out for reform and has long cried out
for it.. Why has no Legislature ever
seriously and earnestly set itself to
correct it? The drawing of grand
juries, and even upon occasion the
drawing of petit %juries, is VIGOROUSLY
subject to political influence and con
troll in this State, of whose processes
of justice we are SO proud and whose
honor we are in most cases so quick
to defend against question or Islander.
This can and should be remedied. You
cannot neglect it without seeming in
different to justice and fair play in
matters which are matters of life and
death and reputation and honor, and
which cut to the very quick of human
rights. The free, prompt, unbiased ad-
ministration of criminal justice has
been time out of mind at the very cen
ter of the fight br individual right
and liberty. 1t is to be hoped that the
commission now investigating the
various methods of governing this all
important matter will presently sub
nit a thorough and conclusive report.
Another matter no less central, no
less vital to the rights and opportun-
tiles of individuals and communities,
is the method by which taxes are as
sessed and collected. New Jersey has
suffered herself to drift into practices
in this fundamental matter which
might lead a critical outsider who
knew nothing of the history and &C
cidents of her legal development in
this case to question both her fair
ness and her public sense. Her ar
engagements in respect of this, as of
so many other interests and functions.
are the result of mere patchwork and
lack system and conference altogether.
1t is not necessary to have both a
board of assessors and a board of
Z avafiOn. onI ~ ic ~ &c o4,,o - lo-a
either if they are to have no admin
istrative control over local assessors
and collectors. The most extraordi-
nary variety alike of rule and of prac-
tice obtains in the different counties
and communities of the State, with
this result among many others, that in
many localities small property owners
pay much heavier taxes in proportion
to their holdings than large property
wner pay, and are practically with
out redress. Fortunately, this Legis-
lature will have the benefit of a report
from a commission specially appointed
to make thorough investigation of
these inequalities and this lack of sys-
tenn. I hope that it's recommendations
will point out a wise and practicable
way of reform.
There is an additional grant of
power to the Board of Public Utility
Commissioners which seems to me of
capital Importance and of pressing
necessity. The many, almost innu-
merable, railway crossings at grade,
which make travel on most of our
country roads so hazardous and the
movement of traffic in so many of our
town and city streets so dangerous
and difficult, ought, of course, to be
done away with as rapidly as possible,
beginning with the most dangerous
and proceeding without interruption
from the more to the less dangerous
until absolutely none is left. This can
not be done by the hard and fast pre-
else terms of such a bill as passed the
Houses during the last session and
was prevented from becoming a law
by my veto. No invariable rule can
be laid down which will not lead to
all sorts of impossible situations and
the eventual interference of the
courts. The proper solution of this
very difficult matter is to empower
the Board of Public Utility Commits
sioners to order the abolition of such
grade crossings in such ways and at
such a rate as will adjust their orders
to each particular case and set Of
circumstances. The act comforting
the power can and should make of
that power a legal duty imposed upon
the commission, the discretion of the
commissioners to exist only in respect
of their right to guide, direct, and ad-
just the processes of elimination in a
thoroughly practical fashion. l cannot
too strongly urge this matter upon
your attention.
And while | am speaking of rail-
ways, permit me to urge another piece
of legislation upon you which seems
to me essential both to the safety of
travel on the railways and to the fair
protection of certain classes of rail
way employees. l refer to the so-called
Full Crew bill, whose failure to pass
the last Legislature was so much de-
plored by all who had noted its intro
duction and it's significance. 1t is of
the highest consequence that railway
trains which pass through the State
should be manned by adequate crews;
and to me, for one, it is a matter of
chagrin that they should now carry
smaller crews through New Jersey
than through Pennsylvania, with
whom we are linked by SO many i'm
DOrtanf lines 0f railway This ic a