The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1913-11-04
How the Recent Acting Coy
GrnOr StuItiiied Himself In
the Senate Scandal.
HONOR ROOTED IN DISHOHOR

Newark, Oct 27.-James F. Fielder
has resigned as state senator from
Hudson county. which automatically
removes him from the position Of act
ing governor is now Leon r. Taylor of
Monmouth county, the speaker of the
house of assembly.
Senator and Acting Governor Fielder
is now private citizen. He hopes to
be the next governor of New Jersey.
never remove from his name the stig-
ma that attaches to it from his action
In the case of the discredited senator
from Morris county, Richard Fitzher-
bert.
Mr. Fielder stultified himself in the
ambition to be governor of New Jer-
sey. As a member of the senate com
mittee appointed to investigate the
charge that Fitzherbert was guilty of
dishonorable conduct In the state sen
ate he signed a report which stated
can only report that the senator from
Morris county has been guilty of such
an offense as is Inconsistent with the
trust and duty of a member of this
senate, and we hereby recommend that
the senator from Morris county be tried
by the senate on the question of his
expulsion from this body
The specific charge against Fitzher-
bert was that he had taken part in GER
tain negotiations involving a money
consideration of $1,000 In connection
with bills affecting the Commercial
Acetylene company, a corporation en-
gagged in making acetylene gas. The
committees report urging that Fitz
herbert be tried was made to the sen
ate Feb. 20, 1912. 1t scandalized the
entire state and cast unjust reproach
upon the honorable members of the
state senate who were associated With
Fitzherbert In that body.
Fitzherbert was tried by the senate
and was found guilty. On March 10
Senator Pierce offered a resolution set
ting this fact forth and moving that
1.-THE said FitEherbert be and he is
hereby expelled from the senate of the
state of New Jersey and his seat BIZ
and the same is hereby declared to be
vacant"
Senator Fielder was one of the seven
members of the senate who voted
against Fitzherberts expulsion. a
two-thirds vote was required to expel
the discredited member, but only eley
en- votes out of the twenty-one were
east against him.
Why did Senator Fielder, a member
Of the committee, who, upon investiga
ton, found that Fitzherbert's offens,
was such that he ought to he expelled
from the senate, reverse himself and
vote that the guilty Morris county
senator retain his seat?
For the simple reason that Senator
Fielder needed Fitzherbert's vote t.
make him president of the senate. that
he knew that with Fitzherbert out the
senate would be a tie and he would
not be elected president, and that If he
were not elected president he would
not be acting governor when Governor
Woodrow Wilson resigned to become
president of the United States.
James F. Fielder has accomplished
his purpose of becoming the Demo
cratic candidate for governor by rea
son of the prestige he gained as acting
governor by virtue of his position as
president of the senate.
But will the people of New Jersey
ever forget at what sacrifice of his
honor he secured his desired distinc-
tiOn2