The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-09-01
THE BRONx'S HOME MADE ISSUE
 NEEDS A S0LOMON'S DECISION

PoIitical-Legal Mix-Up Divides
 the COunty-Supplants the
 War and Presidential Elec-
 tiOn about Fireside or in NOc-
 turnaI DebateS--TrOuble Hin-
 ges on Aspiration of the BOr-
 Ough to Become a County.
 New York, Sept. 1.-About the big gest politico-legal mix-up that ever split a law-abiding community wide open is agitating the good people Of the Bronx. Questions as to who Is going to win the European war, and whether it will be Wilson or Hughes next November, no longer figure as topics of discussion uoout the family fireside or in the nocturnal debates so popular in those places where wa ter flows freely-O1 the side.
 The community across the Harlem which perpetuates the name of old Jo- mas Bronck has got an issue all It's own, and until it is settled the rest of the United States will have to att tend to world-war problems and mere matters of residential elections. And from present indications i- looks as if the First Settler himself will have to come rack to life and cast the de- ciding vote, so intense and 50 evenly divided is the opinion of the present inha bitants.
 It is true, of course, that the mat
 xo Trc M. Tierney, of the Supreme Court, and that his decision. soon to be rendered. should be final. But the few neutrals stil extant in The Bronx are of the opinion that nothing but the wisdom of a Solomon will ever be able to straighten things out.
 Just How It Was
 It is like this:
 Three years ago The Bronx, unwil- ling longer to remain a mere borough of New York city, became a county of the State and took unto itself nice new county administration, to wit, a District Attorney. Sheriff, County Clerk, and Register, all first-class Democrats and much to the liking or public-spirited citizens in and about Fourteenth street, Manhattan. The occasion was generally regarded as q proud day for Tammany and other organizations loyal to the memory of old Jonas Bronck.
 The act which made The Bronx a county and gave it the four county of ficials, stated that the four officials were to hold office for four years, just like the President the United States. Nothing could have seemed fairer than that, especially to Francis Mar tin, District Attorney; J. F. O'Brien, Sheriff; James V. Ganry, County Clerk, and Edward Polak, Register. They took office and prepared for four long years of good Democratic gov ernment.
 It remained fir some one with keen eye for legal flaws to discover that this arrangement wouldn't go. Some say it was the board of elections, and some the Citizens Union, and some the hungry Republican organization of The Bronx Whoever it was. the Democratic ship of state of The Bronx was torpedoed without warning the other day by the announcement that the Constitution of the State of New York called for an election of county officers every three years, and that, therefore, the Republicans had put up complete ticket of equally able eiti- zens to take the offices right away from Messrs. Martin, O'Brien, Ganly, and Po1ak.
 Every Democrat in The Bronx made bee-line for the nearest copy of the Constitution and looked the thing up. They found the thrke-year clause to be there, as advertised. It called for county elections every three years, ex- cept in New York County and Kings. The Bronx and Richmond and Queens, although boroughs of the city as well as counties of the State, were not ex- cepted.
 Hedged fin the Nick of Time Finding their offices declared about to be vacant by the board of elections, which was one of. the first to take sides with the State Constitution. there was nothing left for Messrs. Martin O'Brien, Ganly and Polak to do but | file petitions as candidates for re-e1ec. tion, and then protest that the voters ] of The Bronx, under he Bronx County | act, had no right to go forth next No | vember and re-elect them. This they | did-and just in the nick of time tc get their names entered as candidates along with the four Republican nom. inees, Julius D. Tobias, Robert w Murphy, John H. Nichols, and Isidol Newman.
 | The protest quickly followed. In the name of the four office-holders, 2 | writ If roanda nIIs was obtained from Justice George " Mullan, in the Su preme Court, and served upon Nose Mckee, one of the Commissioners o the board of elections. It restrain the board from calling for the election of successors to Messrs. Martin ct al. and also from printing ballots, count | ing votes, or recording nominations Thus the present Bronx officials art in the position of seeking with on' hand to prevent the voters from vo ting for them this fall and with thu other laying plans to have their name appear on the ballots in case the vo | ters are ordered to vote. 1 In the case of Sheriff O'Brien, tn, plot thickens still more. because thu Bronx County act, says that the Sher if cannot succeed himself. But tn Bronx County act is speaking, of course, of a four-year-old sheriff. MT O'Brien is perfectly willing to abid by that decision, so long as he serve out his four full years. but all bets arr off, in his opinion, if the court rule that he's a three-year sheriff he's go ing to succeed himself-if the voter | will let him.