Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-03-31
Governor Signs Bill Requiring
SCriptural Recital
FORTY MEASURES VETOED.
Senator Pierce of Union Criticises
Fielder For Failure to Sign His
Grade Crossing Bill - Appropriation
Measures Carrying Increase of ST.
o6o,486.19 Are Held Up.
Especial correspondence.l

Fielder has made that measure q law.
both houses of the legislature having
previously passed it. At the opening
exercises each day in public schools 1t
is now required that the teacher of
each class read five verses of the Old
Testament. or if there is a general as
semblage of the pupils it is to be read
there.
The governor has sent back to the
legislature forty measures which he
has vetoed. Among them are the
Gaunt bill recognizing the state de-
partment of agriculture. the Pierce
grade crossing bill. the Pancoast bill
amending the Geran election law so
that personal registration will not be
required in towns NOT exceeding 10000
in population. the limit now being
5000: the Wolverton bill making it op-
tional with juries to decree life i'm
prisonment instead of execution in
murder and the Pierson bills regulat-
ing municipal finances.
On the veto of the grade crossing
measure Senator Pierce of Union has
taken issue with Governor Fielder.
The governor contended in his veto
message that the present grade cross
ing law. of which the governor was
the author when he was a member of
the senate. is all that is necessary.
Senator Pierce contends that the Field
err measure was a false start. He
claims that the measure of which he is
the sponsor and the Fielder act were
before the Democratic legislature at
the same time and that the adoption
of the Fielder measure was a mistake.
Expects Long Litigation.
"The expected litigation has followed
and will continue many years further"
he asserts, unless sooner terminated
by a decision against the validity of
the act. Two legal questions are in
volved in this litigation that are not
involved in the Connecticut plan, one
the taking of property without compen-
sation. Should this objection be over
come. which will take from three to
five years to determine. then the sec
ond objection arises, which is that the
iClb6l act SdllS vi luc elllllIldllOu VI
all the dangerous grade crossings at
once, which is unreasonable and there
fore unlawful. This objection is not
involved in the pending litigation and
will consume many more years when
1t Is raised"
"What is before us with the Fielder
law is prot acted litigation for an in
definite nario6 and thin1y nroloB1x,
an adverse result in the end. In which
case all the intervening years will have
been lost. The pending bill aims sim
ply at results.
"At each of the three public hearings
held this year on my bill. all attended
by the railroad attorneys in force, I
offered to withdraw my bill if the rail
roads would accept the validity of the
Fielder act and commence elimination
under 1t. Not a road accepted the prop
%osition, for they would thereby lose the
delay they are securing through the
Fielder act litigation"
Block Appropriation Bills.
Passage of the appropriation bills
was prevented by the Democrats in
the senate under suspension of the
rules, and it is claimed by the Repub.
licans that the session was unnecessa-
rily heightened for one week. On the
other hand, the Democrats declare that
their action in refusing to allow the
bills to be passed under a suspension of
the rules was justified because they
were not in a position to vote on the
measure, since they had not been given
sufficient time to become acquainted
with their provisions. A fight was pre-
cipitated when Senator Mathis of
Ocean county offered an amendment
taking S25 900 from the appropriation
for the Palisades park and giving it in
stead to the extension of an inland
waterway to the M%anasquan river.
Senator Hennessy of Bergen, a Demo-
crat, was interested In obtaining the
appropriation for the Palisades park
project, in which Bergen county is in
terested, and he objected strongly to
the cutting down of the appropriation
from 100000 to $4,000. On the votes
on the amendments, however, both
were carried by a party vote. Minority
Leader Ackerson issued a statement on
the attempt Of the Republicans to have
immediate action taken on the meas
ures, in which he characterized the eff
fort to suspend the rules as a "bold
attempt to rush these most important
bills. so that the people might not have
an opportunity of acquainting them
selves with the contents of the bills
until they were passed" In this way.
he charges, public opinion would not
have a chance to operate upon the
members of the legislature during the
time when the bills. under the rules,
are required to lie over His resolution
In the early part of the session to limit
the introduction of bills to Feb. z indi-
Gated where the Democrats stood on
the question of a short session. he as