Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-10-21
S|LZER GIVES
DATA ON RENTS
Continues Series of Letters
of a Governor to Himself"
in Pennington


ing here last evening Judge George
S. Silzer delivered Chapter II. in his
series of Letters of a Governor to
Himself" in which he h~umorously
attacks Mr.. Runyon for pay
ing no attention to the recommend
alton contained in his own message,
when as acting governor he wrote a
message to the legislature to which
/ he had himself been elected as sena-
tor from Union county.
I'VE have already SEEN" said
Judge Silzer, chow little Senator
Runyon thought of his own advice
on the subject of taxation, even
when it came to him clothed in all
the authority and majesty Of the
acting governor of New Jersey. Mr..
Runyon may have written his own
message, and he certainly signed it,
and he possibly read it. but he Ger
tainly didn't think enough of it to
let it spur him to try to solve the
tax problem, for in eight years in
the legislature, three of them after
he had ent this message to himself
he did just exactly nothing in the
| matter. Now let's continue u
story. Just imagine u good friend
Runyon, up in the governors office,
talking into a dictaphone there, and
then going to his seat in the state
senate, picking up the receiving end
Of the dictaphone and listening to
the sound of his own voice. The
subject on the dictaphone, which is
Chapter II. in Letters of a Govern
or to Himself" is Rent and Hous-
ing Conditions" This is what Sem
ator Runyon, listening in On the die
taphone, heard himself say:
In our big centres of population
the problem of housing is of very
serious import, and much suffering
has already been occasioned by rea-
son of the lack of habitations, the
tremendously high cost of building
operations, and the merciless de-
mands of many landlords. In the
first place. 1 recommend the enact
ment of such new landlords and ten
ant laws as will give magistrates
more discretion than they at present
have in preserving the rights of hon
est tenants against the rapacious de-
mands of speculative and trickster
landlords"
Senator Runyon here looked
complacentiy around the senate
chamber to see how the other sem
ators were taking it. He was so in
terested in this pleasant little survey
that he missed part OF what he was
saying to himself in the dictaphone,
in which Governor Runyon urged
upon Senator Runyon the need of a
more liberal policy on the part Of
building and loan associations. But
finally, with the remark Great stuff!
What?' he once more put the dicta-
phone to his a and heard HIM
self continue:
,-IEIN T 49, 40 fAo Cfh11 ~
in which the state may directly rem
edy the present housing conditions,
L would recommend such legislation
as is possible to give municipalities
adequate powers to solve their re
spective difficulties in this respect
We have to admit one thing. Sen
ator Runyon did like the music of
Governor Runyon's voice. He liked
it too well, apparently, for so far
from being spurred to action by the
advice which he had given to him
self, the soothing qualities of his
own voice were too much for him.
They sort of lulled him to sleep, APP
parently.
In the 1920 session he just con-
tinued to smile pleasantly, and he
smiled all through the session OF
1921 also. and never bestirred him
self to pay his OWL advice the COM
pliment of trying to follow 1t.
But Senator Runyon did wake up.
We have to admit that. AS in Chap
ter l, we find hat in Chapter II we
have to give both Governor Runyou
and Senator Runyon credit for an
equal knowledge of constitutional
law. That constitution, it's an aw-
full stumbling block in the way OF
aspiring statesmen who have an idea
once in a while.
Senator Runyon, as chairman of a
special committee, vested with the
consideration of the "Rent and Hous-
ing Conditions" finally assumed re-
| sponsibility for the passage of CISCO,
| D. 1869 a law which granted a five
year tax exemption to those who
Luilt houses under the act.
And then the supreme court point
ed out that under the constitution
property shall be assessed for tax
es under general laws. and by uni
form rules, according to its true
value
Now wasn't that too bad? You sec,
Mr.. Runyon didn't write the constl-
tuition. How should he be expected
to know what was in it He tried
to do something for the people, didn't
he? But see what happened to the
people who assumed that Senator
Runyon, a lawyer, knew what ne
was doing?
"T met in Somerville recently a
contractor who had lost $4,000 on
houses which he had built under The
honest belief that they were exempt
from taxation under this law.
And he was not the only one
There were many others. Many poo