The Monmouth inquirer., 1922-05-11
State Senate Refuses to Act In
Special Session on Judicial Sc
lections Made by Edwards.
WOMEN ON STATE BOARD
Republicans Reject Judge and Prose-
cutor Appointments = Governor to
Call Weekly Meetings--Will Locate
Responsibility = Appoint
ments Confirmed.

Trenton.-If politics is to Interfere
with the operation of the courts in
New Jersey, Governor Edwards pro-
poses to let the world know it.
Ihis attitude was taken by him fol-
lowing the refusal of the state senate.
which he had called into special ses-
sion, to act on nominations he made
for common please judge in Gloucester
county. and for prosecutors in Glouces-
ter and Cape May counties.
The only combinations made were
or relatively unimportant officials, in
cluding two from Hudson county.
If the senate won't at first approve,
then try, try again, will be the policy
OF the governor. And every try will
mean additional publicity, in which the
governor will charge the Republican
party, for the first time in the history
of the state-or at least one of ex-
tremely rare instances if any old-tim-
ers can recall them-with utilizing
politics to interfere with the opera
tiOns of the courts.
Failure to confirm the nominations
was due to political Strategy by the
Republican majority. BY juggling the
judicial nominations the Republicans
anticipate that a Republican governor
will be elected next November and that
the Republican executive will appoint
his own partisans to the Gloucester
bench and to the two prosecutorships.
viii Locate Responsibility
To locate the responsibility for the
condition which will eyentuate through
failure to have judge in Gloucester
county or prosecutor to conduct
criminal matters on behalf of the
state, the governor announced that he
proposed to call the senate into an
other and another special session, and
into another and another, until the
Republicans confirmed some nominee.
In this way, the governor will use
the roll of Democratic lawyers avail
able to secure men for the three places.
Under the constitution the governor
cannot renominate for the same post
\ a nominee whom the senate has al
ready rejected.
At present a foreign" judge is sit
ting in Gloucester county and the WORK
of the prosecutors Office has been ham
died by Assistant Attorney General
Joseph A. Lannigan, who was desig-
mated by Attorney General McCran,
the chief legal prosecuting officer of
the state
Hudson Appointments Confirmed
The offices now will be filled by
Governor Edwards with ad interim
appointments.
The nominees confirmed were Miss
Margaret McNaughton Of Jersey City
and Mrs. Alice Van Horne of Tren-
ton to be members of the State Board
of Health. They will be the first wo-
men members of the board, which was
increased from eight to ten members
to permit of the appointment of two
women. John E. Guthrie of Newark
also was confirmed for the Board OF
Health.
The other nominations confirmed
were John j. Scully of Jersey City to
be harbor master and Colin Mclean
of Paterson to the Passaic Valley Sew
erage Commission.
The senate adjourned Immediately
after coming out of executive session
The executive session lasted an hour
and was preceded by conferences
among Republican leaders at which
the policy of non-confrmation of po-
litical appointee was determined upon.
The senate had been called into extra
session for the purpose of acting upon
these nominations.
The nominations made were Of for
mer Judge Austin H. Swackhammer
and Joseph J. Summerill, Jr, both or
Woodbury., for judge and prosecutor,
respectively, of Gloucester county and
Linwood H. Erickson to be prosecutor
in Cape May.
Gloucester opposed Swackhammer and
Summerill on the grounds that the two
men were personally Objectionable"
to him.
Senator William Fl. Bright of Cape
May county opposed confirmation OF
Erickson on the ground that Erickson,
who is now an assistant United States
district attorney, is not resident of
Cape May county.
LHeIE Was llU dOuDt III tue HAAAAuS -
observers, Republicanssas well as Penn
ocrats, that the political legerdemain
with the bench had its genesis In party
politics.
Mrs. Van Horne, now on the State
Board of Health, was born in Deptford.
England. Her maiden name was Alice
n. Derbyshire. She came to the Unit
q ed States with her parents when she
was child. Mrs Van Horne is post
graduate Of the Union Classical lnsti-
tute Of Schenectady. N. Y, which Is
equivalent to two years in college she
has been active in civic and welfare
work in Trenton for number OF
years. both in the Contemporary and
Mothers Clubs. Mrs Van Horne or
ganized the Mercer County Council of
Mothers Clubs and Parent-Teachers'
Association and was its first county
chairman, serving for three years. Pre-