Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-06-15
AND THUS OUR LAWS ARE MADE

AND THUS OUR laws ARE MADE
It $ notorious that the members of the legislature fiddle
way their time during the early days of the session and then
Ysb through a pile of bills, good, bad and Indifferent, during
The closing hours. Later, after these bills become laws, their i'm
perfections show up, and more or less confusion and often scandal
results.
The public IS given an insight as to the conditions under
which these bills are raiIroaded through during the closing hours,
In the testimony given before Supreme Court Commissioner
Baekes regarding the passage of the Matthias bill over the veto
of Governor Shzer.
The Mathis bill was one of several introduced in the last ss-
sion of the legislature adding many miles of unimproved roads to
the state highway system. This particular bill turned over to the
state a route from Camden to Toms River.
These bills are introduced by legislators to win popularity
at home, one fellow agreeing to vote for the other fellows bill if
be. in turn. will vote for his bill. And thus miles and miles of
roads are added to the state system, far beyond the ability of the
state to take care Of them.
Governor Sizer, while realizing the d~esirabiity of having
.ome of these roads included in the state highway system, vetoed
Ill the bills on the ground that such roads as should be thus in
luded could better be picked out by the State Highway Com
mission. When the governors vetoes were being considered by
he legislature. however, all of these bills were passed over his
feto-at least. the records show that they We're.
But when these records were examined it was found that sew
sral of the legislators recorded as voting in favor of passing the
i'll over the governors veto were not even present when the vote
was taken. Some of the Legislators, when questioned afterward,
said that they mad n fecOiectlOu IL voting IL III A1atHS pu5I
and that they would have voted against its passage.
The scandal grew TO such proportions that an investigation
was started. At the hearing yesterday, in describing the scene
during the roll call on the bill, one Of the witnesses testified that
there was great confusion in the House at the time. Speaker
Evans, he said, was playing the piano; Assemblyman Negus, of
Passaie, was standing on the clerks desk throwing water from
A pitcher onto the different members that he could reach. There
we're several groups Of a~ssemblymen gathered about singing, and
there was a hilarious time generally. Yet the House was supposed
70 be in session and the roll was actually being called on the
passage, over the governors veto, Of a bill that would add hun
lreds of thousands Of dollars to the states expenses.
It was testified that one of the leaders Of the House stood at
Tie elbow Of the clerk who was calling the roll, telling him, as
each name was called, how to record the different members. It
made no difference TO this leader whether the member was pres
emit or not. "oh, he's all right was the general comment and
50 he was recorded as voting in favor of the bill. The only object
was to see that enough votes were recorded in favor Of the meas
IRE to pass it over the governors veto.
The mere fact that the governor had seen fl to veto the bill is
reason enough for the legislators to give it careful consideration
before passing 1T again in spite Of the objections raised by the
governor. It shows how much regard the legislators, as a body,
have for the governor, yet they must realize that Governor Silzer
stands much higher in the confidence of the people than the legs
lature does, and his opinions on legislation are more highly valued.
But thus we see how orr laws are made. Really, it is some
hing for the people to think about seriously.