Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1923-03-09
THE HIGHWAY MIDDLE

timonial dinner to Mrs. Raymond r.
Donges, prominent Democratic State
Committeewoman, reiterated his OPP
position to the $4O,0 00, 900 road bond
issue and declared he will seek to have
it re-submitted to the people at the
text election. At the earliest oppor-
tunity, the Governor said, he would
have some member of the Legislature
introduce a bill which would accom-
plish that purpose.
eff this bill is not passed." con-
tinued Governor Silzer, then I shall
put it before the people at the coming
election in such form that they may
make their wishes felt"
"The forces of selfishness, the
forces allied with the corrupt paving
interests, and the political forces are
all now combined against the people
of the state, and unless the people are
watchful these interests will succeed"
said the Governor. "If they do, then a
large part of our $50, 00O, 900 will be
gone, and we will have many useless
roads to repave a few years hence"
The Governor pointed out that even
if there were no bonds issued under
the act, there would be spent in New
Jersey during the coming year the
sum Of $13, 0O0, 900 on roads. He con-
tinued that even with this sum there
was enough temptation to obtain con-
troll of the State Highway Commission
and turn it over to patent paving in
t~erests.
eff the people OF New Jersey want
to protect themselves against fake
open specification laws and against
the unwarranted expenditure of their
moneys, they must rise, and rise at
once" said Governor Silzer.
The Governor further reiterated his
stand against Withdrawing the names
of General Hugh L. Scott and Walter
Kidde as members of the new High
way Commission. What reason can
there be for the substitution of 9TH
ers?" he asked. There is but one
reason, and that is that the board may
lend itself to political purposes. What
l have been trying to do is to select
men who will disregard both patent
paving and politics, and look only to
the interest of the people of the state"
Continuing, Governor Silzer said:
81 have been asked to substitute Mr..
Pomeroy and Senator Allen-one
president of the Bankers Trust Com
pany of New York, and the other a
enced engineers. If l did this there
would be no engineer on the board. 1
don't know Mr.. Pomeroy, but l do
know that if he attends to his work
as president of Bankers Trust Com
pany he certainly will have little or
no time to give to the building of
roads. l also know that a farmer
necessarily does not have the oppor-
tunity to acquire the technical skill
or experience in building roads and
bridges that an engineer has.
"The Senate Committee that visited
me clearly demonstrated that their
only purpose in asking for the subsri-
lieve that the people of New Jersey
want $80,000,000 spent in that way"
The effort of Republican state lead
ers to force Governor Silzer to with
draw the names of General Hugh L.
Scott, of Princeton, and Walter Kidde,
of Mont Clair, as members of the new
Highway Commission and replace
them with Republicans selected by
Republican leaders has aroused a
stormof protest from the rank and file
of the Independent men and women
of the party.
Legislators have been hearing from
the folks back home" relative to the
highway situation which has now been
in dispute for five weeks. President
Hibben, Of Princeton University, is
sued a broadside on the subject and
Counselor William E. Blackman,
leader of the Independent wing of the
said that the Republican action on the
highway situation is deplorable and
that the party in New Jersey has
reached it's dotage and has lost all
sense of political expediency.
General Hugh L. Scott, being a vet
eran of the Spanish-American and
World Wars, has the soldier veterans
enlisted in his behalf. The more con-
sentative of the Republican leaders
think it impolitic to further oppose
General Scott. A fortnight ago it was
decided to oppose Abraham Jelin, one
of the Democratic oppointees, but such
a vigorous protest was registered by
Jewish organizations that Republi-
cans decided not to oppose him.
Philadelphia Inquirer.