Year: 1879

"


Local self-goyernment as practised by the
enlightened Democracy of the IVth Congress
siOnal District of New-Jersoy, would seem to
be costly privilege. Ii may be that expert
coruptiOBists elsewhere have been as success
ful in exceptionally good years for stealing !;
but taking one season with another for the
past ten or fifteen years, some of these
county officials in North Jersey have devel-
oped n talent for steady swindling which Is
phenomenal, II not unparalleled. The dis
closures began in Warren County some fifteen
months ago, where the astonishing charges
then made have since been so well established
in the courts that several eminent citizens
implicated are now engaged in productive
labor in State Prison. The swollen debt and
growing taxes in Sussex County next attracted
attention. And although Committee OF Free
holders failed to find any evidence of felony,
they reported general lOoseness and irregu-
Clarity" and the county expenses suddenly
dropped one-third. As yet there has boen no
uprising of the tax-burdened in Hunterd0n,
although complaints have been laid before the
Grand jury, and the reports of the County
Collector are prima-facio evidence that skilled
punderers are not lacking in that section.


And now comes Somerset, the only remain
ing county in the district, with an explosion
quite as startling as the one which cOnvulsed
Warren. 1t appears that the entire county
debt of 1925, 600 represents fraud perpetrated
with the utmost audacity for % series of years.
The details of this pillage so far as they have
been laid bare are sickening, and when the
investigation under the new law which has
been duly demanded at the hands of the Justice
of the Supreme Court is completed, 1t will make
a chapter i'll the history of corruption hard to
be matched for recklessness and impudence


AS sample leaves in that chapter it may be
noted that certain regular county expenses
ran up in four years from $4,000 per annum
to $4,000 that bridge bills in n single town
ship in a single year amounted to $4,000,
when they should have been less than 81 900 /;
and that expense and per-diem accounts of
FreehOlders have been five times as large as
they should have been. 1t is the same old
story, with slight variations invented to suit
his latitude by tho rural Tweed of Somerset,
who has displayed marked genius as an organ
izer and director of schemes of plunder.


Now, the melancholy fact that this is n
Democratic district will hardly suffice as an
explanation of its universally diseased condi-
ton. 1t is true the Democrats have al
ways had full sway in local matters, and
patty ought to be held responsible for the
deeds of its recognized agents. But the
truth is that in these counties the party
machinery has been so completely captured
and controlled by few m2niDulatOrs that
while the people persist In being partisans
they virtually surrender all freedom of choice.
So long as they vote the regular ticket
they formally submit to the rule of a
few corrupt leaders, who alone have the power
to dictate rs to what is regular. The right
of sell-goyernment is practically abdicated !;
unlimited power il delegated to "a rapacous
Ring and it is not until the popular burdens
become intOlerabe that revolution can
hoped for. Even then, after easy-going
citizens have been aroused to assert their
rights, the chances are that they will soon
relax their efforts aud lapse into carelessncss.


And just here is where the lesson en-
forced by these rascalities in New-Jersey
is of general application. If the citi-
zens of Northern New-Jersey had given
any intelligent and conscientious atten-
ton to their local politics their property
would not have been at the mercy
of Mattisons and Cornishes and COrys. No
legal checks or safeguards can take the place
of persistent watchfulness over their own in-
terests by. the people Especially should the
people Of the IVth Congressional District of
New-Jersey remember that their fight is with
the political jobbers, who have made their
counties a Kissing and a byword, and they
should insist that every candidate shall be