The Jersey City News

THE LEGISLATURE
READY FOR WORK

Plenty of Important Things to Be Discussed at the Coming Session.

TAXATION AND CANALS

Lawmakers Cannot Touch the Former 'Till the Commission Reports.

(Special to "The Jersey City News.")

TRENTON, December 12, 1904.

As the time for the annual meeting of the legislature draws near, the question of possible legislation is being agitated. As required by the state constitution, the lawmakers will assemble at the capitol Tuesday, January 10. Unless some over-zealous members should get in a bill or two, nothing beyond swearing in the new members, organizing both houses and appointing the committees to arrange for the inauguration of the governor-elect the following Tuesday will be done at the opening session.

Both houses will then adjourn till the following night, when the big influx of bills will commence. Judging from the reports of prospective legislation, the indications are that enough work is already cut out for the lawmakers to give them no reasonable excuse for wasting the first weeks of the session as has been the practice in recent years.

It is expected that as soon as possible after the legislature settles down to work there will be a caucus of the Republican leaders to consider the question of equal taxation and formulate a bill on the question. Governor Murphy and Governor-elect Stokes are both considering the matter, the one for his annual message and the other for his inaugural address. By its platform the Republican party stands committed to the policy of the taxation of second-class railroad property at local rates, and in his speeches in the campaign the governor-elect again declared that the main stems would be taxed in a manner to do away with all inequalities which might exist between that and the property of the individual citizen.

This was not to be done, however, until the subject had been investigated by Governor Murphy's equal tax commission. The commission will complete its labors as far as investigating is concerned with a sitting in this city this week, and then its report will at once be formulated for presentation to the Legislature. This means, of course, that nothing will be done as to enacting taxation laws until the report has been received and fully discussed.

Whatever is done it is certain that the equal taxation question will be the most important matter before the lawmakers this session.

Another measure which is expected to make its appearance in the early stages of the session, and which the people of the northern end of the State at least consider of almost equal importance with the equal taxation matter, is the bill for the abandonment of the Morris canal.

This matter was presented to the Legislature in the dying hours of the last session and was not considered before final adjournment. The Governor tried to have it considered at the special session, but that, too, adjourned without taking it up.

Action on this question will be of great interest to this city and vicinity, because should the abandonment proposition become a law it is believed the Pennsylvania Railroad would immediately take steps to employ the same legislation to abandon the Delaware & Raritan Canal, which is under the control of the Pennsylvania. There have been indications for several seasons that the company was anxious to abandon the canal.

The boating business grows less each year and for several years the waterway has been operated at a loss. It is also stated that the railroad company is spending very little money on the stream in repairs. No permanent improvement work is done and the canal is merely kept navigable to the comparative few boats which use it.

To permit it to be generally known that any bill for the abandonment of the Delaware and Raritan canal would be fatal to it, yet if an abandonment act is passed it must be a general act to be constitutional and a general act would give the Pennsylvania railroad the right it desires. The bill introduced at the special session was a general act and sought to divert attention from the advantage it would give that company by declaring that they had no thought of abandoning the local waterway and by urging a host of reasons why it would be to the interest of the city to stand such a stoppage of work. If they should be obliged to quit work, as they would have to if the proposed bill became a law, it is said that the baker, the butcher, the grocer and the other tradesmen of that vicinity would quickly feel the effects, and they, too, are opposed to any such legislation.

There is also some talk of attempting to have the primary law amended so that voters shall cast their ballots in one box direct for the candidates and not for the delegates, thus making it unnecessary for the citizen to declare his political allegiance.

The school teachers of the state are preparing to swoop down upon the lawmakers in an endeavor to persuade them into enacting some legislation which will give them an increase of salary, and the firemen and militiamen, notwithstanding the ruling of the courts that the tax exemption law is unconstitutional, will make a concerted effort to have passed a measure which will give them the old-time exemption from taxation.

It is understood that the Legislature, at its next session, will be asked for a more generous appropriation than ever for voting machines. At the last election there was bitter opposition to the machines in some sections of the State, and a proposition to increase their number is likely to precipitate a hot fight.

It is likely that the State will witness another bitter fight over the robin question. Assemblyman Gibbs, of Camden County, who last winter was a strong advocate of the De Cou bill permitting the shooting of robins during the fruit season, has been returned to the Assembly, and, it is said, will introduce and fight for a bill similar to that of last year, which failed to pass. The small fruit growers of South Jersey are expected to favor the bill and battle for its passage.

Assemblyman Gibbs is also expected to introduce a repealer for the anti-pig eon killing law.

The regular annual attempt to abolish the State Board of Arbitration is also to be made with, as many things, the usual failure. No one pretends to believe that this Board is of any earthly benefit to the State, or that it renders any valuable service for the $6,250 which it annually costs. Still, the Board provides five desirable places, with a salary of $1,200 attached, not to mention the extra $200 which goes to the member who acts as secretary, and as the party managers are at their wits' end to find jobs for all who claim to have served the G. O. P., there is little hope of its abolishment this winter.

Sportsmen throughout the State are loudly declaring that the number of game wardens should be increased, and that all should be held strictly to account for the manner in which they discharge the duties of their office. Bills on this subject are therefore likely to be introduced.

The New Jersey Anti-saloon League is planning a new campaign for the State, and will renew its efforts to get legislation favorable to the opponents of the liquor traffic and of the friends of local option.

Edward A. Murphy, one of the Democratic Assemblymen-elect from Hudson, intends to introduce a bill in the Legislature making it mandatory upon all persons selected to act upon election boards to have their mental and moral fitness to properly fill the positions for which they are named passed upon. He also intends to incorporate in the bill a clause making the term of the election officers two consecutive years, with at least two years intervening before they can again become eligible to serve. There will also be a provision to the bill for proper examiners to examine the election officers and determine their fitness.

Assemblyman Ralph Hulse, of this city, and Clarence Magee, of Bergen, are both expected to introduce bills for the abolishment of capital punishment.

The state board of health, it is said, will endeavor to obtain the passage of a measure taking from those accused of selling adulterated milk the right of a trial by jury.

This will be in the form of an amendment to the present law, in which the clause providing for the trial by jury was inserted as a compromise.

The state board claims that the juries which have acquitted so many milk dealers in Jersey City have placed a premium upon the sale of adulterated milk and it will be impossible to suppress the traffic unless the trial by jury clause is stricken from the law.

The oystermen of the Cedaryville section of Cumberland are agitated by the report that a bill is to be introduced providing for the closing for a year of the Delaware bay against the privilege of catching oysters for planting purposes.

There are some oystermen in that section who want the bay so closed for a year or a term of years, but they are the ones who have made money, and are fortified against a standstill in the business. But there are many others who work on boats by the day or week who are not able to stand such a suspension of work.