NEW JERSEY. 



ited witli having 106 factories, making of all varieties 

 about 4,600,000 pain. The city of Baltimore produced 

 1,400.000 poire, Cincinnati 2,000,000 pairs, and Chi- 

 cago 9.000,000 pairs. It is needless to enumerate more. 

 Sufficient hits already been done to convince this Sen- 

 ate of the vostness of the boot and shoe interest in tlm 

 great country of ours. 



But the legislation now proposed would not decrease 

 the number of boots and shoes made except in New 

 Jersey, and it is important, therefore, to know how 

 many shoes are made in the Now Jersey State Prison, 

 and to compare this production with that of the whole 

 country. There ore at present employed in the New 

 Jersey State Prison 270 convicts, and I am informed 

 that tlioy average four pairs per man each day, a total 

 of 1,080 pairs per day, and for a year (allowing 800 

 working days as before) 834.800 pairs. Estimating 

 the average value of this work at $1.50 per pair, this 

 production would reach the sum of $502,200, an amount 

 utterly insignificant when compared with $200,000,- 

 000, the production of the whole country 1 Whether 

 prison-labor ceases utterly or continues, it can have no 

 perceptible effect upon the vast market of this country, 

 or upon the price paid for labor. As well might you 

 expect to affect the supply of the city of Trenton by 

 taking from or adding to its reservoir a hogshead of 

 water ! 



Although the bill failed to pass, yet its dis- 

 cussion probably led to the adoption by the 

 Legislature of a joint resolution providing for 

 the appointment of a Commission of seven by 

 the Governor, three of whom may be citizens 

 of other States, to make careful inquiry into 

 the question of prison-labor, as* to whether it 

 comes into competition with free labor ; to state 

 the best means to prevent such competition, and 

 at the same time to supply employment to the 

 convicts. The Commission will receive no com- 

 pensation, but may employ a clerk at $300, and 

 must make a report to the Governor before the 

 next session of the Legislature. The Commis- 

 sion appointed by the Governor consisted of 

 the following persons: Edward Bettle of Cam- 

 den, William R. Murphy of Burlington, A. S. 

 Meyrick of Middlesex, Schuyler B. Jackson of 

 Essex, and Orestes Cleveland of Hudson. 



The efforts made to secure a better religious 

 observance of Sunday by the enforcement of 

 laws enacted at a former period caused more 

 active opposition in Newark than in any other 

 part of the country. Early in the year the Law 

 and Order Association began to prosecute the 

 dealers who sold liquor on Sunday. As an offset 

 to the action of the Society, the Germans began 

 to insist on the enforcement of the old Sunday 

 law, which for years had been considered as ob- 

 solete. On the first Sunday when the German 

 Protective Association attempted to enforce 

 this law, all the liquor-saloons were closed, and 

 ordinary business was suspended. The object 

 was to make the Sunday laws offensive to the 

 citizens, but the result was to create a public 

 sentiment against the liquor-dealers. The ques- 

 tion of repealing the law against the selling of 

 lager-beer on Sunday, which was first agitated 

 in Newark, gradually spread all over the State, 

 and from the Citizens' Protective Association 

 of Newark sprang the Liberal League of New 

 Jersey. This body held a State Convention in 

 Newark in September, and adopted the follow- 

 ing resolutions : 



Whereat, The founders of our government invited 

 the oppressed of all nations to come here and to par- 

 ticipate in a free government for free men ; and, 



Whereas. In compliance with this invitation people 

 from every land have flocked to our shores, and, blend- 

 ing their nationalities together have formed a mighty 

 nation ; and. 



Whereas, Of late there has been manifested in cer- 

 tain quarters, and among certain religious bodies, a 

 disposition to exercise extraordinary powers and to 

 prostitute the forms of law for the furtherance of their 

 peculiar views, and to the manifest injury of the civil 

 rights and personal liberties guaranteed to all of our 

 people, and to the contrary or the well-being of the 

 State ; therefore, we, a part of the people of tie State 

 of New Jersey, in mass-meeting assembled, do resolve : 



1. That every man has an indisputable claim to life, 

 liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 



2. That the liberty of action in the pursuit of happi- 

 ness gives to every man the right to carve his lite in 

 his own way, so far as that way is consistent with the 

 same rights of others. 



3. That we proclaim ourselves law-abiding citizens, 

 but that wo renounce the spirit of reaction and of big- 

 otry as opposed to the genius of our free institutions, 

 ana as contrary to the progressive spirit of the age. 



4. That we denounce the attempts recently made by 

 some of the officers of the law in this State, through 

 the instigation of a few fanatics, to revive and enforce 

 obsolete laws, repealed by the consent of three genera- 

 tions, as wrong in principle and vicious in practice, 

 tending to weaken popular respect for all law and to 

 bring the administration of justice into disrepute. 



5. That we call upon the Legislature of New Jersey 

 to so modify existing laws as to secure enlightened lib- 

 erty of action to all classes of our citizens ; and wo ask 

 that the Legislature shall see to it that New Jersey 

 shall no longer be the laughing-stock of the civiliza- 

 tion of the nineteenth century. 



6. And we do hereby pledge ourselves to vote only 

 for such men for the Legislature as will guarantee to 

 us their adherence to the above principles. 



This was followed on the same day by an 

 immense procession, the line of which em- 

 braced in its different sections not only the 

 representatives of the brewers, and all the 

 trades which contribute to the lager-beer busi- 

 ness, but delegations from almost every branch 

 of business which is carried on in the State of 

 New Jersey. At the charter election in New- 

 ark in October, the Protectionists were success- 

 ful by a large majority. This success was not 

 regarded as expressing objections to the Sun- 

 day laws as a whole, but as asserting that they 

 needed modification. 



At the opening of the Oyer and Terminer in 

 that city in March, Judge Depue thus defined a 

 " disorderly house " under the law of the State : 



A disorderly house is defined in law to be a place 

 where the law is habitually violated ; and if in the 

 course of investigation of this subject vou find any 

 place in which the law is in either of the respecte 

 mentioned habitually violated, such places are disor- 

 derly houses within the meaning of the law. 



At the last and preceding term of Court indictments 

 were found for keeping disorderly houses, based on the 

 habitual sale of liquor without any license, and at 

 times when the public authorities were forbidden to 

 grant licenses for the sale of liquors. A question hav- 

 ing arisen, one of them was made a test cose and taken 

 to the Supreme Court, and the indictment was there 

 sustained. So, with regard to that subject, it has been 

 adjudged by the Supreme Court, ana there now re- 

 mains no doubt as to the law on this subject. 



Under an act of the Legislature to prevent 

 the spread of contagious or infectious piieu- 



