502 



NEW JERSEY. 



State, but increases the cost of living to that more 

 numerous class who are compelled to meet the in- 

 creased burden out of the proceeds of their daily 

 toil. 



Resolved, That labor and capital should be allies, 

 not enemies. We favor arbitration and profit shar- 

 ino 1 as remedies for idleness, want, and suffering, 

 and tending to secure peace, plenty, and prosperity 

 to our people. We favor reduction in the hours of 

 labor. We favor tenement-house and factory inspec- 

 tion in the interest of health and morals. 



We favor the passage of an act restoring the pro- 

 ceeds of the sale of riparian lands to the school tund 

 of the State. 



We are opposed to an administration of the State 

 government for personal uses ; to the subservien- 

 cy of the Legislature and the courts to Executive 

 dictation ; to the abolition by the Legislature, under 

 executive orders, of local home government ; to the 

 multiplication of public offices and the increase of 

 salaries for the furtherance of personal and political 

 ends: to the appointment of public officers for a 

 stated consideration to be paid to the party campaign 

 fund ; to the indiscriminate and wholesale pardon of 

 convicts in the State Prison ; to the unheard-of ex- 

 travagance of the present State administration in the 

 expenditure of public money ; to clothing the Govern- 

 or with dictatorial powers by acts of a Legislature 

 obsequiously subject to executive control ; to the 

 creation of unnecessary boards and commissions for 

 partisan purposes, investing them with arbitrary 

 powers, and placing them beyond the control of the 

 people by making their term of office subject to the 

 will of the Governor ; to evasions and misconstruc- 

 tions of the Constitution by the chief Executive to 

 secure politiical and personal support; to the coun- 

 tenance and support bv State officers and party 

 leaders of race-track gambling, with all its attendant 

 evils ; to the destruction of the right of suffrage by 

 false registry, ballot-box stuffing, and fraudulent 

 count of votes ; and to the general maladministra- 

 tion of public affairs, which in these and other mat- 

 ters during the current administration, have brought 

 shame and disgrace upon the State. 



John Kean, Jr., was chosen as candidate for 

 Governor. 



The Democratic State Convention met at Tren- 

 ton, Sept. 14. As an answer to criticisms on the 

 management of State affairs by the party, the 

 statement below was introduced into the resolu- 

 tions : 



We call the attention of the people to the follow- 

 ing facts : That the only permanent State officers to 

 whom any salary or compensation is allowed, created 

 by the Democratic party during the past three years, 

 are as follow : Commissioner of banking and insurance, 

 a chief of State police, a State board of taxation, a 

 State board for the arbitration of differences between 

 employers and employees, a board of commissioners 

 of electrical subways, a commissioner of mines, a 

 resident physician at the State Prison, and a super- 

 intendent of the school census. The acts creating the 

 offices of the commissioner of banking and insurance 

 and commissioners of electric subways provide that 

 the expenses of these departments shall be paid re- 

 spectively by the insurance and telegraph companies 

 doing business in this State. The total of all salaries 

 to be paid by the State to permanent officers created 

 by Democratic Legislatures during the present ad- 

 ministration is less than $15,000. The pledge made 

 in our State platform of 1889, that there should not be 

 any general State tax imposed upon the people, has 

 been faithfully kept, and we .enew the promise then 

 made, that there shall not be any general State tax 

 imposed while the affairs of the State are intrusted 

 to the Democratic party. On Jan. 1, 1889, the float- 

 ing debt of the State amounted to $400,000. Every 

 dollar of this has been paid, and over $250,000 ex- 

 pended for 'the improvement of public buildings and 



the purchase of a camp ground at Sea Girt. That 

 these expenses have been met without the imposition 

 of a single dollar of direct State tax upon the prop- 

 erty of private owners, and without an increase in the 

 rate imposed upon the property of corporations, sup- 

 ports our claim that the State government of New 

 Jersey is the most economical in the Union. 



That in pursuance of its pledge made in its plat- 

 form of 1889, to legislate in the interest of labor, the 

 Democratic party has during the present administra- 

 tion, through its legislative representatives, enacted 

 the following measures, all of which have received 

 the approval of a Democratic Governor, to wit : Acts 

 which secure beyond the reach of fraud the payment 

 of wages to mechanics and others engaged in the 

 erection of buildings ; an act providing for 60 free 

 scholarships in the State Agricultural College; 

 acts to authorize the establishment of free public libra- 

 ries and reading rooms in cities and towns ; an act 

 giving a lien for wages due for work and labor per- 

 formed and materials furnished in finishing silk and 

 goods of which silk is a component part; acts for the 

 improvement of the State agricultural experiment 

 station; an act making Saturday a half holiday ; an 

 act extending the provisions of the Mechanics' Lien 

 law to money due for labor or materials furnished in 

 the erection of public buildings; an act prohibiting 

 corporations from forcing their employees to contrib- 

 ute to relief funds ; an act creating a State board of 

 arbitration for the amicable adjustment of grievances 

 and disputes that may arise between employers and 

 employees ; acts providing for absolute secrecy in the 

 exercise of the elective franchise ; an act providing 

 for a commissioner of mines to inspect all mines in 

 this State, and to secure proper safeguards for the 

 protection of the lives of men employed therein ; an 

 act making wages due workmen and laborers a first 

 lien upon the assets of insolvent corporations ; an act 

 providing for the incorporation of trades unions and 

 labor organizations, and other acts. In dealing with 

 the municipal governments of the State, the Demo- 

 cratic party has adopted the plan of vesting in the 

 mayors of large cities the power of appointment of 

 municipal boards and officers, and we submit to the 

 people of the State that this plan of municipal govern- 

 ment is entitled to a thorough test in lights other 

 than those afforded by mere political partisanship. 

 Under this system there is a concentration of per- 

 sonal and political responsibility in a single office, 

 the occupant of which is chosen by the votes of the 

 entire city. The plan is in no wise antagonistic to 

 local self-government, but, on the contrary, affords 

 an incentive to citizens to participate in municipal 

 elections. Under it the grievous evil of sectional 

 strife for municipal patronage can be avoided and 

 economy enforced. While the plan is necessarily 

 imperfect, it is subject to amendment and should be 

 given a fair trial and receive impartial judgment be- 

 fore a return is made to a system under which re- 

 sponsibility is distributed and elusive. We denounce 

 all frauds perpetrated upon the elective franchise, 

 and we call the attention of the people to the fact that 

 prosecution and punishment of those crimes have 

 been the work of a Democratic court and prosecutor 

 and Democratic jurors. We ask from fair-minded 

 citizens a comparison of this fact with the action of a 

 Eepublican Senate which voted to seat, as Senator 

 from Hudson, a man who every one knew was not 

 entitled to the office. The action of that Senate was 

 protected by constitutional privilege, but it was none 

 the less a crime. 



The necessity for a diversion of the proceeds from 

 the sale of riparian lands from the school fund to 

 funds necessary to pay the expense of rebuilding the 

 State House and other extraordinary expenses hav- 

 ing ceased, we favor a repeal of the act allowing such 

 diversion. 



George J. Werts was made the nominee for 

 Governor. 

 The People's party held a State convention at 



