 |  | |
 |
|  |
 |  | |
| | |
|
| |
| | |
|
|
Originally published in 1939
Some of this information may no longer be current and in that case is presented for historical interest only.
Edited by GET NJ, COPYRIGHT 2002
After 1865 profits from war supplies and a favorable location as the
nexus of the most populous and prosperous sections of the Nation contributed to an intense industrial activity. Paterson was processing two-thirds of the country's silk imports; Newark could proudly hold an impressive trade exhibition of its varied manufactures in 1872; kerosene and
other oil products were being refined in Bayonne; and agriculture was
passing into its present form of lucrative truck farming. While real estate
companies plotted chimerical developments, the legislature recklessly issued charters for any kind of money-making enterprise. The great economic spree which lasted until the panic of 1873 fastened New York's
hold upon New Jersey more securely than ever.
The hold that the Camden and Amboy had upon the State had been
considerably weakened by 1867. In that year its opponents, seeking a charter for a competing line across the State, had turned the legislature into a
roundhouse battleground. When the Camden and Amboy sensed that public opinion would ultimately spell defeat, the company prudently leased
its lines to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Pennsylvania took up in 1871
where its predecessors had left off and brought about a Republican victory
in the legislature. The railroad retained a majority in 1873, but this time
it was the legislators who felt the popular wrath. They passed a bill opening the State to all lines.
Although the Pennsylvania lost the battle, the State's history shows that
it won the war. The act giving any company the right to put down rails in
New Jersey was much less objectionable to the Pennsylvania than the alternative of a special charter to a single competing line. Like its predecessor,
the new company succeeded during the next generation in maintaining a
powerful hold on the State government.
As far back as 1871, however, public opinion had caused the legislature
to attempt checks on railroad domination. In that year the railroads were
denied free loading space along the Hudson. In 1883 Leon Abbett was
elected Governor on a platform calling for railroad franchise taxes. Although the subservient legislature compromised on a plan for assessment
and taxation of railroad property, this action resulted in investigation of the
Lackawanna Railroad. A State audit of the company's books yielded New
Jersey several hundred thousand dollars.
Nevertheless, for more than a quarter of a century the railroads generally enjoyed an extraordinary privilege to profiteer. This license illustrates
the beginning of a gradual blurring of party labels between 1870 and
1900, for even on the few occasions when the Democrats won complete
control of the State government, their efforts to curb the railroads were
feeble. Shut out of the Governorship since 1869, the Republicans had to
bid for power by such trivial stratagems as seeking the Prohibition vote
through the passing of a county option law in 1888. Such schemes failed
to elect a Governor, but the Democrats' own corruption finally lost them
the legislature in 1893. Even then the Republican victory was delayed
while eight hold-over Democratic senators attempted to steal the senate
back from the Republicans simply by organizing themselves into a rump
senate, which prevented the seating of any new members. This bold bid
was thwarted by the courts.
|
|
|
Return To |
|
|
