the rumble of popular indignation finally scared the rings. Major Lentz is said to have told Governor Stokes that if some bill wasn’t reported, “that fellow Colby would make a lot of trouble” for him (Lentz) in Essex. So the Pennsylvania Railroad threw over the Public Service Corporation. Stokes gave orders. A substitute bill was drawn, for a commission to investigate; that was all, but just before final adjournment this old device to gain time was reported and rushed through. And, even then, Tom McCarter told the Governor he had no right to let such a thing happen when “our great interests were against it.” And Governor Stokes did not sign it for weeks; and then he appointed a commission typified by ex-Governor Murphy, the chairman.
A railroad tax bill, promised in the Republican platform, was introduced with the permission (as I happen to know) of Mr. Cassatt of Philadelphia, but it was in the form prescribed by “the road.” It taxed second-class property (buildings and ordinary real estate) at local rates, but not the “main stem” (the roadbed). This would relieve Jersey City somewhat, but it would not satisfy Mayor Fagan or any other citizen who believed in “equal taxation.”
And after it was passed, another bill was run out and jammed through, prescribing that the
