WILSON LEGISLATION IN NEW JERSEY
CAROLINE B. ALEXANDER
Hoboken, N. J.
In attempting a review of the social legislation passed in New Jersey during the administration of Woodrow Wilson, it is difficult to disentangle his share in its accomplishment. It is also difficult to distinguish between purely political measures and those which would be of special interest to social workers.
Measures for better primaries and corrupt practices acts had been introduced several times while he was still president of Princeton University. The Employers’ Liability Act was recommended by a commission named by his predecessor, Governor Fort. The Consumer’s League and Federation of Women’s Clubs had been working for a long time to improve laws relating to the hours and condition of women and children in industry. At the same time, no one who has been in touch with the marvelous change which has brought New Jersey to the first rank of progressive states can fail to realize that in practically one session of the Legislature the astounding insight, force and influence of one man achieved what might otherwise have taken years to accomplish. It must be remembered that almost all the important Wilson legislation was passed by the Legislature of 1911, when the House was Democratic. The Senate, although Republican, was brought into line by the governor. The session of 1912, when both Houses were Republican, produced little important legislation, and the Legislature of this year up to the time when President Wilson resigned to assume his duties at Washington passed but one important measure—that regulating the trusts incorporated in New Jersey. The jury reform bill is still under discussion and will be the subject of a special session of the Legislature in May.
I shall attempt to give a list of the laws primarily relating to social legislation, but the great reforms which will always be associated with Wilson’s name, although specifically political in their nature, must have a vast influence on the whole structure of the state. If our politics become cleaner, inefficiency and graft must gradually disappear and the citizens will grow to feel that they can trust their representatives with larger and larger sums to be used for the relief and care of the wards of the state.
Among these laws perhaps the most important are the following:
Limitation of the working hours of women to sixty a week, the first regulation of any kind for New Jersey women in industry; appropriation for the first time for the Woman’s Reformatory which was urged in Governor Wilson’s message to the legislature of 1911; standardization of trained nursing; establishment under the State Board of Education of special classes for children three years below the normal and also special classes for blind children; provision for the punishment of any person controlling a public place of amusement who permits the admission of children under eighteen years without a parent or guardian, and for any adult who encourages juvenile delinquency; passage of an act requiring that no pawnbroker shall receive any article from any person under the age of eighteen years; prohibition of furnishing cigarettes or tobacco to minors; provision for parental schools or house of detention for juvenile offenders; appointment of a special county judge for juvenile and domestic relation cases; enactment of an act placing New Jersey in the front rank in the campaign against tuberculosis; prohibition of the use of common drinking cups; establishment of free dental clinics; regulation of moving picture shows; employment of prison labor on roads; enactment of a comprehensive and scientific poor law; regulation of weights and measures; passage of an indeterminate sentence act; abolition of contract labor in all prisons and reformatories.
In addition to this legislation, it may be interesting to mention the appointment of commissions on prison labor, employers’ liability, city government, public expenditures, ameliorating the condition of the blind and playgrounds in all cities and villages. Governor Wilson also made several excellent appointments with entire disregard of politics, particularly those of his commissioner of education and his commissioner of charities and corrections. For the first position he brought Dr. Calvin Kendall from Indiana, and for the second he named Joseph P. Byers. Excellent appointments were also made to the boards of managers of the various state institutions.
Governor Wilson with his wife and daughter made a tour of inspection of all our state institutions, which in contrast to the usual perfunctory governor’s visit, was most valuable in bringing him in touch with the superintendents and with the various problems at the different institutions.