MADDEN'S GOOD RECORD

New York, 1895

HIS CONSTITUENTS HAVE REASON TO REJOICE OVER HIS WORK.

Some of the Commendable Measures Introduced and Passed by Long Island City's Representative — He Opposed Vacheron's Corrupt Schemes and Helped to Pass the Normal School Bill.

The are four Assemblymen from this Senatorial district, three of whom are Republicans and the other (Mr. Madden who represented the district of Long Island City) a Democrat. In view of this fact, the work of Mr. Madden has more than passing interest, especially when compared with the accomplishments of his three Republican associates, and contrast his home-coming, and the rousing reception he received, with the slinking home of one of his colleagues with disgrace upon himself, discredit upon his party, and dishonor upon the county.

Mr. Madden served two years in Albany as private secretary to Senator Edward Floyd-Jones and clerk to the Senate Cities committee before he was elected to the Assembly, and was, therefore, pretty well equipped in knowledge of the rules and internal workings of the legislature to do effective work for his constituents.

One of the crying evils against which the people of his district has been protesting in vain for years was the exorbitant price charged for gas. The Standard oil company have a very large gas plant in Long Island City from which they furnish consumers both in New York and Long Island City. In New York they are charging $1.25 per 1,000 cubic feet, and $2.00 in Long Island City. For several years repeated efforts have been made to reduce the price charged in Long Island City, but the Standard oil company's financial or other influences at Albany were always sufficient to kill legislation proposed in this line.

Assemblyman Madden's first bill was one to reduce the price of gas to $1.25. The Standard company fought the measure at every step, but his uncompromising loyalty and indefatigable persistency was finally rewarded by the passage of the bill through both branches of the legislature. The people of his district could hardly believe it, so accustomed had they become to seeing similar bills killed. For his success with this measure, and for the light he made for reduced ferry rates for all Long Islanders, the business men of Long Island City decided to show their appreciation by giving him, upon his return home, a rousing reception, which was followed by a public meeting in the Court House. In his speech on that occasion, referring to his ferry bill, he said:

"Were it not for the opposition of Assemblymen Vacheron and Higbie I could have passed this bill reducing the fare on the 34th street ferry to one cent during commission hours and two cents at all other times. The opposition of two Republican members from Long Island in a House so strongly Republican was sufficient to defeat the measure and forced me to accept a compromise making it two cents at all times, thereby delaying the bill so that it was not passed by the Assembly until the day before adjournment, leaving only one day in which to try to pass it in the Senate."

Mr. Madden opposed his three Republican colleagues on the canal bill, by which it was proposed to connect Newtown Creek with Flushing Bay. He charged them upon the floor of the Assembly with working against the best interests of Long Island in their opposition to the proposed appropriation by the state for the starting of the canal project, because, as he said, it is hard to get the close-fisted legislator from up the state to appropriate for the benefit of Long Island any part of the heavy taxes that Long Island pays for the promotion of all sorts of projects throughout the state, that it came with bad grace for any of the representatives of Long Island to vote against a measure which would, at least, inaugurate the movement for the canal which, when completed, would be one of the greatest boons the western part of Long Island ever could hope to have bestowed upon it, and one that would do more than anything else to promote its rapid up-building.

Having been at Albany with Senator Floyd Jones when the first Normal school bill was passed, he was deeply interested in the later bills, and took an active part in supporting the present bill of Senator Childs's, increasing the appropriation for the building of the school to $150,000.

When Mr. Madden found a bill in the Assembly to steal the Normal school from Jamaica and give it to Binghamton and that nothing had been done by Mr. Vacheron, Jamaica's representative, to defeat the piracy, Mr. Madden jumped into the fight with Senator Childs and stood up manfully for Jamaica's rights.

Mr. Madden passed a bill which provides for the laying of water mains throughout Long Island City, and several other measures of more or less general interest to his district. He vigorously opposed the Vacheron corrupt Commissioner of Jurors bill and many other bad schemes which that representative, in conjunction with the present city treasurer of Long Island City, tried to foist upon the people.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, May 31, 1895, p. 1.