Vacheron's Corrupt Jury Bill

New York, 1895

Severely Condemned by a Republican Newspaper.

Probably no measure affecting Queens county has been introduced in the state legislature for a score of years that has been so severely criticised and so generally condemned as Mr. Vacheron's bill, providing for the appointment of a commissioner of jurors in and for that county. The press is against it; the public officials, with probably one or two exceptions are against it; and as for the people, the writer has yet to meet the taxpayer who will lift his voice in favor of the scheme, again excepting, of course, the few office-grabbing politicians who have personal interests in pushing the bill. It is gratifying to note that although the bill was introduced, and presumably supported by a Republican assemblyman, it is repudiated by a Republican board of Supervisors and by Republicans generally throughout the county. They see what the leaders apparently cannot or will not see, that the passage of this iniquitous measure will do more to injure the party in Queens county than anything else that has been attempted during this or any previous session of the legislature.

It is stated on the best of authority that the bill was intended to provide a place for Mr. Vacheron, that in the event of its becoming a law, the assemblyman from the third district would be "out of the way" of aspiring candidates for the senatorial nomination next fall. True enough, he would, and it might be safely predicted that the Republican candidate for senator and all other Republican candidates in the county would be put out of the way by the people should this apparently unnecessary office he created by a Republican legislature and the action indorsed by a Republican governor. In this connection it would be interesting to learn since when Mr. Vacheron became such a dangerous senatorial possibility, that it is necessary to provide for him at the expense of the party's reputation for economy in public affairs. The reputation of the party in Queens county is not so secure that her representatives can afford to ignore the will of the people, and it is to be hoped that Senator Childs will, in regard to this matter, as he does in others, maintain his reputation as a people's representative. — Brooklyn Times.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, April 26, 1895, p. 8.