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And Jersey City did likewise. After Dickinson and his mayor had given out the Murphy letter, the railroad-trolley rings went after the boss, and they got him. He began to insist in Jersey City upon some sort of compromise with the Public Service Corporation. The company wanted some new grants. The city couldn’t get its old case into court; so what was the use of fighting? Why not settle it all out of court? Mayor Fagan hung back, but his cabinet persuaded him to talk it over with Tom McCarter. McCarter called, asking for perpetual franchises. The Mayor was willing to negotiate on the basis of a twenty-five-year franchise. McCarter said limited franchises were absurd in Jersey. There they stuck till Record suggested, as a compromise, a perpetual franchise with readjustments of the terms every twenty-five years. McCarter thought this opened a way to a settlement; so did the Mayor; and Dickinson, feeling that he had “delivered his man” (the Mayor), sailed for Europe. But it wasn’t settled. McCarter demanded fifty-year periods, and the Mayor, who had had misgivings all along, broke off the negotiations. The Pub- lic Service had its way. The Democrats controlled the Street and Water Board, and they passed McCarter’s franchise for him.

But it was passed over the Mayor’s veto, and