Walter Evans Edge
Encyclopedia
Walter Evans Edge was an American politician. A Republican, he was twice the Governor of New Jersey
, from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1944 to 1947, serving as governor during both World War I and World War II. Edge also served as United States Senator
representing New Jersey
from 1919 to 1929 and as United States Ambassador to France from 1929 to 1933.
, where the family of his stepmother, Wilhemina (Scull) Edge, operated a small hotel. Edge attended a two-room public school in Pleasantville through the eighth grade, which was to be the extent of his formal education.
As a youth, Edge demonstrated a desire to succeed in business and he acquired an interest in politics. At the age of ten, he and another boy started a four-page weekly newspaper devoted to social news, the Pleasantville Bladder, which had a circulation of approximately one hundred. Edge also attended Pleasantville Republican party rallies, and later recounted that he came away from these events feeling great excitement and a growing determination to someday participate in politics himself.
At the age of sixteen, Edge took a part-time job with John M. Dorland, who operated an Atlantic City advertising business. Dorland solicited advertising from Atlantic City hotels for Philadelphia and New York newspapers. Dorland was in poor health when Edge joined him and within a few months, Edge was running the business. When Dorland died less than one year later, his widow sold the business to Edge, who was then seventeen years old. Edge financed the $500 purchase price with a note that a hotel owner agreed to co-sign for him. Under Edge’s management, the Dorland Agency grew into multi-million dollar advertising agency, with offices located in numerous cities in the United States and Europe.
In 1893 Edge founded the Atlantic City Guest, a summer newspaper devoted to the activities of the resort’s vacationers. The success of the paper caused Edge to start a similar paper in Jacksonville, Florida during the winter of 1894-1895.
On March 4, 1895 Edge established the Atlantic City Daily Press (now the Press of Atlantic City) as the successor to the Atlantic City Guest. He was twenty-one years old when he founded what was destined to become the Atlantic City area's dominant newspaper. Edge’s income from the Press soon exceeded $20,000 a year.
In 1905, Edge purchased the competing (Atlantic City) Evening Union. He sold both newspapers in 1919 to three employees: Albert J. Feyl, Paul J. O'Neill and Francis E. Croasdale.
In 1894, Edge was elected to the executive committee of the Atlantic City Republican Party. He was only twenty years old at the time, and was not old enough to vote. From 1897 until 1899 he served as journal clerk of the New Jersey Senate
, a position that enabled him to meet state political figures and learn parliamentary procedures. In the 1890’s Edge was a sergeant with the Morris Guards, a private military organization based in Atlantic City, and at the beginning of the Spanish-American War
in 1898, he signed up the company for service in the United States Army
. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant
in the Army during the war and served for a few months, but did not leave the United States. Between 1901 and 1904, Edge was appointed secretary of the state senate, another position that enabled him to cultivate relationships with state legislators.
In 1904, Edge ran in the Republican primary for the Atlantic County state senate seat occupied by incumbent Edward S. Lee. Edge, who ran as a reformer, used his Atlantic City Daily Press to promote his candidacy against Lee, who was supported by the established local Republican machine. Edge was defeated by Lee.
It would prove to be the only election that Edge would ever lose.
After his defeat, Edge’s Daily Press became a faithful supporter of the local Republican organization, and in 1909 he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly
. In 1910, Edge was elected to the New Jersey Senate
where he served for two terms, becoming the senate president in 1915.
Although Edge served in the state legislature during the height of the Progressive Era
, he tended to take moderate positions and was not considered a reformer. Perhaps chastened by his election defeat in 1904, he supported the Republican leadership, although he did cooperate with reformers when their efforts appeared sure of success. Early in his legislative career, Edge worked extensively in developing a workers’ compensation law for New Jersey, even traveling to Europe to study compensation systems there. The workers’ compensation bill that he sponsored was ultimately passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Woodrow Wilson
. He also promoted legislation calling for a ten-hour day for women workers, and safety laws protecting factory workers. He gained a reputation for concern with economic matters and the efficiency of state government.
, boss of the Hudson County Democratic machine, are widely credited with securing Edge’s election as governor. Johnson reached out to Hague, who feared the Democratic candidate, H. Otto Wittpenn
, a reformer whose election would threaten Hague's control of Hudson County. It is unclear whether Edge and Hague reached some agreement in exchange for Hague's assistance, with one authority concluding there was "[p]robably no outright deal", another stating Edge provided Hague with "a pledge of cooperation", and a third stating that Edge "had a working arrangement with Hague; the former to be left alone in South Jersey and Hague to be 'protected' in Hudson". In any event, Hague instructed those in his Democratic organization to crossover and vote for Edge in the Republican primary, thereby securing a narrow victory for Edge. Thereafter, Hague did not support Wittpenn in the general election, and Edge - who ran on a platform of making government more effective and efficient with the slogan "A Business Man with a Business Plan" - was elected.
After taking office as governor, Edge was successful in obtaining legislation consolidating state boards, improving the civil service, imposing a franchise tax on public utilities, allowing greater home rule for cities, reforming corporation law, and improving state institutions, especially the prisons.
In 1917 the legislature also agreed to Edge's proposal to reorganize the state road department, and Edge was also successful in obtaining legislation authorizing the construction of a bridge between southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, and a tunnel between northern New Jersey and New York City. The construction of a bridge between New Jersey and Philadelphia had been sought for some time by South Jersey legislators, but had failed to gain the support of North Jersey legislators, who opposed spending state funds on a project that they felt would benefit only the southern part of the state. Edge therefore combined his proposal to build a bridge to Philadelphia with a proposal to build a tunnel to New York, thereby obtaining the support of legislators from both parts of the state. The resulting bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge
(which spans the Delaware River between Camden and Philadelphia), opened in 1926, and the resulting tunnel, the Holland Tunnel
(which connects Jersey City and lower Manhattan), opened in 1927. It has been contended that the decision to place the terminus of the tunnel in Jersey City was the result of Frank Hague’s support of Edge in the 1916 gubernatorial election.
A considerable part of Edge’s efforts as governor involved the mobilization for World War I and postwar planning.
The most important and controversial vote held by the Senate after Edge’s arrival involved the Treaty of Versailles
, the ratification of which would have made the United States a member of the League of Nations
. Representing the moderate wing of the Republican Party, Edge was a “mild reservationist” on the question. Although he appears to have genuinely wanted the United States to enter the League of Nations, he believed that reservations to the treaty were needed both to protect national sovereignty, and to secure the votes needed for ratification by the Senate. Ultimately, in November 1919 and again in March 1920, he voted to ratify the treaty with the Lodge Reservations
.
Continuing his efforts to apply business management principles to government, in 1919 Edge introduced a joint resolution that ultimately led to the passage of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which established the Bureau of the Budget (now called the Office of Management and Budget) and the General Accounting Office. Edge also sponsored the Edge Act
, a 1919 Amendment to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which allowed National Banks (a banking institution chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
) to engage in international banking through federally chartered subsidiaries.
At the 1920 Republican National Convention that nominated Warren G. Harding
for President, there was a movement to nominate Edge as candidate for Vice President. Under convention rules, however, nomination required the vote of a candidate’s state delegation as a unit. In 1917, while governor, Edge had made an enemy of William P. Verdon, Republican leader of Hudson County, when Edge refused to appoint the man Verdon wanted as Hudson County prosecutor, Richard Doherty. (Verdon had expected that Doherty would wage a campaign against election fraud in Hudson County if appointed prosecutor). At the convention, Verdon kept his delegates from voting for Edge, thereby blocking the attempt to nominate him, and Verdon backed the nomination of Calvin Coolidge
, the successful candidate.
Edge was a leading “wet” in the Senate. He opposed Prohibition
and voted against the Volstead Act
. In 1924, he ran for reelection advocating the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment
(which had been proposed and ratified while he was governor, but which was not approved by New Jersey until 1922, three years after its ratification). He proposed a number of bills that would relax prohibition, including legislation that would authorize alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of 3%, and another bill that would legalize the sale of beer with alcohol content of 2.75%. At some point he supported practically every anti-prohibition movement in the Senate.
Edge was reelected to the Senate in 1924, defeating “dry” candidate Hamilton F. Kean in the Republican primary, and Democratic candidate Frederick W. Donnelly in the general election.
In April 1929 it was reported that Edge would be appointed by President Herbert Hoover
as United States Ambassador to France
. He did not resign from the Senate and take office as Ambassador, however, until November 21, 1929, a delay attributable to political issues involving the appointment of a Republican successor to him in the Senate, and a desire to have his continued expertise in the Senate while pending tariff legislation was being considered. During the course of the tariff debates, Edge has been described as a protectionist who voted in favor of higher tariffs on imported goods. The resulting tariff law, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
, was ultimately not enacted until the Spring of 1930, several months after Edge left the Senate.
, mayor of Newark and state leader of the American Federation of Labor, in the general election. By now, any assistance provided to him by Hudson County Democratic boss Frank Hague
in the 1916 election was long forgotten, and Edge hammered on the theme of Hague’s power, campaigning that a vote for Murphy was a vote for the domination of “labor leaders, communists and Hagueism”. Edge also advocated streamlining state government, early postwar planning and the adoption of a new state constitution, which he considered essential to modernizing state government and which had been actively supported by the incumbent Democratic governor, Charles Edison
. In the November 1943 election, Edge defeated Murphy by a comfortable margin.
Edge’s second term as governor was marked by numerous battles with Hague. In 1944, Edge and Hague fought over how certain railroad tax money should be allocated (with Hague’s position ultimately prevailing), while Edge was successful in obtaining legislation that required the use of voting machines in Hudson County, thereby reducing the chance of electoral fraud. Edge also obtained legislation authorizing the governor to appoint jury commissioners for each county, thereby bypassing county sheriffs, who previously had hand-picked grand jurors who they knew would refuse to indict those engaged in illegal activities protected by political bosses, such as Hague. The most important battle between Edge and Hague, however, involved constitutional revision. In early 1944, Republican legislators drafted a new proposed constitution that would have, among other things, restructured the judiciary, thereby depriving Hague of a major source of patronage. Hague strongly opposed the revised constitution, and several weeks prior to the November 1944 election he launched a multi-pronged attack on it, charging that it would restrict the activities of labor unions, inhibit advancement opportunities for returning veterans, and subject all church owned property to taxation. Voters rejected the proposed constitution.
The Edge administration, however, battled Hague on other fronts as well. Walter D. Van Riper, whom Edge had appointed state attorney general, took over the Hudson County prosecutor's office and brought in outside investigators. Van Riper aggressively prosecuted unlawful activities protected by the Hague organization. In June 1944, he led raids on Hudson County horse race betting rooms, later obtaining the indictments from "new" Hudson grand juries — the first indictments for such activities since Hague had come to power. In the process, gambling on horse races in Hudson County was virtually eliminated. In early 1945 Hague retaliated by having his hand-picked United States Attorney bring two federal indictments against Van Riper—one charging check kiting
and the other related to the alleged sale of gasoline in the black market. Van Riper went to trial on both indictments and was acquitted of all charges. Edge and Van Riper were undeterred, and continued to apply pressure on Hague. Major state jobs, which Hague once had controlled, now went to Republicans. The state civil service system was reformed and freed from Hague domination. The actions of the Edge administration took a heavy toll on Hague, who would retire from active politics in 1947 during the administration of Edge’s successor, Republican Alfred E. Driscoll
.
Despite the defeat of constitutional revision, Edge was able to accomplish much of his program. A number of state boards and commissions were consolidated, and a Taxation and Finance Department was established to handle all fiscal matters. Legislation providing benefits to returning veterans was enacted, as was legislation intended to improve the living conditions of migrant workers. In 1945, Edge signed a series of laws banning racial or religious discrimination in public accommodations, employment, public school admissions, jury service and hospital care.
Much of Edge’s last year in office was spent dealing with problems associated with the conversion to a peacetime economy and a wave of strikes.
Edge died on October 29, 1956 in New York City. He was buried at the Northwood Cemetery in Downingtown, Pennsylvania
.
After his defeat, Edge's Daily Press became a faithful supporter of the Republican organization. Edge subsequently ran with the support of the party establishment for state legislature, even campaigning when he ran for state senate in 1910 with Louis Kuehnle, Scott’s successor as leader of the organization. When he ran for governor in 1916, Edge’s campaign manager was Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, who had replaced Kuehnle as boss of the Atlantic County machine after Kuehnle was convicted of corruption related charges in 1911. Johnson and Hudson County Democratic leader Frank Hague
were widely credited with engineering Edge’s 1916 victory, and Johnson also served as Edge’s campaign manager during his successful run for the United States Senate in 1918.
In 1924, however, the relationship between Edge and Johnson openly soured. In the Atlantic City Commission election that year, Johnson’s organization backed a slate of candidates led by incumbent mayor Edward L. Bader. Bader was opposed by a ticket led by former mayor Harry Bacharach
. The Bacharach ticket ran on an anti-vice platform and gained the support of Johnson’s opponents. Bader’s slate won the bitter election, which was marked by allegations of widespread organization voter fraud. A month after the election, Edge replaced Johnson as the manager of his senate reelection campaign amid rumors that Johnson was unhappy about the “hands off” policy that Edge had taken during the recent election in which Johnson’s leadership had been threatened. Thereafter, the Atlantic County Republican organization led by Johnson refused to support Edge in his 1924 primary election contest against Hamilton F. Kean.
Although in 1927 Johnson advocated that Edge be nominated by the Republican party to run for president, in 1928 the two men openly broke. The initial indication of a break was Johnson’s support of Hamilton F. Kean for the Republican nomination for United States senator, while Edge was backing Edward C. Stokes
. The split noticeably widened after Edge abandoned his policy of non-interference in purely local politics and backed Robert M. Johnston for Atlantic County state senator in the Republican primary. This prompted Johnson to openly back incumbent senator Emerson L. Richards, who was Edge’s political and personal foe. The ensuing election was described as a “trial of strength in Atlantic County, the outcome of which may spell the doom of the loser”. The election results proved to be a disaster for Edge, whose candidates lost Atlantic County to the Johnson backed candidates by margins exceeding three to one, and with Richards claiming the results marked Edge’s “political extinction”. In the wake of the election, Edge called for party unity, and Johnson attempted to brush aside any damage to Edge by denying claims that the election results meant the end of his political career or that the election had been against Edge.
Edge, who faced a reelection campaign in 1930, resigned from the United States Senate in 1929 to accept appointment as Ambassador to France.
In his 1948 memoirs, A Jerseyman's Journal, Edge makes no mention of either Kuehnle or Johnson, who was imprisoned in 1941 for income tax evasion. Johnson’s successor as leader of the Atlantic County Republican organization, Frank “Hap” Farley, is mentioned once, in connection with events that transpired while Edge was out-of-state during his second term as governor, and Farley, as state senate president, was acting governor. Edge’s memoirs have been criticized for failing to discuss how he rose in politics and in skipping over the skullduggery involved in interesting political situations, and his failure to discuss his relationship and disagreements with the Atlantic County machine provide examples of those omissions.
In the early 1920s Edge lived in a cottage on States Avenue in Atlantic City that was near the Boardwalk. In 1923, he moved to a new beachfront home in Ventnor, New Jersey
that was located between Oxford and Somerset Avenues. This was his official residence until the mid-1940’s, and thereafter was used by him as a summer home.
In 1944, Edge purchased Morven, the historic Princeton, New Jersey home of Richard Stockton, from the Stockton family. The sale was subject to the condition that Morven would be given to the state of New Jersey within two years of Edge’s death. Edge transferred possession of Morven to the state in 1954, and he spent the last few years of his life living in a small house in Princeton.
Edge was an avid sportsman who enjoyed fishing and hunting, especially hunting quail
. After World War I, Edge purchased land in northern Leon County, Florida
with his longtime friend, Walter C. Teagle
, Chairman of the Board of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. They named the property Norias Plantation
. In 1937 Edge sold his interests in Norias to Teagle and purchased the adjacent Sunny Hill Plantation
, located in northern Florida near Thomasville, Georgia. Sunny Hill Plantation became Edge's winter home where he hunted and fished on the 15000 acres (60.7 km²) grounds.
Edge also maintained homes in Maine and Washington, D.C.
Edge was a Presbyterian while young, becoming a member of the Pleasantville Presbyterian Church in 1889, but later was an Episcopalian.
Edge was an active supporter of the Boy Scout movement in Atlantic County. He was a founder of the Atlantic City Boy Scout Council, and was its first president, a position that he held for four years. In 1929 he donated money that the Council used to purchase Camp Edge, located in Alloway, New Jersey. Edge was also a member of numerous Atlantic City and Atlantic County civic, fraternal, social and business organizations, including the Atlantic City Hospital Association, the Atlantic City Country Club, the Atlantic City Elks Lodge, Trinity Lodge No. 79 and Masonic Belcher Lodge No. 180 of the Free and Accepted Masons, and the Atlantic County Historical Society.
On the HBO series Boardwalk Empire Edge is portrayed by Geoff Pierson
. The series takes considerable liberties. He is shown to only support women's suffrage officially, but in private he is not only against it (especially the Nineteenth Amendment
), but makes degrading comments against women and believes they have inferior minds.
Governor of New Jersey
The Office of the Governor of New Jersey is the executive branch for the U.S. state of New Jersey. The office of Governor is an elected position, for which elected officials serve four year terms. While individual politicians may serve as many terms as they can be elected to, Governors cannot be...
, from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1944 to 1947, serving as governor during both World War I and World War II. Edge also served as United States Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
representing New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
from 1919 to 1929 and as United States Ambassador to France from 1929 to 1933.
Early life
Edge was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 20, 1873. His father, William Edge, worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad. His mother Mary (Evans) Edge, died when he was two years old. At the age of four Edge moved to Pleasantville, New JerseyPleasantville, New Jersey
-Local government:Pleasantville operates under the City form of New Jersey municipal government, led by a Mayor and a seven-member City Council. The City Council consists of two members elected from wards to three-year terms, and five members elected at-large to four-year terms in office, all of...
, where the family of his stepmother, Wilhemina (Scull) Edge, operated a small hotel. Edge attended a two-room public school in Pleasantville through the eighth grade, which was to be the extent of his formal education.
As a youth, Edge demonstrated a desire to succeed in business and he acquired an interest in politics. At the age of ten, he and another boy started a four-page weekly newspaper devoted to social news, the Pleasantville Bladder, which had a circulation of approximately one hundred. Edge also attended Pleasantville Republican party rallies, and later recounted that he came away from these events feeling great excitement and a growing determination to someday participate in politics himself.
Business career
In 1888, at the age of fourteen, Edge began working for the Atlantic Review, then Atlantic City’s only newspaper, providing it with news and social notes pertaining to Pleasantville and nearby communities. Later in 1888, Edge took another job with the newspaper, serving primarily as a printer’s devil, but performing a wide variety of other jobs as well. Edge’s position at the Atlantic Review introduced him to many of the hotel owners and businessmen in rapidly growing Atlantic City. Edge moved from Pleasantville to Atlantic City the same year.At the age of sixteen, Edge took a part-time job with John M. Dorland, who operated an Atlantic City advertising business. Dorland solicited advertising from Atlantic City hotels for Philadelphia and New York newspapers. Dorland was in poor health when Edge joined him and within a few months, Edge was running the business. When Dorland died less than one year later, his widow sold the business to Edge, who was then seventeen years old. Edge financed the $500 purchase price with a note that a hotel owner agreed to co-sign for him. Under Edge’s management, the Dorland Agency grew into multi-million dollar advertising agency, with offices located in numerous cities in the United States and Europe.
In 1893 Edge founded the Atlantic City Guest, a summer newspaper devoted to the activities of the resort’s vacationers. The success of the paper caused Edge to start a similar paper in Jacksonville, Florida during the winter of 1894-1895.
On March 4, 1895 Edge established the Atlantic City Daily Press (now the Press of Atlantic City) as the successor to the Atlantic City Guest. He was twenty-one years old when he founded what was destined to become the Atlantic City area's dominant newspaper. Edge’s income from the Press soon exceeded $20,000 a year.
In 1905, Edge purchased the competing (Atlantic City) Evening Union. He sold both newspapers in 1919 to three employees: Albert J. Feyl, Paul J. O'Neill and Francis E. Croasdale.
Early political career
Edge's successful advertising and publishing businesses made him very wealthy. From the beginning, his ultimate goal had been to use his success in business to build a political career, and to devote his primary attention to politics after he had attained financial security.In 1894, Edge was elected to the executive committee of the Atlantic City Republican Party. He was only twenty years old at the time, and was not old enough to vote. From 1897 until 1899 he served as journal clerk of the New Jersey Senate
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. From 1844 until 1965 New Jersey's counties elected one Senator, each. Under the 1844 Constitution the term of office was three years. The 1947...
, a position that enabled him to meet state political figures and learn parliamentary procedures. In the 1890’s Edge was a sergeant with the Morris Guards, a private military organization based in Atlantic City, and at the beginning of the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
in 1898, he signed up the company for service in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
in the Army during the war and served for a few months, but did not leave the United States. Between 1901 and 1904, Edge was appointed secretary of the state senate, another position that enabled him to cultivate relationships with state legislators.
In 1904, Edge ran in the Republican primary for the Atlantic County state senate seat occupied by incumbent Edward S. Lee. Edge, who ran as a reformer, used his Atlantic City Daily Press to promote his candidacy against Lee, who was supported by the established local Republican machine. Edge was defeated by Lee.
It would prove to be the only election that Edge would ever lose.
After his defeat, Edge’s Daily Press became a faithful supporter of the local Republican organization, and in 1909 he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly
New Jersey General Assembly
The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature.Since the election of 1967 , the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts for a term of two years, each representing districts with average...
. In 1910, Edge was elected to the New Jersey Senate
New Jersey Senate
The New Jersey Senate was established as the upper house of the New Jersey Legislature by the Constitution of 1844, replacing the Legislative Council. From 1844 until 1965 New Jersey's counties elected one Senator, each. Under the 1844 Constitution the term of office was three years. The 1947...
where he served for two terms, becoming the senate president in 1915.
Although Edge served in the state legislature during the height of the Progressive Era
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
, he tended to take moderate positions and was not considered a reformer. Perhaps chastened by his election defeat in 1904, he supported the Republican leadership, although he did cooperate with reformers when their efforts appeared sure of success. Early in his legislative career, Edge worked extensively in developing a workers’ compensation law for New Jersey, even traveling to Europe to study compensation systems there. The workers’ compensation bill that he sponsored was ultimately passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921. A leader of the Progressive Movement, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
. He also promoted legislation calling for a ten-hour day for women workers, and safety laws protecting factory workers. He gained a reputation for concern with economic matters and the efficiency of state government.
Governor of New Jersey, 1917-1919
In early 1916 Edge announced his candidacy for governor. Edge’s opponent for the Republican nomination was Austen Colgate. Edge’s campaign manager, Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, who was by that time the boss of the Atlantic County Republican machine, and Frank HagueFrank Hague
Frank Hague was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from 1917 to 1947, Democratic National Committeeman from New Jersey from 1922 until 1949, and Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1924 until 1949.Hague has a widely-known...
, boss of the Hudson County Democratic machine, are widely credited with securing Edge’s election as governor. Johnson reached out to Hague, who feared the Democratic candidate, H. Otto Wittpenn
H. Otto Wittpenn
Henry Otto Wittpenn was the Mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from January 1, 1908 to June 16, 1913. He was a member of the New Jersey State Highway Commission and was the president of both the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company and the First National Bank of Hoboken...
, a reformer whose election would threaten Hague's control of Hudson County. It is unclear whether Edge and Hague reached some agreement in exchange for Hague's assistance, with one authority concluding there was "[p]robably no outright deal", another stating Edge provided Hague with "a pledge of cooperation", and a third stating that Edge "had a working arrangement with Hague; the former to be left alone in South Jersey and Hague to be 'protected' in Hudson". In any event, Hague instructed those in his Democratic organization to crossover and vote for Edge in the Republican primary, thereby securing a narrow victory for Edge. Thereafter, Hague did not support Wittpenn in the general election, and Edge - who ran on a platform of making government more effective and efficient with the slogan "A Business Man with a Business Plan" - was elected.
After taking office as governor, Edge was successful in obtaining legislation consolidating state boards, improving the civil service, imposing a franchise tax on public utilities, allowing greater home rule for cities, reforming corporation law, and improving state institutions, especially the prisons.
In 1917 the legislature also agreed to Edge's proposal to reorganize the state road department, and Edge was also successful in obtaining legislation authorizing the construction of a bridge between southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, and a tunnel between northern New Jersey and New York City. The construction of a bridge between New Jersey and Philadelphia had been sought for some time by South Jersey legislators, but had failed to gain the support of North Jersey legislators, who opposed spending state funds on a project that they felt would benefit only the southern part of the state. Edge therefore combined his proposal to build a bridge to Philadelphia with a proposal to build a tunnel to New York, thereby obtaining the support of legislators from both parts of the state. The resulting bridge, the Benjamin Franklin Bridge
Benjamin Franklin Bridge
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge , originally named the Delaware River Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Camden, New Jersey...
(which spans the Delaware River between Camden and Philadelphia), opened in 1926, and the resulting tunnel, the Holland Tunnel
Holland Tunnel
The Holland Tunnel is a highway tunnel under the Hudson River connecting the island of Manhattan in New York City with Jersey City, New Jersey at Interstate 78 on the mainland. Unusual for an American public works project, it is not named for a government official, politician, or local hero or...
(which connects Jersey City and lower Manhattan), opened in 1927. It has been contended that the decision to place the terminus of the tunnel in Jersey City was the result of Frank Hague’s support of Edge in the 1916 gubernatorial election.
A considerable part of Edge’s efforts as governor involved the mobilization for World War I and postwar planning.
United States Senator, 1919-1929
In 1918 Edge was elected to the United States Senate, defeating George L. Record and Edward W. Gray in the Republican primary, and Democratic candidate George W. La Monte in the general election. Although the term to which he had been elected began on March 4, 1919, the Senate was in recess at that time. In order to attend to remaining gubernatorial business, Edge did not resign as governor until May 16, 1919 and was sworn in as senator three days later.The most important and controversial vote held by the Senate after Edge’s arrival involved the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, the ratification of which would have made the United States a member of the League of Nations
League of Nations
The League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace...
. Representing the moderate wing of the Republican Party, Edge was a “mild reservationist” on the question. Although he appears to have genuinely wanted the United States to enter the League of Nations, he believed that reservations to the treaty were needed both to protect national sovereignty, and to secure the votes needed for ratification by the Senate. Ultimately, in November 1919 and again in March 1920, he voted to ratify the treaty with the Lodge Reservations
Lodge Reservations
United States Senator Henry Cabot Lodge from Massachusetts was the Republican Majority Leader and Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations and a member of the U.S. Senate since 1893. In response to the Treaty of Versailles, Senator Lodge penned fourteen reservations to the proposed post-war...
.
Continuing his efforts to apply business management principles to government, in 1919 Edge introduced a joint resolution that ultimately led to the passage of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921, which established the Bureau of the Budget (now called the Office of Management and Budget) and the General Accounting Office. Edge also sponsored the Edge Act
Edge Act
The Edge Act is a 1919 amendment to the United States Federal Reserve Act of 1913,codified as:which allows National Banks to engage in international banking through federally chartered subsidiaries. The Act is named after Walter Evans Edge, a U.S. Senator from New Jersey who sponsored the original...
, a 1919 Amendment to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, which allowed National Banks (a banking institution chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is a US federal agency established by the National Currency Act of 1863 and serves to charter, regulate, and supervise all national banks and the federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States...
) to engage in international banking through federally chartered subsidiaries.
At the 1920 Republican National Convention that nominated Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
for President, there was a movement to nominate Edge as candidate for Vice President. Under convention rules, however, nomination required the vote of a candidate’s state delegation as a unit. In 1917, while governor, Edge had made an enemy of William P. Verdon, Republican leader of Hudson County, when Edge refused to appoint the man Verdon wanted as Hudson County prosecutor, Richard Doherty. (Verdon had expected that Doherty would wage a campaign against election fraud in Hudson County if appointed prosecutor). At the convention, Verdon kept his delegates from voting for Edge, thereby blocking the attempt to nominate him, and Verdon backed the nomination of Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state...
, the successful candidate.
Edge was a leading “wet” in the Senate. He opposed Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
and voted against the Volstead Act
Volstead Act
The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States...
. In 1924, he ran for reelection advocating the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment
Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Eighteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution established Prohibition in the United States. The separate Volstead Act set down methods of enforcing the Eighteenth Amendment, and defined which "intoxicating liquors" were prohibited, and which were excluded from prohibition...
(which had been proposed and ratified while he was governor, but which was not approved by New Jersey until 1922, three years after its ratification). He proposed a number of bills that would relax prohibition, including legislation that would authorize alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of 3%, and another bill that would legalize the sale of beer with alcohol content of 2.75%. At some point he supported practically every anti-prohibition movement in the Senate.
Edge was reelected to the Senate in 1924, defeating “dry” candidate Hamilton F. Kean in the Republican primary, and Democratic candidate Frederick W. Donnelly in the general election.
In April 1929 it was reported that Edge would be appointed by President Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
as United States Ambassador to France
United States Ambassador to France
This article is about the United States Ambassador to France. There has been a United States Ambassador to France since the American Revolution. The United States sent its first envoys to France in 1776, towards the end of the four-centuries-old Bourbon dynasty...
. He did not resign from the Senate and take office as Ambassador, however, until November 21, 1929, a delay attributable to political issues involving the appointment of a Republican successor to him in the Senate, and a desire to have his continued expertise in the Senate while pending tariff legislation was being considered. During the course of the tariff debates, Edge has been described as a protectionist who voted in favor of higher tariffs on imported goods. The resulting tariff law, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act
The Tariff Act of 1930, otherwise known as the Smoot–Hawley Tariff was an act, sponsored by United States Senator Reed Smoot and Representative Willis C. Hawley, and signed into law on June 17, 1930, that raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 imported goods to record levels.The overall level tariffs...
, was ultimately not enacted until the Spring of 1930, several months after Edge left the Senate.
United States Ambassador to France, 1929-1933
During his tenure as ambassador, Edge spent considerable time dealing with Franco-American trade issues (which were strained by tariff policies), and the contentious post-World War I questions of war debts, reparations and disarmament.Governor of New Jersey, 1944-1947
After his ambassadorship ended in 1933, Edge spent most of the next decade living a life of retirement, traveling, and serving as an elder statesman for the New Jersey Republican party. With the outbreak of World War II, however, Edge was eager to return to public service. In 1943 he agreed to run for governor provided no one opposed him in the Republican primary and the party maintained strong discipline - conditions to which state party leaders agreed. Following his nomination, Edge faced Democratic candidate Vincent J. MurphyVincent J. Murphy
Vincent Joseph Murphy was an American labor leader and Democratic Party politician from New Jersey. He was Mayor of Newark, New Jersey from 1941 to 1949 and the Democratic nominee for Governor of New Jersey in 1943....
, mayor of Newark and state leader of the American Federation of Labor, in the general election. By now, any assistance provided to him by Hudson County Democratic boss Frank Hague
Frank Hague
Frank Hague was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from 1917 to 1947, Democratic National Committeeman from New Jersey from 1922 until 1949, and Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1924 until 1949.Hague has a widely-known...
in the 1916 election was long forgotten, and Edge hammered on the theme of Hague’s power, campaigning that a vote for Murphy was a vote for the domination of “labor leaders, communists and Hagueism”. Edge also advocated streamlining state government, early postwar planning and the adoption of a new state constitution, which he considered essential to modernizing state government and which had been actively supported by the incumbent Democratic governor, Charles Edison
Charles Edison
Charles Edison was son of Thomas Edison to Mina, businessman, Assistant and then United States Secretary of the Navy, and served as the 42nd Governor of New Jersey.-Biography:...
. In the November 1943 election, Edge defeated Murphy by a comfortable margin.
Edge’s second term as governor was marked by numerous battles with Hague. In 1944, Edge and Hague fought over how certain railroad tax money should be allocated (with Hague’s position ultimately prevailing), while Edge was successful in obtaining legislation that required the use of voting machines in Hudson County, thereby reducing the chance of electoral fraud. Edge also obtained legislation authorizing the governor to appoint jury commissioners for each county, thereby bypassing county sheriffs, who previously had hand-picked grand jurors who they knew would refuse to indict those engaged in illegal activities protected by political bosses, such as Hague. The most important battle between Edge and Hague, however, involved constitutional revision. In early 1944, Republican legislators drafted a new proposed constitution that would have, among other things, restructured the judiciary, thereby depriving Hague of a major source of patronage. Hague strongly opposed the revised constitution, and several weeks prior to the November 1944 election he launched a multi-pronged attack on it, charging that it would restrict the activities of labor unions, inhibit advancement opportunities for returning veterans, and subject all church owned property to taxation. Voters rejected the proposed constitution.
The Edge administration, however, battled Hague on other fronts as well. Walter D. Van Riper, whom Edge had appointed state attorney general, took over the Hudson County prosecutor's office and brought in outside investigators. Van Riper aggressively prosecuted unlawful activities protected by the Hague organization. In June 1944, he led raids on Hudson County horse race betting rooms, later obtaining the indictments from "new" Hudson grand juries — the first indictments for such activities since Hague had come to power. In the process, gambling on horse races in Hudson County was virtually eliminated. In early 1945 Hague retaliated by having his hand-picked United States Attorney bring two federal indictments against Van Riper—one charging check kiting
Check kiting
Cheque fraud/check fraud refers to a category of criminal acts that involve making the unlawful use of cheques in order to illegally acquire or borrow funds that do not exist within the account balance or account-holder's legal ownership...
and the other related to the alleged sale of gasoline in the black market. Van Riper went to trial on both indictments and was acquitted of all charges. Edge and Van Riper were undeterred, and continued to apply pressure on Hague. Major state jobs, which Hague once had controlled, now went to Republicans. The state civil service system was reformed and freed from Hague domination. The actions of the Edge administration took a heavy toll on Hague, who would retire from active politics in 1947 during the administration of Edge’s successor, Republican Alfred E. Driscoll
Alfred E. Driscoll
Alfred Eastlack Driscoll was an American Republican Party politician, who served in the New Jersey Senate representing Camden County, who served as the 43rd Governor of New Jersey, and as president of Warner-Lambert .-Biography:He was born on October 25, 1902 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
.
Despite the defeat of constitutional revision, Edge was able to accomplish much of his program. A number of state boards and commissions were consolidated, and a Taxation and Finance Department was established to handle all fiscal matters. Legislation providing benefits to returning veterans was enacted, as was legislation intended to improve the living conditions of migrant workers. In 1945, Edge signed a series of laws banning racial or religious discrimination in public accommodations, employment, public school admissions, jury service and hospital care.
Much of Edge’s last year in office was spent dealing with problems associated with the conversion to a peacetime economy and a wave of strikes.
Later years and death
After Edge left office on January 21, 1947, he continued to promote constitutional reform, which was achieved later the same year with the adoption of the Constitution of 1947. Edge spent his final years as the elder statesman of the New Jersey Republican party. In 1951, he was one of the first prominent figures to back Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for president. In 1953 he attended the coronation of King Faisal II of Iraq as President Eisenhower’s representative.Edge died on October 29, 1956 in New York City. He was buried at the Northwood Cemetery in Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Downingtown, Pennsylvania
Downingtown is a borough in Chester County, Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 7,891. Downingtown was settled by English and European colonists in the early 18th century and has a number of historic buildings and structures.-History:The town was...
.
Relationship with Atlantic County Republican organization
Throughout Edge's political career, his home county, Atlantic County, was controlled by a Republican political machine that was extensively involved in the protection of Atlantic City's vice industry and other corruption. When Edge first ran for public office in 1904, he ran as a reformer against a candidate supported by the party establishment. Edge enlisted the support of many prominent Atlantic City citizens, and used his Atlantic City Daily Press to promote his candidacy and expose the activities of the machine. Edge fully expected to win the election and was shocked when he was defeated. He later blamed his defeat on the “Scott machine” (a reference to the organization led by County Clerk Lewis Scott) and party boss control of voting places and ballot counting.After his defeat, Edge's Daily Press became a faithful supporter of the Republican organization. Edge subsequently ran with the support of the party establishment for state legislature, even campaigning when he ran for state senate in 1910 with Louis Kuehnle, Scott’s successor as leader of the organization. When he ran for governor in 1916, Edge’s campaign manager was Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, who had replaced Kuehnle as boss of the Atlantic County machine after Kuehnle was convicted of corruption related charges in 1911. Johnson and Hudson County Democratic leader Frank Hague
Frank Hague
Frank Hague was an American Democratic Party politician who served as the mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey from 1917 to 1947, Democratic National Committeeman from New Jersey from 1922 until 1949, and Vice-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1924 until 1949.Hague has a widely-known...
were widely credited with engineering Edge’s 1916 victory, and Johnson also served as Edge’s campaign manager during his successful run for the United States Senate in 1918.
In 1924, however, the relationship between Edge and Johnson openly soured. In the Atlantic City Commission election that year, Johnson’s organization backed a slate of candidates led by incumbent mayor Edward L. Bader. Bader was opposed by a ticket led by former mayor Harry Bacharach
Harry Bacharach
Harry Bacharach was the five time Mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey in 1912 for 6 months, and from 1916 to 1920, and again from 1930 to 1935. He also served as a city commissioner for Atlantic City, New Jersey.-Biography:...
. The Bacharach ticket ran on an anti-vice platform and gained the support of Johnson’s opponents. Bader’s slate won the bitter election, which was marked by allegations of widespread organization voter fraud. A month after the election, Edge replaced Johnson as the manager of his senate reelection campaign amid rumors that Johnson was unhappy about the “hands off” policy that Edge had taken during the recent election in which Johnson’s leadership had been threatened. Thereafter, the Atlantic County Republican organization led by Johnson refused to support Edge in his 1924 primary election contest against Hamilton F. Kean.
Although in 1927 Johnson advocated that Edge be nominated by the Republican party to run for president, in 1928 the two men openly broke. The initial indication of a break was Johnson’s support of Hamilton F. Kean for the Republican nomination for United States senator, while Edge was backing Edward C. Stokes
Edward C. Stokes
Edward Casper Stokes was an American Republican Party politician, who served as the 32nd Governor of New Jersey, from 1905 to 1908.-Biography:...
. The split noticeably widened after Edge abandoned his policy of non-interference in purely local politics and backed Robert M. Johnston for Atlantic County state senator in the Republican primary. This prompted Johnson to openly back incumbent senator Emerson L. Richards, who was Edge’s political and personal foe. The ensuing election was described as a “trial of strength in Atlantic County, the outcome of which may spell the doom of the loser”. The election results proved to be a disaster for Edge, whose candidates lost Atlantic County to the Johnson backed candidates by margins exceeding three to one, and with Richards claiming the results marked Edge’s “political extinction”. In the wake of the election, Edge called for party unity, and Johnson attempted to brush aside any damage to Edge by denying claims that the election results meant the end of his political career or that the election had been against Edge.
Edge, who faced a reelection campaign in 1930, resigned from the United States Senate in 1929 to accept appointment as Ambassador to France.
In his 1948 memoirs, A Jerseyman's Journal, Edge makes no mention of either Kuehnle or Johnson, who was imprisoned in 1941 for income tax evasion. Johnson’s successor as leader of the Atlantic County Republican organization, Frank “Hap” Farley, is mentioned once, in connection with events that transpired while Edge was out-of-state during his second term as governor, and Farley, as state senate president, was acting governor. Edge’s memoirs have been criticized for failing to discuss how he rose in politics and in skipping over the skullduggery involved in interesting political situations, and his failure to discuss his relationship and disagreements with the Atlantic County machine provide examples of those omissions.
Personal life
Edge married Lady Lee Phillips of Memphis, Tennessee on June 5, 1907. She died July 14, 1915, four days after the birth of their only child. On December 9, 1922, Edge married Camilla Sewall of Bath, Maine, the daughter of a close friend of President Warren G. Harding. Edge was forty-nine years old at the time, and his wife twenty-one. During Edge’s term as Ambassador to France, his wife was known as “the youngest ambassadress”. Walter and Camilla Edge had three children together.In the early 1920s Edge lived in a cottage on States Avenue in Atlantic City that was near the Boardwalk. In 1923, he moved to a new beachfront home in Ventnor, New Jersey
Ventnor City, New Jersey
Ventnor City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey on the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 10,650....
that was located between Oxford and Somerset Avenues. This was his official residence until the mid-1940’s, and thereafter was used by him as a summer home.
In 1944, Edge purchased Morven, the historic Princeton, New Jersey home of Richard Stockton, from the Stockton family. The sale was subject to the condition that Morven would be given to the state of New Jersey within two years of Edge’s death. Edge transferred possession of Morven to the state in 1954, and he spent the last few years of his life living in a small house in Princeton.
Edge was an avid sportsman who enjoyed fishing and hunting, especially hunting quail
Quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are found in the family Phasianidae, while New World quail are found in the family Odontophoridae...
. After World War I, Edge purchased land in northern Leon County, Florida
Leon County, Florida
Leon County is a county located in the state of Florida, named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. At the 2010 Census, the population was 275,487. The county seat of Leon County is Tallahassee which also serves as the state capital. The county seat is home to two of Florida's major...
with his longtime friend, Walter C. Teagle
Walter C. Teagle
Walter Clark Teagle , was responsible for leading Standard Oil to the forefront of the oil industry and significantly expanding the company's presence in the petrochemical field.-Biography:...
, Chairman of the Board of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. They named the property Norias Plantation
Norias Plantation
Norias Plantation is a small quail hunting plantation located north of Lake Miccosukee in northeastern Leon County, Florida, United States.The land for Norias was sold by Colonel Lewis S. Thompson of Sunny Hill Plantation to Walter E. Edge, Governor of New Jersey and his hunting companion and...
. In 1937 Edge sold his interests in Norias to Teagle and purchased the adjacent Sunny Hill Plantation
Sunny Hill Plantation
Sunny Hill Plantation was a large hunting plantation in northern Leon County, Florida.- Plantation :Sunny Hill Plantation was established by Lewis S. Thompson in 1913, and was created from the former W. G. Ponder Plantation...
, located in northern Florida near Thomasville, Georgia. Sunny Hill Plantation became Edge's winter home where he hunted and fished on the 15000 acres (60.7 km²) grounds.
Edge also maintained homes in Maine and Washington, D.C.
Edge was a Presbyterian while young, becoming a member of the Pleasantville Presbyterian Church in 1889, but later was an Episcopalian.
Edge was an active supporter of the Boy Scout movement in Atlantic County. He was a founder of the Atlantic City Boy Scout Council, and was its first president, a position that he held for four years. In 1929 he donated money that the Council used to purchase Camp Edge, located in Alloway, New Jersey. Edge was also a member of numerous Atlantic City and Atlantic County civic, fraternal, social and business organizations, including the Atlantic City Hospital Association, the Atlantic City Country Club, the Atlantic City Elks Lodge, Trinity Lodge No. 79 and Masonic Belcher Lodge No. 180 of the Free and Accepted Masons, and the Atlantic County Historical Society.
Miscellaneous
In the 2000s, Edge's name (as Wally Edge) and likeness had renewed currency as the pseudonym of a prominent anonymous New Jersey political columnist, who, in 2010, was identified as former Livingston Mayor David Wildstein.On the HBO series Boardwalk Empire Edge is portrayed by Geoff Pierson
Geoff Pierson
Geoff Pierson is an American actor known for his role on The WB series Unhappily Ever After as Jack Malloy, the father of a dysfunctional family whose best friend is a stuffed animal rabbit named Mr. Floppy...
. The series takes considerable liberties. He is shown to only support women's suffrage officially, but in private he is not only against it (especially the Nineteenth Amendment
Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any United States citizen to be denied the right to vote based on sex. It was ratified on August 18, 1920....
), but makes degrading comments against women and believes they have inferior minds.
External links
Retrieved on 2008-02-11- Walter E. Edge Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
- Biography of Walter E. Edge (PDF), New Jersey State LibraryNew Jersey State LibraryThe New Jersey State Library, based in Trenton, New Jersey, was established in 1796 to serve the information needs of New Jersey's Governor, Legislature and courts. The State Library is also responsible to assist in the provision of library and information services to all New Jersey...
- New Jersey Governor Walter Evans Edge, National Governors AssociationNational Governors AssociationThe National Governors Association , founded in 1908 as the National Governors' Conference, is funded primarily by state dues, federal grants and contracts and private contributions. NGA represents the governors of the fifty U.S. states and five U.S. territories The National Governors Association...