THE FIRST COMMISSION 35 
began to ask themselves if the entire county was not 
“parkable.” 
While the friends of the parks were providing sugges- 
tions and recommendations, the board was looking also to 
broader fields of information and to the guidance of expe- 
Tience. At the meeting July 19, 1894, the secretary was 
requested to obtain the best available maps of the county; 
with the reports, together with such other data as might be 
of value to the commission, from the leading park depart- 
ments of the country and from the larger cities abroad. 
The information thus obtained was later of great value for 
comparison, and in the preparation of the charter for the 
permanent commission. 
EXECUTIVE SESSIONS OF PARK BOARD. 
A resolution was also adopted at the July 19 meeting 
which has since remained a factor in the proceedings of the 
Park Board, although it long ago outlived its usefulness 
and therefore by sufferance remains as a relic of the past. 
I believe it would have been better had it never been adopted 
than to have encroached, as it has thus far, into a field 
where its purpose and workings were never intended. I 
may, perhaps, be pardoned for the reference to this subject 
here, for I drew the resolution in question and on my mo- 
tion it was adopted. It provided that “the meetings of the 
commission be in executive session, and that the secretary 
furnish a report of the proceedings to the press after each 
meeting.” 
When this motion was agreed upon, every member of the 
commission realized that the moment our decision to locate 
park lands anywhere in the county was made public, there 
would naturally be a speculative movement attempted to 
forestall the future Park Board in securing the required 
lands at the then current prices. The matter was carefully 
considered, and the resolution promptly adopted for the sole 
and only purpose of giving any future commission the op- 
portunity of acquiring such locations as might be needed 
for the parks without starting the real estate adventurers 
