A CHANGE IN THE CURRENT 65 
trative board such as the Board of Public Works, I would 
pursue that course.” 
In reference to his being willing to continue the first 
commission, the judge said: “But I am entirely satisfied 
from the information I have received that that does not 
conform to the wishes of the public, and that they require 
as far as possible that this court, in the appointment of 
these commissioners, should allow the principie that is fun- 
damental in all government representation. These things 
make it, in my judgment, absolutely essential that I should 
give to the city of Newark three commissioners. When I 
have done that, the readjustment of this commission is 
necessary.” 
The resolutions of the township authorities of Montclair, 
Bloomfield and West Orange were then read. They claimed 
joint taxable valuations of over $25,000,000, with the com- 
ment that the request justified the appointment of a com- 
missioner from that district. 
FOR CONSISTENCY. 
“T have selected for the commissioner who shall repre- 
sent these three townships,’ went on the judge, “a gentle- 
man who is well known to myself, and I presume to almost 
every one in this county, as a man eminently fit for this 
position—Frederick M. Shepard. This appointment leaves 
only one other commissioner to be selected. In the selection 
of that commissioner I have felt the greatest delicacy, be- 
cause a duty is imposed upon me that is not pleasant, that 
of deciding between two persons, gentlemen of my own 
acquaintance, who were among the most efficient of the 
members of the first commission, Frederick W. Kelsey and 
George W. Bramhall. 
“T know that Mr. Kelsey has been actively in favor of 
this project from the beginning, and, perhaps, in the inau- 
guration and pushing through of this scheme, he has been 
of great public service. If I could criticize Mr. Kelsey at 
all, it would be that I might think that in an office in which 
so much depends upon the judicial and conservative feat- 
