72 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
make a contest over the principle involved, the matter was 
allowed to stand, as the judge had requested. The three 
officials were chosen and the two officers of the previous 
board were changed accordingly. 
In this record of the park undertaking—the truth of 
which will stand long after all of us engaged in its work 
and development thus far shall have passed to the beyond— 
not wishing to do the memory of Judge Depue or any 
living person any injustice, I will here state, that, while the 
judge might not have intended by this action to usurp 
powers that did not rightfully or legally belong to him, or 
to the office he was then administering, I am just as firmly 
convinced that such was the fact. The very first section of 
the law under which he was acting, “Chapter XCL., 
Laws of 1895,” already referred to, distinctly provides that 
“every such board shall annually choose from among its 
members a president, vice-president and treasurer, and ap- 
point a clerk or secretary, and such other officers and em- 
ployés as it may deem necessary to carry out the purposes 
of this act.” 
If that clause does not clearly enough leave the selection 
of officers solely as a prerogative of the board to determine, 
and with equal clearness leave only the selection of the com- 
missioners with the court, what language could be employed 
to express such meaning? If the judge, under this law, 
could assume to determine and direct by an expressed 
“wish” or otherwise, who the officers should be, why could 
he not with equal right or authority decide who the secre- 
tary, counsel, or any other officer or employe should be? 
I do not think that at the moment when the expression 
as to the judge’s wishes was made, or during the brief dis- 
cussion that followed, any of the commissioners thought of 
the clause in the charter above quoted. And I have also the 
generous disposition toward Judge Depue’s memory to be- 
lieve that, in the extraordinary pressure brought to bear 
upon him regarding the appointments he had overlooked it 
or possibly may have never read it. There was, however, at 
least one of the commissioners present at that meeting who 
