78 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
certain general principles which with reasonable certainty 
foreshadow ultimate results, much as, under the applica- 
tion of the axiomatic rules of science, like causes produce 
like results. Anticipating that park making on a large 
scale might involve these principles, the first Park Commis- 
sion had, as indicated in the preceding chapters, continu- 
ously dealt with the park system as an entity, hoping 
thereby to avoid the pitfalls of sectional differences, and, by 
treating the proposition as a whole, thus to be in a position 
to better determine the probable limits of cost for “a system 
of parks in its entirety.” 
QUESTION OF POLICY. 
After the second commission had completed its organiza- 
tion, the question then before the board, briefly stated, was 
whether the pledge made by the first park commission in re- 
spect to the policy of establishing the park system should be 
carried out, or a new policy on other lines be inaugurated. 
The consideration and discussion of the subject went on for 
months. At almost every meeting it received attention. 
Although free from personalities or acrimonious reflections, 
the arguments for and against the proposition stated were 
earnest and persistent. 
Mr. Murphy was emphatic in his advocacy of a new 
policy in saying “I am here to lay out the parks and to 
expend the money appropriated for that purpose as in my 
own judgment I think best, without regard to what the 
former commission may have said or done.” When in 
answer, in espousing the cause of continuing the plan and 
nolicy of the first commission that had received such cordial 
public indorsement, I referred to the conviction forced upon 
me, “to consider the pledge of that board as a binding obli- 
gation upon its successors, for it was upon that pledge the 
court, the Legislature, and the electorate of the county had 
acted in passing the charter and in granting the large ap- 
propriation then available,” we were reminded that the first 
commission was no longer in existence, and that it had no 
right to bind the present board in any way whatever. 
