QUESTIONS OF POLICY 89 
parks, not for a park system as a whole. There was noth- 
ing whatever in the way of carrying out the other policy 
while the different sites were under consideration or being 
informally acted upon. The situation at this time may be 
readily understood from the following letter to Commis- 
sioner Peck of October 2, 1895: 
“Dear Mr. Peck—On my return home last evening I 
went carefully over the report of the first commission, with 
the view of ascertaining whether I was not in error in my 
impression that the present commission was under a trust 
obligation to carry out substantially the recommendation of 
that report. Even a casual reading would have made my 
impression as to such obligation a conviction. 
“As the meetings of our first commision were held in 
executive session, that report and the bill accompanying it 
were the only direct and official statements to the public of 
our conclusions and intentions. The confidence of the public 
in the recommendations made was evidently strengthened 
by the reiterated statements in the press as to the high 
character and aims of the commission. 
“About 6,000 copies of the report were distributed 
throughout the county and in the Legislature. From that 
report, and upon the recommendations and statements there 
made, the press, Legislature and public approved the report 
and adopted the charter recommended. Every one of our 
names was signed to that report (in duplicate), and to the 
statements of fact and intentions there stated. 
“If, under these conditions, a trust obligation does not 
rest upon the present commission, how could one be cre- 
ated? If the careful preparation of that report, with our 
signatures attached, does not clearly specify such conditions, 
how would it be possible to present a subject that would 
involve trust obligations? 
“If we were borrowing a large amount of money for our 
personal account, would not the stipulations and statements 
accompanying the loan become important factors in the use 
of the money? What distinction or difference can be made 
in this instance, where the interests of 300,000 people are 
