QUESTIONS OF POLICY 91 
missioners Shepard and Murphy on similar lines. In a 
letter to Mr. Shepard, October 11, 1895, I wrote: 
“Tf the plans outlined by thé first commission, and so 
cordially approved, are to be changed to a piecemeal, sec- 
tional policy, without regard to where we are coming out in 
the expenditure of the two and a half millions provided in 
the charter, should we not so state, openly and publicly, in 
the beginning? 
“To my mind our duty is clear in the obligation we are 
under to keep faith with the public in fulfilling the stipu- 
lations and in making the conditions conform to the state- 
ments upon which our charter was formed.” 
In his reply Mr. Shepard submitted an estimate of the 
probable cost of the park sites then under discussion, 
amounting to $1,900,000, and stated that he thought the 
architects should make a connecting plan “with parkways 
as suggested.” 
“This meets the obligation we have inherited,” he wrote, 
“and when our plan is settled and we have some developed 
work to show, we can apply to the people through the Legis- 
lature for sufficient money to complete the work.” 
Referring to the estimates and his proposition, I replied: 
“Tf we start on Lake Weequahic I think the least we can 
safely estimate for getting out of it with anything like ad- 
missible results would be over rather than under $500,000, 
and it might largely exceed that sum. Even if a half 
million were a limit, or if it were more in the center of the 
county or of the population, the proportion would look to be 
less formidable, but it is almost on the county line—in 
reality almost as much for Elizabeth and Union as for 
Newark and Essex. My feeling is that when that tract is 
improved for park uses Union County should unite in the 
undertaking and contribute at least one-third of the 
expense,” 
