108 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
more advantageously conducted in the same line as that fol- 
lowed by other city and county boards, and for that reason 
our meetings hereafter should be open.” 
The article continued: “The speaker’s sentiment was 
echoed by other commissioners, and Mr. Munn says he is 
satisfied that in the near future all the business of the board 
will be transacted publicly.” 
In the first report of the “board of commissioners” for 
1896, issued early in the year 1897, the following paragraph 
(pages 3 and 4) appears: “The sessions of the commission 
have always from the beginning been held twice each week 
and have hitherto been executive in character. The com- 
missioners feel that, as custodians of a public fund, it was 
necessary for them to adopt such a course as long as the pur- 
chase of land formed the chief topic of discussion.” 
When I afterward presented the resolution to carry this 
sentiment for open meetings of the board into practical 
effect, it was objected to by two of the commissioners, 
Messrs. Murphy and Shepard, as was the case whenever the 
subject of passing on the resolution was brought up. This 
resolution was left with other commission papers in the 
drawer of the board-room table at the place I occupied when 
my term expired, the April following. Why there was ob- 
jection or why this resolution, or one of similar purport, has 
never been favorably acted upon, I have never known. 
Perhaps some future historian of the parks may ascertain, 
and elucidate this question. 
LABORERS’ WAGES FIXED. 
Another incident that attracted much attention at the 
time, and may here be of interest, was the action of the com- 
mission in June, 1896, in making it a condition in the con- 
tracts for work on the park that “laborers be paid $1.25 
and foremen $2.50 per day respectively, and for cart, horse 
and driver $2.50 and for double team and driver $4.25 each 
per day,” and in notices to contractors that “the rates to be 
paid for services be fixed and approved by the commission.” 
There was, at that time—the summer of 1896—a very 
