184 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
ways is proved in many cities, notably in Chicago, Detroit 
and Buffalo, where some of the finest streets are in the 
care of the park boards, and where there is no interruption 
at all of the necessities of daily life.” 
At the Township Committee meeting of December 14, 
1896, I was present, and in response to an inquiry, stated 
the position of the commission as then agreed upon regard- 
ing the parkways. Counsel Munn also elucidated some of the 
points as to the intended treatment of the avenues, should 
the transfer be effected, “the status of the avenues to re- 
main practically unchanged, but with parkway embellish- 
ments, footpaths, bicycle ways and bridle-paths added.” 
But, as the town was awakened, the franchise-acquiring 
forces were also active, and the trolley ordinance made 
steady progress. At the regular January meeting of the 
Township Committee in 1897, with David Young and 
Counsel Dill representing the traction company, various 
amendments to the ordinance were agreed to. As the popu- 
lar tide for the parkways was rapidly rising, Mr. Dill 
stated to the committee that “the company was willing to 
agree that the avenue should be considered first as a park- 
way, and secondly as a trolley route, and, in the event of 
the avenue’s being widened the traction company to be 
considered as a tenant, to pay one-third the cost, and one- 
third the cost of any other necessary improvements.” 
THE POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION. 
The leverage which, in this country and under our form 
of government, will invariably call to an accounting and 
reverse the action of any legislative body—the power of 
public opinion—was now being actively focalized. At the 
very time the traction company’s counsel and the members 
of the Township Committee were “fixing up” the trolley 
ordinance so as to make it satisfactory to all parties, a call 
was being sent out for a massmeeting in Commonwealth 
Hall for the evening of February 7. That call was signed 
by more than one hundred and twenty of the most repre- 
sentative citizens of Hast Orange, regardless of party or 
