188 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
tude of the Park Commission on the points raised in the 
Stanley letter. 
“Tt has been, as you know, my conviction from the first, 
as stated at the meetings and as indicated in my letters 
to you and to my colleagues, that we should meet these 
important public questions promptly, fully and explicitly ; 
and it is still my firm conviction that this is our only 
course if we are to avoid unjust suspicion and prejudice, 
and retain the confidence of the public—so vital to the 
present and future welfare of a great public undertaking.” 
On January 26 I wrote Commissioner Shepard: “It 
seems to me that every day’s delay in our defining clearly 
to the public the relations between the Park Commission 
and the local boards is resulting in serious detriment to 
the commission.”” And on February 10, “I am impressed 
that the action of the Township Committee last evening 
throws upon us an additional burden of responsibility as 
to our position toward that committee and the public on 
the matters we have recently been considering. 
“Tf our action in asking for the transfer of the avenues. 
for parkways was right, should we not openly so state to our 
Township Committee friends our position on all the ques- 
tions involved, as a matter of mutual interest affecting the 
same constituency? It seems to me this cours is now incum- 
bent ; indeed, can we take any other?” 
Again, March 6, 1897, I wrote Mr. Shepard: “I feel 
very anxious about the affairs of the commission, both as 
to our financial situation compared with the commitments 
and needs of the department; and also as to the persistent 
effort that is being made to use the commission by acqui- 
escence in carrying out the schemes of the traction specu- 
lators and their allied politicians to the injury of the park 
system. The articles in the Newark papers of to-day, while 
no doubt inspired by the same influences that have all 
along been creating distrust and injury to the commission, 
yet assume a degree of assurance which makes it appear as 
though the commission were favorable to the sacrifice of 
one of the parkways at the behest of the trolley interests.” 
