192 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
control of the Park Commission. They would prefer that 
rapid transit ways and parkways should be kept separate, 
but they will not oppose the wish of the majority of the 
property owners and municipal governments in this mat- 
ter. If rapid transit tracks are to be put on Central ave- 
nue, the question should be decided at once; but it is not 
the part of the Park Commission to make this decision 
under existing conditions. It is, however, in our opinion, 
inconsistent to attempt to operate a trolley road on a park- 
way only one hundred feet wide. 
“In response to the request for section plan and detail, 
it seems to be unnecessary for the Park Commission to 
take up that question until the local governing body de- 
cides the main proposition. If these avenues are not to 
become parkways, further details will not be required.” 
The effect of this communication was distinctly unfavor- 
able. The resulting action of the Township Committee 
was, as already stated, a prompt declination of the com- 
mission’s request. Some of the leading papers were out- 
spoken in their criticism of the Park Board’s position. 
The day following, January 12, 1897, the Newark News, 
under an editorial caption, “The Reticent Park Board,’ 
in referring to the Stanley letter and the commission’s 
reply, said: 
“These were fair and reasonable questions. They were 
not answered; they were even treated with scant courtesy 
by the sending of a reply that the commissioners’ pro- 
posed to construct parkways. The reasons for secrecy which 
existed in regard to the purchase of lands and locations 
of parks certainly do not apply to the extension or improve- 
ment of public highways.” And again, February 4, “That 
the application of the Park Commission was refused was 
partly due, no doubt, to the manner in which that body 
chose to preserve its air of dignified silence.” 
These and similar expressions were in marked contrast 
to the almost unanimous sentiment of the press favorable 
to the avenues’ transfer, when the plan and resolution of 
the commission were made public the previous November. 
