CONTEST FOR PARKWAYS CONTINUED 217 
PARK BOARD'S ATTITUDE. 
Commissioner Franklin Murphy, in a published interview 
November 18, 1898, again sounded the keynote of uncer- 
tainty as to the future attitude of the Park Commission in 
the statement: “TI feel as though we had gone as far as we 
should go in this matter. We have no desire to take the 
avenues if the municipality does not want us to have them. 
It is not likely that we shall take any action in the matter 
until the commission has progressed further with its work, 
and until the avenues become valuable as connecting links 
of the park system.” 
The reports regarding Counsel Munn’s extreme friendli- 
ness to the trolley interests, and efforts in opposition to the 
parkways, notwithstanding the statements of the Park Com- 
mission, were becoming more and more frequent. The com- 
missioners were fully aware of these reports current. In a 
statement in the Orange Chronicle of November 26, 1898, 
Commissioner Bramhall, among other things, said: 
“Mr. Munn has been represented, or misrepresented, as 
saying much that is not so in relation to the transfer of 
Park and Central avenues. The truth is that the commis- 
sion has spoken for itself directly and officially in this 
matter.” 
But the dissensions and differences were increased, in- 
stead of being allayed or diminished. The fact that the 
commission was saying one thing, and that the sayings of its 
duly authorized and retained counsel were being construed 
as meaning directly the opposite thing, gave the opposition 
and the franchise lobbyists just the opportunity desired. 
When, therefore, the Mayor’s veto message of the avenue 
transfer ordinance came before the Orange City Council for 
action on November 21, 1898, it occasioned the knowing 
ones no surprise that the veto was sustained and the ordi- 
nance thus defeated by a tie vote of 7 to 7 in the council. 
And this directly in face of the evident fact, as stated in 
one of the leading papers at the time, “That the proposed 
improvement was favored by more than nine-tenths of the 
