GOOD CITIZENSHIP HELPLESS 237 
“At the meeting of the Park Commission held to-day the 
following resolution was passed : 
‘Resolved, That the secretary be instructed to inform the 
East Orange committee that the Park Commission has 
never taken any action looking to a withdrawal from its 
original position of desiring Park and Central avenues as 
parkways,’ ” 
In commenting upon this statement, The Chronicle of 
April 12, 1902, said: “If the Park Commission, after all 
these official utterances, does not mean what it says, it can- 
not expect to retain either public confidence or support.” 
‘ AN ACCOMMODATING COUNCIL. 
Notwithstanding these assurances, progress with the rail- 
toad ordinance for Central avenue in East Orange was be- 
ing constantly made. The City Council had, very accommo- 
datingly to the traction company, held the application over 
for weeks in order to enable the company to obtain, if possi- 
ble, the requisite property owners’ consents. At the meet- 
ing of February 24, 1902, Councilman Thomas W. Jackson 
announced that “the trolley company had been too busy” to 
procure these consents. And that “Mr. Young had prom- 
ised him that they would either file the additional consents 
at the next meeting, or withdraw the application.” 
The matter came up for action at the meeting of March 
29. The council chamber was crowded. The atmosphere was 
surcharged with corporation influence. It was manifest that 
any discussion on the merits of the parkway or trolley prop- 
. osition would be a waste of time. H. G. Atwater, who then 
appeared as counsel for some of the interested property own- 
ers, brought out the fact that the company did not have the 
necessary consents, hence, he said, the council was powerless 
to act. Councilman Jackson expressed his thanks “for the 
advice,” and said that he was “tired of the business ;” that 
it was not the duty of the council to act as a court; and sug- 
gested that “those opposed to the franchise should take the 
matter into the courts.” 
The Park Commission was not represented in any way at 
