TOY OFFICIALS 251 
* * * The residents of these broad public avenues are 
entitled to have the most convenient means of access to 
business and church centres.” 
Who the “judicious people” were, who concurred in the 
Mayor's pseudo-legal decision, excepting the Park Board’s 
counsel, J. L. Munn—who at once came to the rescue in a 
published interview December 4, expressing his “profound 
respect and consideration” for the Mayor’s opinion—was 
never, to my knowledge, made public. City Counsel T. A. 
Davis, of Orange, in a written opinion to the Common 
Council of that place, on December 8, 1902, riddled the 
Mayor’s legal contentions, and in an exhaustive statement 
cited ample authorities to show that the Mayor’s position 
had no foundation in fact. Rev. H. P. Fleming, in a pub- 
lished letter of December 13, treated the veto message even 
more severely. 
“T say that the Mayor is a traitor to the public welfare of 
this whole community, proven to be such by his pharisaical 
utterances,” was the forceful way he expressed that view. 
This he did after ridiculing the points in the veto, and then 
appealed to the members of the City Council to override the 
veto. 
Other criticisms were unsparing, alike of the Mayor’s 
feelings and of the shallow pretense of his legal excuse. As 
in the case of the much “counseled counsel,” the mask had 
at last been cast aside, and it was soon generally known, as 
some had known before, that the Mayor was for the railroad 
and against the parkway first, last, and all the time; and 
that, if one excuse should not avail, another would be 
readily found. Counsel Munn, in the interview referred to, 
endeavored to stem the adverse tide of public comment by 
declaring that “the Executive’s view of the matter was radi- 
cally strong, and that it should command the utmost atten- 
tion.” “There seems to be no question,” said Munn, “that 
the legislation in regard to the avenues has put the scheme 
of transfer in a very perplexing position, for the present at 
least.” And this public statement was made after he had 
for years officially, as the Park Board’s counsel, advised that 
