TOY OFFICIALS 259 
blinded to a situation so vitally affecting the Park Board 
plans and so directly affecting, for all the future, the people 
of the county. 
THE PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION. 
With this view the joint committee on parkways on June 
17, 1903, wrote President T. N. McCarter, referring to the 
“drastic measures taken by the former management of the 
traction interests to avoid insolvency,” made necessary by 
the unrestricted over-capitalization, get-rich-quick policy of 
the various companies, and to the disposition theretofore 
“to destroy the parkways’’—a policy, the committee believed 
“the continuation of which would not appear favorable,” 
or appeal “to yourself and associates in the new manage- 
ment, either in the interest of your corporation or in the 
public interest you now have the opportunity to serve ac- 
ceptably.” 
The reply, as editorially interpreted by the News, was: 
“Very beautiful and touching is the solicitude of the Public 
Service Corporation for the good of the dear public. Mr. 
McCarter is a firm believer in parkways so long as they do 
not interfere with the plans ‘of that corporation, ”—which 
quotation gives, in a few words, the gist of the whole letter. 
The attitude of the company was indicated in the conclud- 
ing paragraph of this letter, as follows: “If the right of 
the railway to extend its tracks on Central avenue be sus- 
tained, the question will then have to be determined by the 
real needs of the people, to whom the duty of Public Ser- 
vice is paramount.” 
The East Orange railway ordinance case was yet before 
the higher court, and the next move on the chessboard of 
parkway affairs was the reintroduction, on October 5, 1903, 
of the transfer ordinance in the Orange Common Council, 
Since the action of the Republican City Committee the year 
previous, and the continued public agitation in favor of the 
parkways, the sentiment, outside of the limited circle of the 
opposing Mayor and those especially friendly to the traction 
company, appeared to consist of a general demand for favor- 
