A LEGISLATIVE TRAVESTY 277 
ing been retained by the Public Service Corporation on 
the announcement of the Court of Errors and Appeals’ de- 
cision in the East Orange case the year before, was unable 
to continue as counsel. 
Alan Strong and F. H. Sommer made the argument be- 
fore Judge W. S. Gummere on the application for a suit for 
certiorari to review the proceedings. Frank Bergen and 
R. H. McCarter represented the company. Judge Gummere, 
on apparently the merest technicalities, denied the appli- 
cation. The case was ended. The final scene of the last act 
in the “Public Service” (?) parkways drama was over. The 
corporation had won ;—though a very costly victory it has 
been. The power conferred by the people, to be used for 
their benefit and to protect and preserve their interests, had 
been, by their own representatives and through the manipu- 
lation of special interests and the party “machine,” turned 
against them. The experience, as it has been in Philadel- 
phia and other cities, was costly—the object lesson most 
valuable. And out of the loss of that parkway there may 
continue to grow a spirit of civic pride, of interest and de- 
votion to local, State, and public affairs, that will make a 
repetition of such an experience in the future impossible, 
and the lesson in civic and political affairs well worth all 
it has cost. 
EAST ORANGE PARKWAY. 
The improvement of the East Orange parkway, extending 
only from Park avenue to Central avenue, has dragged 
along for years. Even now (December, 1905) it is in a 
‘chaotic and unfinished condition for about half the dis- 
tance—the portion south of Main street. Although a “cross- 
town boulevard or speedway” in East Orange was one of 
the first matters brought to the attention of the Park Board 
in 1895-6, and from the first persistently advocated by Com- 
missioner F. M. Shepard, it was not until April 13, 1897, 
that tentative plans and estimates of cost between Bloom- 
field avenue and Central avenue were from the landscape 
architects and @pgineers authorized. This report, covering 
