QUESTIONS OF POLICY 



91 



inissioners Shepard and Murphy on similar lines. In a 

 letter to Mr. Shepard, October 11, 1895, I wrote: 



"If the plans outlined by the first commission, and so 

 cordially approved, are to be changed to a piecemeal, sec- 

 tional policy, withont regard to where we are coming out in 

 the expenditure of the two and a half millions provided in 

 the charter, should we not so state, openly and publicly, in 

 the beginning? 



"To my mind our duty is clear in the obligation we are 

 under to keep faith with the public in fulfilling the stipu- 

 lations and in making the conditions conform to the state- 

 ments upon which our charter was formed." 



In his reply Mr. Shepard submitted an estimate of the 

 probable cost of the park sites then under discussion, 

 amounting to $1,900,000, and stated that he thought the 

 architects should make a connecting plan "with parkways 

 as suggested." 



"This meets the obligation we have inherited," he wrote, 

 "and when our plan is settled and we have some developed 

 work to show, we can apply to the people through the Legis- 

 lature for sufficient money to complete the work." 



Eeferring to the estimates and his proposition, I replied : 



"If we start on Lake Weequahic I think the least we can 

 safely estimate for getting out of it with anything like ad- 

 missible results would be over rather than under $500,000, 

 and it might largely exceed that sum. Even if a half 

 million were a limit, or if it w^ere more in the center of the 

 county or of the population, the proportion would look to be 

 less formidable, but it is almost on the county line — in 

 reality almost as much for Elizabeth and Union as for 

 Newark and Essex. My feeling is that when that tract is 

 improved for park uses Union County should unite in the 

 undertaking and contribute at least one-third of the 

 expense." 



