MORE BOXDS AND ^^HIGH FINANCE'^ 149 



nouncement of the Park Commission shortage, ^^should be 

 amended/' This method of appointment, he said, ^^is wrong 

 and opposed to the popular notions of self-government." 



"Under certain contingencies," he wrote, "it might re- 

 move the povrer of selection entirely from an officer of Essex 

 County and place it with an official residing in some dis- 

 tant part of the State. This might occur in the event of 

 the selection of a Park Commission being made during a 

 vacancy in the Supreme Court in this county. Officers of 

 such importance should be chosen by the people. A public 

 board making such large demands upon the taxable prop- 

 erty of the community should be in closer touch with the 

 people of the community. According to the highest concep- 

 tions of popular government, that closer touch is to be had 

 only through the medium of the ballot-box. The law should 

 be changed and the Park Commissioners be compelled to 

 take their chances before the community.'' 



These forcibly-expressed sentiments, published both in 

 the leading Xew Jersey and iSTew York papers almost con- 

 currently with the park deficiency statements quoted, appar- 

 ently touched a responsive chord with many people through- 

 out Essex County. While the Mayor's presentment was 

 merely an elaboration of the anti-appointive commission 

 plank of the Democratic city platform, as before mentioned, 

 its reception by the public was no doubt accentuated by the 

 disappointment which the call for more funds to complete 

 the parks occasioned. The claim was at once made by the 

 partisan advocates of the appointive plan, that the attack of 

 the Mayor and those favoring his side of the question was 

 in reality naught but an incident in the play of politics, and 

 an attempted flank movement by which the Democratic 

 minority hoped to secure a "vantage" point with the people 

 over their Republican opponents, who counted upon then 

 ha\ang a safe working majority* locally as well as in the 

 Legislature. 



Senator Ketcham came at once to the rescue, and in a 

 published int^xview told of his surprise at the Mayor's state- 

 ments, -He ^plained the features of the park law he had 



