lU FIKST COUKTY PAEK SYSTEM 



assistance later of the commission's own counsel, to the 

 corporations for private uses. 



Then, too, an extended account of the evolution of the 

 parkway question into the agitation for limited franchises, 

 which has since become such a live State issue, would fill 

 much space : How the persistent determination of the trac- 

 tion companies' managers to defeat the parkway plans, 

 and, regardless of consequences, secure the long-sought 

 franchises, led to an investigation as to the reasons why 

 the men responsible, who were accredited with having some 

 public spirit in other matters, were on this subject deaf and 

 blind to all appeals; how, when the indisputable facts were 

 ascertained and recognized by the public as to "the mil- 

 lions" literally "in" such franchises, there was at once a 

 response and popular uprising that has already found ex- 

 pression in the platforms of both the leading political par- 

 ties — an uprising followed, as since, by the widespread pop- 

 ular demand for improved utility franchise conditions by 

 the people: And how the majority of the Legislature of 

 1905, under the direction of the ^'corporation leader'' of the 

 House, juggled with this franchise legislation. 



These might all be topics worthy of full description, 

 and perhaps of interest, to the readers of this history of 

 the parks. Space, however, does not permit. Nor is it 

 intended that this history of the Essex County parks will 

 do more than give a consistent, continuous, and trutliful 

 account of the more important facts, which record shall 

 mirror the events of the past as they have occurred, and 

 possibly throw some light on the situation of park affairs 

 that may be helpful in the solution of this great problem 

 for the present or for the future. 



The general plan for the parkways, as agreed upon by 

 the first Park Commission in 1894-5, was outlined with 

 three distinct and objective points in view: 



First — Convenience and accessibility to the great ma- 

 jority of the people of the county. 



Second — Economy in the use of Park and Central ave- 

 nues, inasmuch as these were the two parallel and broad 



