CHAPTEE XIIL 



COlsTTEST FOR PAEKWAYS COifTIXUED. 



As an arni}^, in taldng every possible advantage of its 

 opponent, nses pickets, scouts and spies in its preliminary 

 operations; so a great and opulent corporation, bent upon 

 securing from the public valuable franchises, not infre- 

 quently uses cunning attorneys and not over-scrupulous 

 politicians, both in and out of office; and, by liberal con- 

 tributions to both political parties, secures the service of 

 the party boss ; who, prior to the public awakening for better 

 civic conditions in November, 1905, and through the apathy 

 of good citizens generally, had become such a legislative fac- 

 tor in State, county and local affairs. 



While this kind of self-interest, masquerading under the 

 name of any party, constitutes a condition which is neither 

 Eepublican, Democratic, Populistic nor Socialistic, but is 

 essentially oligarchic — the poison germ, which soon forms 

 the rotten core in any free government; yet this is, never- 

 theless, a situation that must continue to be recognized and 

 appreciated by the people, if an adequate remedy is to be 

 applied. 



At the time the incidents related in the preceding chap- 

 ter were formulating, in December, 1896, the traction com- 

 pany made application also for a Central avenue franchise 

 in Orange. In the southern part of the city, as in East 

 Orange, there was a contingent of the population which 

 needed, and honestly favored, better east and west transit 

 facilities to and from ivTewark. The large majority of the 

 people earnestly and heartily favored the parkways and 

 the locations of the lines of trolley extension in streets 

 south of, and parallel with, Central avenue, where the 

 facilities were needed. The corporate interests and in- 



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