TOY OFFICIALS 



251 



* * * The residents of tliese broad public avenues are 

 entitled to have the most convenient means of access to 

 business and church centres." 



Who the ^'judicious people'^ were, who concurred in the 

 Mayor^s pseudo-legal decision, excepting the Park Board's 

 counsel, J. L. Munn — who at once came to the rescue in a 

 published interview December 4, expressing his "profound 

 respect and consideration'^ for the Mayor's opinion — ^was 

 never, to my knowledge, made public. City Counsel T. A. 

 Davis, of Orange, in a written opinion to the Common 

 Council of that place, on December 8, 1902, riddled the 

 Mayor's legal contentions, and in an exhaustive statement 

 cited ample authorities to show that the Mayor's position 

 had no foundation in fact. Eev. H. P. Fleming, in a pub- 

 lished letter of December 13, treated the veto message even 

 more severely. 



"I say that the Ma3'or is a traitor to the public welfare of 

 this whole community, proven to be such by his pharisaical 

 utterances," was the forceful way he expressed that view. 

 This he did after ridiculing the points in the veto, and then 

 appealed to the members of the City Council to override the 

 veto. 



Other criticisms were unsparing, alike of the Mayor's 

 feelings and of the shallow pretense of his legal excuse. As 

 in the case of the much "counseled counsel," the mask had 

 at last been cast aside, and it was soon generally known, as 

 some had known before, that the Mayor was for the railroad 

 and against the parkway first, last, and all the time; and 

 that, if one excuse should not avail, another would be 

 readily found. Counsel Munn, in the interview referred to, 

 endeavored to stem the adverse tide of public comment by 

 declaring that "the Executive's view of the matter was radi- 

 cally strong, and that it should command the utmost atten- 

 tion." "There seems to be no question," said Munn, "'that 

 the legislation in regard to the avenues has put the scheme 

 of transfer in a very perplexing position, for the present at 

 least." And this public statement was made after he had 

 for years officially, as the Park Board's counsel, advised that 



