A LEGISLATIVE TRAVESTY 267 



extending its lines on Central avenue. The bill was pigeon- 

 holed. It was never heard of again. The Park Board's 

 secretary, Alonzo Church, afterward stated that he did not 

 know of the hearing on the bill. His partner, J. L. Munn, 

 was, however, present when the matter came up before the 

 committee. 



The question as to whether the trolley extension should 

 be on Central avenue or by another route, and thus save the 

 partway, was fully covered in the conferences and corre- 

 spondence between the Public Service Corporation presi- 

 dent and the joint committee, and extended over some 

 months. The situation was also quite fully presented to 

 Senator John F. Dryden in April, 1904. As one largely 

 interested in the Public Service and allied corporations, 

 and having advanced more than $300,000 for the organiza- 

 tion and early financing of the Xorth Jersey Street Rail- 

 way Company, which company had at that time become, 

 by exchange of its securities, one of the important con- 

 stituent parts of the Public Service Corporation, and hav- 

 ing become active also in political and public affairs, it 

 was thought that Mr. Dryden's counsel and advice might 

 tend to prevent "the irreparable injury to this great county 

 improvement which means so much in cost and future wel- 

 fare to all the people of the county, should the past policy 

 of the traction company be insisted upon by the present 

 management. The "responsibility and solution are alike 

 simplified from the fact that your company can select an- 

 other route that will conserve all public requirements and 

 thus preserve the integrity of the park system, and thereby 

 end this controversy and the consequent antagonisms that 

 must continue to grow to larger proportions, now that the 

 underlying conditions are becoming better understood." 



Mr. Dryden declined to exercise his good offices in the 

 direction indicated, advising that his "participation in the 

 management of the company does not extend to matters 

 of that kind." The practical response, or the result of the 

 correspondence with the Public Service Corporation, was, 

 on March 14, 1904, a new application from the Consolidated 



