2G8 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 



Traction Company to the East Orange City Council for 

 another Central avenue franchise. 



ANOTHER CORPOEATION MOVE. 



The former defect in the ''consents" had been made good 

 by Bishop O'Connor's having signed a new consent for 

 more than 900 feet of cemetery property fronting on the 

 avenue, the deed of the property having in the meantime 

 been transferred to him. This new railroad application 

 brought the question squarely to an issue. It was generally 

 believed, as indicated by public utterances and by the press, 

 that much depended upon the attitude of the Park Com- 

 mission, and that, if that board should enter an emphatic 

 protest, the East Orange authorities would not again re- 

 spond to the behest of the traction company, even under a 

 repetition of the former methods of exercising its persuasion 

 through the party "organization." 



The pressure upon the Park Board to do something was 

 continually being strengthened. On March 22 the commis- 

 sion issued a lengthy statement to the public, and a copy 

 was sent to the freeholders. It was also published in full — 

 pages 23 to 27 of the eighth annual report of the depart- 

 ment, issued in August, 1904. The statement recited the 

 "constant effort" that had been made "to obtain the ave- 

 nue for a parlrway" ; that "whatever the commission could 

 do in a proper and dignified manner" to that end "has been 

 done"; that the action of the courts in setting aside the 

 trolley grant in East Orange "does not alter the attitude 

 of this board" ; that it "was bound to respect the action of 

 the Common Council and the Board of Chosen Freeholders" 

 as "the direct representatives of the people" ; and that "the 

 Park Commission must decline to take a partisan stand" 

 on the trolley question, although "it desires to obtain the 

 avenue as a parkway, and has repeatedly said so, and its 

 requests for the transfer are now on file with the East Or- 

 ange Common Council." 



The statement then refers to the Duffield bill, above men- 

 tioned, "introduced into the present Legislature to cure the 



