A LEGISLATIVE TEAVESTY m 



ing been retained by the Public Service Corporation on 

 tke announcement of the Court of Errors and Appeals' de- 

 cision in the East Orange case the year before, was unable 

 to continue as counsel. 



Alan Strong and F. H. Sommer made the argument be- 

 fore J udge W. S-. Gummere on the application for a suit for 

 certiorari to review the proceedings. Frank Bergen and 

 E. H. McCarter represented the company. Judge Gummere, 

 on apparently the merest technicalities, denied the appli- 

 cation. The case was ended. The final scene of the last act 

 in the "Public Service" ( ?) parkways drama was over. The 

 corporation had won; — though a very costly victory it has 

 been. The power conferred by the people, to be used for 

 their benefit and to protect and preserve their interests, had 

 been, by their own representatives and through the manipu- 

 lation of special interests and the party "machine," turned 

 against them. The experience, as it has been in Philadel- 

 phia and other cities, was costly — the object lesson most 

 valuable. And out of the loss of that parkway there may 

 continue to grow a spirit of civic pride, of interest and de- 

 votion to local. State, and public affairs, that will make a 

 repetition of such an experience in the future impossible, 

 and the lesson in civic and political affairs well worth all 

 it has cost. 



EAST OEANGE PARKWAY. 



The improvement of the East Orange parkway, extending 

 only from Park avenue to Central avenue, has dragged 

 along for years. Even now (December, 1905) it is in a 

 chaotic and unfinished condition for about half the dis- 

 tance — the portion south of Main street. Although a "cross- 

 town boulevard or speedway" in East Orange was one of 

 the first matters brought to the attention of the Park Board 

 in 1895-6, and from the first persistently advocated by Com- 

 missioner F. M. Shepard, it was not until April 13, 1897, 

 that tentative plans and estimates of cost between Bloom- 

 field avenue g&id Central avenue were from the landscape 

 -architects engineers authorised. This report, covering 



