BEACON STREET: 
 
 ITS IMPEOTEMENT IN BROOKLINE BY CONNECTION 
 WITH COMMONWEALTH AVENUE. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT, 
 
 m 
 
 AKGUMENTS OF 
 
 MOSES WILLIAMS, Esq., Counsel foe the Town of 
 Brookline, and CLEMENT K. FAY, Esq., Coun¬ 
 sel FOE the West End Land Company, 
 
 r TOGETHER WITH THE 
 
 Statements of Mr. Henry M. Whitney and other prominent 
 
 CITIZENS IN FAVOR OF THE PETITION OF THE SELECT¬ 
 MEN FOR AUTHORITY TO LAY OUT BeaCON 
 
 Street as a Town Way. 
 
 Before the Legislative Committee on Roads and Bridges. 
 
 BROOKLINE : 
 
 Chronicle Press: C. ?12S. Spencer. 
 

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 BEACON STREET: 
 
 ITS IMPROVEMENT IN BROOKLINE BY CONNECTION 
 
 r 
 
 WITH COMMONWEALTH AVENUE. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE AIOYEMENT, 
 
 ARGUMENTS OF 
 
 AIOSES WILLIAMS, Esq., Counsel for the Town of, 
 Brookline, and CLEMENT K. FAY, Esq., Coun¬ 
 sel FOR THE V\^EST EnD LaND COMPANY, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH THE 
 
 Statements of Mr. Henry M. Whitney and other prominent 
 
 CITIZENS IN FAVOR OF THE PETITION OF THE SELECT¬ 
 MEN FOR AUTHORITY TO LAY OUT BeaCON 
 
 Street as a Town Way. 
 
 Before the Legislative Committee on Roads and Bridges. 
 
 BROOKLINE : 
 
 Ci^roni'cle Press: TO. .Spencer. 
 
 1887. 
 
3 ^ 1.1 ^ 
 Cl4tb"' 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 The proposed widening of Beacon Street was first brought 
 before the town of Brookline by a petition submitted to the 
 Beard^of Selectmen, on Mondnv. \ug. 9th, 188£,_^This 
 
 petition was signed by about one hundred of the most influ¬ 
 ential and intelligent citizens of the town, scarcely any of 
 whom had a direct pecuniary interest in the matter. The 
 • petition requested the selectmen “ to lay out a town way, or 
 townways, by the side of the highway in said town, called 
 Beacon Street, beginning at or near St. Mary’s Street, at 
 the boundary line of the city of Boston, and ending at the 
 boundary line of said city, easterly of the Chestnut Hill 
 Reservo^, so as to make an avenue including the present 
 area of Beacon Street 200 feet in width. Believing this 
 wide avenue would be very beneficial to the public” and 
 would also increase the value of the real estate by or near 
 which it was constructed, the undersigned respectfully 
 request you to lay out said townway or townways, under 
 the provisions of law authorizing the assessment by better¬ 
 ments.” The petition was dated Brookline, July 27th, 1886. 
 ^ This petition, with a full description of the proposed im- 
 _provement, was published inJTh^Glmmicle (a local news- 
 gpaper with a large circulation), Aug. 7th, 1886. 
 
 Public interest was at once aroused, and the widening of 
 
 
 ^ Beacon Street became the all-absorbing topic in the to'wn. 
 ^ On Tuesday, August 17th, pursuant to public notices, the 
 “selectmen gave a hearing on the petition for laying out 
 o Beacon Street as proposed, at which there was a very'large 
 attendance. Petitions in aid of the original petition were 
 55 submitted, signed by several hundred more of the citizens. 
 SThe plan of the street, showing its route, with the property 
 “lines and areas of land to be taken, was exhibited to the 
 ^meeting, and the whole matter was carefully and thoroughly 
 
 c 
 
 <u 
 
 o 
 
 86812 I 
 
4 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 discussed; a full account of which appeared in The Chronicle 
 of Saturday, August, 21st, and also in the Brookline News, 
 another local paper which was started Aug. 7, 1886. The 
 selectmen at once entered into the subject with zealous care, 
 and insisted that definite proposals on behalf of the peti¬ 
 tioners and the West End Land Company, which originated 
 the enterprise, should be submitted to them. This was done, 
 and the company and a number of abutters submitted in 
 writing to the selectmen agreements to contribute to the car¬ 
 rying out of the project. These agreements were published 
 in The Chronicle, October 9th ; and at their meeting, October 
 11th, Henry M. Whitney, Esq., the president of the West 
 End Land Company, made still further offers of aid to the 
 improvement, which were published in The Chronicle and 
 the Brookline News, October 16th. A further hearing on 
 the widening of Beacon Street was given by the board Octo¬ 
 ber 26th, at which was submitted a report of Messrs. Aspin- 
 wall and Lincoln, skillful and reliable engineers and citizens 
 of the town, who had been employed by the West End 
 Land Company to report upon the surveys and estimates of 
 cost of the “proposed extension of Commonwealth Avenue 
 over Beacon Street in Brookline, mainly as designed in 
 line and grade by Messrs. F. L. & J. C. Olmsted,” the emi¬ 
 nent landscape architects. Accompanying this report was a 
 carefully prepared list of the abutters on the entire length 
 of the street, together with the frontage on Beacon Street as 
 at present existing, and the proposed frontage on the street 
 as widened; also, the number of square feet to be taken in 
 each instance, the buildings to be removed, the assessed 
 value of the land per foot, the assessed value of the buildings, 
 and a minute statement of the cost of construction, with ten 
 * per cent allowance for contingencies. This report, with all 
 the details, was published in The Chronicle, October 30th. 
 
 The selectmen, at the meeting of October 26th, voted, 
 “that notice be sent to those abutters, portions of whose 
 estate would have to be taken for the widening, to meet 
 them in conference, on Wednesday, November 3d, at 3 
 p. M.,” and printed notices thereof were directed to be sent. 
 
I 
 
 HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT. 
 
 5 
 
 At the meeting of November 3d, pursuant to these notices 
 served on the thirty owners of property on the line of the 
 proposed widening, all but six replied, either in person or 
 by letter, to the inquiries of the selectmen as to the prices 
 which they would charge for the land which would be re¬ 
 quired for the proposed widening of Beacon Street. A full 
 account of this hearing was published in The Chronicle, 
 November 6th. 
 
 The selectmen in the meantime, after consultation with 
 many citizens and the engineers, decided that the practical ben¬ 
 efit of the undertaking would not be interfered with, while the 
 cost would be very largely diminished by lessening the width 
 to 160 feet, from 200 feet as first proposed, and at a meeting 
 held Nov. 15th, new plans for the widening upon the basis 
 of 160 feet were submitted by the engineers. Upon further 
 and careful consideration of the question, the board voted to 
 give public notice of its intention to lay out, under the bet¬ 
 terment law, “ a townway not exceeding 160 feet in width 
 on the line of Beacon Street.” This notice and also an 
 account of the hearing of Nov. 15th, were published in The 
 Chronicle, Nov. 20th, and the hearing upon the proposed 
 laying out was appointed for Tuesday, Dec. 7th, at 3 p. m., 
 in the town hall. Meanwhile there was distributed through¬ 
 out the town an elaborate “ plan for the widening of Beacon 
 Street,” and it also was folded into The Chronicle and Brook¬ 
 line News of Saturday, Dec. 4th, and the same issue of 
 those papers had a concise and clear statement from the 
 Messrs. Olmsted, of the character of the proposed improve¬ 
 ment, showing the unquestionable benefits which must result 
 therefrom, not alone to Brookline, but to Boston, and, indeed, 
 to the world in general. 
 
 The hearing which was held Dec. 7th, was well attended, 
 and a long and interesting discussion, occupying nearly four 
 hours, ensued. The subject of the improvement was care¬ 
 fully sifted ; a large plan of the widening was exposed before 
 the meeting; the engineers, Messrs. Aspinwall and Lincoln, 
 gave a full statement of the work proposed to be done, and 
 its cost, and expressed their readiness to answer any and all 
 
6 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 questions which might be put to them for information. Sev¬ 
 eral of those present availed themselves of the privilege, and 
 Mr. Whitney, who was also present, gave the meeting all 
 the facts which were asked for. It is worthy of remark that 
 several citizens who, at the start, opposed the enterprise, 
 had in the meantime become convinced of its great advan- 
 tages, as w^ell as its feasibility, and realized the importance 
 of not letting slip so good an opportunity to do the work at 
 a comparatively moderate cost. 
 
 The selectmen were unanimous in their approval of the 
 enterprise, and after the hearing, a full account of which 
 was published in The Chronicle and the Brookline News, 
 Dec. 11th, they decided to lay out Beacon Street to the 
 width of 160 feet as a townway, in accordance with their 
 own convictions and apparently with the approval of a large 
 majority of the citizens. They were about to proceed in 
 the regular manner to lay it out as a townway^ when it 
 was suggested by Mr. Williams, the counsel for the 
 town, .that inasmuch as Beacon Street had been laid out 
 originally as a county way in 1851, there might be some 
 difficulty in the collection of betterments by the town 
 if the selectmen were to proceed without special legis¬ 
 lative authority. Accordingly they called a meeting of the 
 citizens, Dec. 20th, at which they submitted a vote authoriz¬ 
 ing them to petition the General Court “for authority to 
 locate or widen Beacon Street within the town, in the same 
 manner as if Beacon Street were a townway ; also, for author¬ 
 ity in any such relocation or widening to change the grade 
 of a portion of Beacon Street, in the same manner as if 
 Beacon Street were a townway; also, for authority in any 
 such relocation or widening to discontinue any portion of 
 Beacon Street, in the same manner as if Beacon Street were 
 a townway; also, for authority to the town of Brookline to 
 accept and make valid any such relocation or widening of Bea¬ 
 con Street, in the same manner as if Beacon Street were a 
 a townv/ay; also, for authority to the selectmen to assess 
 betterments upon any such relocation or widening of Beacon 
 Street, in like manner as if Beacon Street were a townway.” 
 
HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT. 
 
 7 
 
 The meeting was an unusually large one, and after much 
 debate, in which many of the leading and most reliable citi¬ 
 zens participated, it was voted unanimously to authorize the 
 selectmen to go to the General Court and ask for the author¬ 
 ity, exactly as proposed by them in this vote. 
 
 The other facts in this matter will perhaps sufficiently appear 
 in the arguments of Messrs. Moses Williams, Esq., counsel for 
 the town, and Clement K. Fay, Esq., for the West End 
 Land Company, and the clear and comprehensive statements 
 made at the hearing before the Committee on Roads and 
 Bridges, by Messrs. Henry M. Whitney, Henry D. Hyde, 
 Charles U. Cotting, John W. Candler, William Aspinwall, 
 B. F. Baker, town clerk of Brookline, William Lincoln, 
 chairman of the Board of Assessors, and others, who 
 testified in favor of the improvement. It may be said, in 
 conclusion, that scarcely any other public measure in the 
 history of Brookline has so occupied the town’s attention. 
 Since it was first started, in August last, every step in the 
 undertaking has been carefully considered; repeated meet¬ 
 ings have been held by the selectmen, both in public and in 
 executive session ; full accounts of the proceedings have been 
 furnished in the two local Brookline newspapers, which are 
 published every Saturday and are widely read, and the 
 columns of The Chronicle have been filled with corres¬ 
 pondence on both sides of the question. It is impos¬ 
 sible to see how the matter could have been more honestly 
 and thoroughly treated, both by the town and its officials, 
 than it has been up to the present time. The opposition, 
 which was developed, somewhat unexpectedly, at the hearing 
 before the Committee on Roads and Bridges, is no more than 
 would naturally be expected in a town of over ten thousand 
 inhabitants, with sixteen hundred voters, where it is proposed 
 to lay out a town way two miles and a lialf long, of an 
 unusual width, and at a somewhat large original cost. In 
 the opinion of a large majority of the town, the cost will 
 speedily be retui’ned by the development of unimproved 
 property and the consequent rise in values; but that is, of 
 course, a question for the town itself to decide after this Act 
 
8 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 is passed and the selectmen have laid out the road as a 
 town way. 
 
 All the foregoing statements as to the history of this 
 subject are true and will not be disputed. No less than 
 seven public hearings, duly advertised, and fully reported in 
 the newspapers for the benefit of those who failed to attend, 
 to say nothing of six months’ careful study of the whole 
 question by the selectmen, all attest the care and deliberation 
 which have marked the course of Brookline in this matter. 
 
 
HEARING UPON THE PETITION OF THE SELECT¬ 
 MEN OF BROOKLINE, FOR AUTHORITY TO 
 LAY OUT BEACON STREET IN BROOKLINE AS 
 A TOWNWAY. 
 
 Before the Committee on Roads and Bridges, ) 
 
 In the Blue Room, Jan. 25, 26, 27, 1887. / 
 
 The petition for the widening and relocation of Beacon 
 Street as a town way, was first read to the committee by 
 Moses Williams, Esq., counsel for the town of Brookline, 
 and the records of the town showing the vote of its citizens 
 at a town meeting held Dec. 20, 1886, authorizing the 
 selectmen to appear and present said petition to the General 
 Court, with a draft of the proposed Act, were sub¬ 
 mitted. In response to an inquiry by the chairman of 
 the committee, Messrs. Edward Atkinson, George Griggs 
 and Charles H. Stearns announced that they were opposed to 
 the petition, and William H. White, Esq., stated that he 
 represented several citizens of the town who were not op¬ 
 posed to the granting of the petition, but who wished certain 
 amendments of the Act submitted by the selectmen to 
 be adopted, which he subsequently submitted to the com¬ 
 mittee, together with a petition in their support signed 
 by forty-eight citizens of Brookline. This petition was 
 not left with the committee, but was presented to the 
 Legislature, separately, Jan. 27th. The hearing occupied 
 the whole of Tuesday, Jan. 25th, and the forenoons of the 
 two following days. The presentation of the selectmen’s 
 petition and Mr. Williams’ opening remarks occupied but a 
 short time, and the rest of Tuesday and a part of Wednesday 
 were given to the remonstrants, who had all the time and 
 opportunity that they asked for to present their objections. 
 Testimony in behalf of the selectmen’s petition and argu¬ 
 ments by Clement K. Fay, Esq., and others representing 
 the West End Land Company, followed, and Mr. Williams, 
 
10 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 counsel for the town, summed up for the selectmen at the 
 conclusion of the hearing. Extracts from the testimony and 
 arguments in behalf of the petition are herewith submitted. 
 
 After the remonstrants had been heard, Clement K. Fay, 
 Esq., made the following argument in behalf of the West 
 End Land Company: 
 
 ARGUMENT OF CLEMENT K. FAY, ESQ. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : 
 
 I shall try to take as little time as possible in what I have 
 to say upon this matter. I shall not attempt to go into any 
 detailed description of the project itself, but will leave that 
 to the man who is the best qualified of any man in the world 
 to do it, — our public-spirited citizen, Mr. Henry M. Whit¬ 
 ney, who originated this magnificent project. And when I 
 say “magnificent,” I say it deliberately, and after due 
 thought. It is not a mere flight of fancy ; for this is an im¬ 
 provement which, if carried out, is going to be one of the 
 most marked, and useful, and desirable improvements that 
 has been inaugurated here within the last twenty-five years, 
 or, I may say, since the development of the Back Bay terri¬ 
 tory of Boston. 
 
 Who are the petitioners in this case ? Why are they here ? 
 What do they ask for ? And why do they ask for it ? Those 
 are the questions which you have first to consider as mem¬ 
 bers of this committee. The petitioners are the selectmen of 
 the town of Brookline, four as upright, intelligent, and pains¬ 
 taking public officials as 3 ^ou can find anywhere. Why do they 
 come here? They come here in obedience to the unanimous 
 vote of the town of Brookline by its citizens in town meet¬ 
 ing assembled. That meeting was an unusually large one ; 
 it was a very intelligent one; and it was unanimous in 
 authorizino" the selectmen to come to the General Court and 
 
 O 
 
 ask for this Act. 
 
ARGUMENT OF CLEMENT K. FAY, ESQ. 
 
 11 
 
 Now, why do they ask for it? They ask for it simply 
 because they want to lay out a townway over and ad¬ 
 joining what has been, hitherto, a highway or county 
 way. And why do they do that? It is only that they 
 may be able to deal effectively and properly with the 
 questions of grade damages and betterments. When Mr. 
 Williams, the able counsel for the town, in his opening, 
 yesterday, had unfolded the case to you, and had shown 
 the authority by which the selectmen came here, there was 
 nothing for you to do — and I know it would have given 
 each and all of you pleasure to do it—but to report the act 
 as it stood. But then, for the first time, so far as I am aware, 
 was developed an opposition. Now, I want to contrast, for 
 one moment, the attitude of the petitioners with that of the 
 opponents of this measure. The petitioners are the four 
 proper official representatives of the town, backed up by a 
 unanimous vote of the citizens of the town. The opponents 
 are a mere handful; one of whom — and the one who took 
 up the most time, and who was the most unfair (I am sorry 
 to say, because he is a friend of mine) —was a gentleman 
 who was not at the town meeting. 
 
 What is this opposition? Those of you who have had 
 legislative experience, and those of you who are entering 
 upon it,’have already learned, or will soon learn, that one 
 of the ways of defeating a legislative measure is to saddle it 
 with “ amendments.” Thege are the tactics that are resorted 
 to by the opponents of this measure. In order to show you 
 how 3 "ou have been misled, if you have suffered yourselves 
 to believe what has been stated by the other side, I want to 
 call your attention to the misleading attitude of these oppo¬ 
 nents. And when I say that, I do not say it in any spirit of 
 harshness, because I think there may be an honest difierence 
 of opinion on the part of some of them ; but it is absolutely 
 essential to the maintenance of their case that they prove 
 this to be a “ park ” way, and not a “ road” way. Now, I 
 want to call your attention to this fact: We have a “ park ” 
 way in Brookline already, or are going to have, and some of 
 it is delineated on this map before you. In 1875 the city of 
 
12 
 
 BEACON STUEET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Boston accepted the so-called Park Act; and one of the 
 provisions of that Act was that it might become applicable to 
 the adjoining towns, referring particularly to the town of 
 Brookline, which is surrounded on all sides by Boston. It 
 was provided in that Act that we might elect three Park 
 Commissioners, to act in concert, or in harmony with the 
 Park Commissioners of Boston. Five years later, in 1880, 
 the town accepted that Act of 1875, and that is the Act under 
 which the town of Brookline is to do its park work. It has 
 no more reference to the work to be done upon Beacon 
 Street than it has any bearing upon the question of the Fish¬ 
 eries, or on the question of an European war. We have 
 elected three Park Commissioners, and we propose to de¬ 
 velop our parkway as soon as Boston developes hers. Then 
 our Park Commissioners will take jurisdiction under the ex¬ 
 isting Act, and will carry out this work in the territory south 
 of the Boston & Albany railroad, a long distance away, as 
 you will observe, from this contemplated road, wot park. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, bear in mind that one distinction, be¬ 
 cause that is the focal point in the whole controversy. Bea¬ 
 con Street is a county way; and it was the opinion of Judge 
 Hoar, who is the most eminent ex-justice now living, prob¬ 
 ably, in this Commonwealth, that the selectmen might go 
 ahead and lay it out as a townway, without any legislation. 
 The town thought it was better to get your authority, in 
 order to save all question ; because, you can see, yourselves, 
 that on the question of betterments an abutter on the street 
 might lie low, and say nothing until the time came to collect 
 the betterments, and then he might say : “ This is a county 
 way; it was laid out in 1851, and you have no jurisdiction; 
 you can only lay out a townway.” And so he might escape 
 the payment of betterments. Therefore, it was thought best 
 that we should oet this le«:islative Act. 
 
 ■ We have come up here backed by the almost unanimous 
 sentiment of the town of Brookline; and if any portion of 
 the sixteen hundred voters of that town did not choose to 
 come out to that meeting, and did not choose to take part in 
 the discussion, it is with peculiarly ill-grace that they send 
 
ARGUMENT OF CLEMENT K. FAY, ESQ. 
 
 13 
 
 their counsel up here, and appear, either singly or in detach¬ 
 ments, to try to assassinate this measure by the adoption of 
 a legislative ruse which is perfectly apparent to everybody ; that 
 
 is, by trying to engraft upon this Act certain amendments 
 which are unreasonable, which are unprecedented, and which 
 will overturn the well-established usage of the Common¬ 
 wealth for more than a hundred years. In 1786 the Legis¬ 
 lature gave the selectmen of towns the right to lay out town- 
 ways. I suppose most of you come from towns and know 
 just what the procedure is. In Brookline we elect live 
 selectmen annually. Under the Public Statutes there may 
 be three, five, seven, or nine. We have five, and we elected 
 five last year. One of them has resigned; but while there 
 were still five members of the board, they carefully consid¬ 
 ered this measure, and they all agreed in favor of it. 
 
 The regular procedure in laying out a townway is for the 
 selectmen to frame a case, as it were, for the decision of the 
 town. They say, that in their judgment, “ public necessity 
 and convenience ” require that a way shall be laid out. That 
 is a mere “ legal fiction,” I might say. The laying out is sub¬ 
 mitted to the town, and the town may accept or reject it. 
 In this particular case, the remonstrants are attempting to 
 fasten upon the simple act of ‘ ‘ laying out a town way ” the 
 restrictions and requirements which are the peculiar features 
 of Park Acts; and in support of that course, my learned 
 friend, Mr. White, read yesterday from several Acts of that 
 kind, and other exceptional kinds, which provide that a two- 
 thirds or a majority vote by ballot are sometimes required. 
 I admit the force of every one of those. I would not have 
 any change made in such Acts. In fact, the general Park 
 Act of 1882 is, perhaps, superior to the Boston Park Act of 
 1875, in bein^ a little more strict. But it is altoirether un- 
 precedented, unnecessary, and unjust for you to take upon 
 yourselves the heavy responsibility of appljdng the rules 
 which govern park construction to the simple case of laying 
 out a towmvay. For that is all there is to it. I repeat 
 
 it, gentlemen, it is nothing but a, towmvay^ and no amount 
 of assertion can make it otherwise. 
 
14 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Let me give you a little side light on that. AVithin the 
 last forty-eight hours the Street Commissioners of Boston 
 have voted to lay out as a street that part of Beacon Street 
 which is in the city of Boston. They are going to lay it out 
 to meet and continue the Brookline part of this improvement. 
 Now, here is the test. By the theory of these remonstrants 
 this could only properly be done by the Park Commissioners 
 of the city of Boston; the Street Commissioners should 
 have no jurisdiction whatever. But the city authorities of 
 Boston know what they are about and they therefore properly 
 entrust this matter to the Street Commissioners. The Street 
 Commissioners are the parties who act on such matters in the 
 city of Boston, and their position is analogous to that of the 
 selectmen in Brookline. If this were upon the South side of 
 the railroad, where the parkway is to be, the selectmen 
 would have no business to interfere with it; the Brookline 
 and Boston Park Commissioners would have to do it. This 
 matter is wholly within the jurisdiction of the selectmen, 
 and I do not believe that you will stultify yourselves by 
 reporting legislation which is applicable to Park Com¬ 
 missioners. It seems to me it is a fatal objection to the 
 position which has been taken by the remonstrants here. 
 
 If Brookline is not competent to deal with this question 
 in the old-fashioned way, as it has been dealt with in this 
 Commonwealth for the last hundred years, then provide, in 
 some form, a guardianship for our town, in order that we 
 may be kept from the commission of all the follies of which 
 these opponents seem so apprehensive. I think I may fairly 
 say to them that if, instead of coming up here and taking my 
 time and your time, they would go to the town meeting and 
 try a little of their eloquence there, where it might do some 
 good, it would be far better than coming here and making 
 the excuse for their coming that our town government is, in 
 their opinion, a failure. Sir, it is dislo^TiI. It begs the 
 question. It assumes that the town of Brookline cannot 
 manaofe its own afhiirs. The gentlemen who make these 
 statements, make them in the face of the undisputed fact 
 that the six hundred of our citizens, in town meeting assem¬ 
 bled, unanimously endorsed this very thing. 
 
ARGUMENT OF CLEMENT K. FAY, ESQ. 
 
 15 
 
 I feel that I ought to apologize for going so fully into this 
 matter as I have. I have been compelled to do so because 
 the hearing has taken a wider range than, technically, it was 
 entitled to. At the same time I cordially commend the spirit 
 of the chairman in allowing the fullest license to these remon¬ 
 strants. We have no desire to stifle anything which is rea¬ 
 sonably and fairly offered in opposition to this measure. On 
 the contrary, we invite the fullest investigation. 
 
 It is hardly worth while for me to call attention to the fact 
 that the flings about the money which my clients are to make 
 out of this improvement, are unworthy the name of argu¬ 
 ment. No matter how much money they make out of it. 
 If the town of Brookline is to be benefitted by it, if its peo¬ 
 ple are to pay for it, if its citizens want it, may I ask, 
 plainly, whose business is it outside of the town of Brook¬ 
 line? I say we are competent to manage our own affairs. 
 
 There was a petition put in here by remonstrants repre¬ 
 senting, it was said, one-tenth of the valuation of the town, 
 and there were forty-eight names signed to it. There are 
 1,600 voters in Brookline. You can ask them separately to 
 sign a petition, although you cannot get all of them to attend 
 a town meeting. So that the proportion of the men who 
 have signed the petition against this measure is practically 
 insignificant. Just think of it; forty-eight out of 1,600 
 have signed the petition ! But what does a petition amount 
 to? Before you have been here much longer, gentlemen, 
 you will find out, I think, that petitions are about as mean¬ 
 ingless, oftentimes, as anything that can well be imagined. 
 A petition is carried to a man ; he looks at it, sees that some¬ 
 body else has signed it, and does not read it, but he signs it 
 because his friend has. Another man is very busy, and he 
 signs it without looking at it and without a thought. Often¬ 
 times men sign a petition simply to get rid of the applicant. 
 So I say a petition with forty-eight names upon it is not 
 even a satisfactory test of the judgment of those who have 
 signed it. 
 
 The opponents offer here something which is absolutely 
 unique in the legislation of this Commonwealth. One of 
 
16 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 their amendments is that this Act shall he accepted hy a two- 
 thirds vote, hy ballot, of the citizens. That is absolutely 
 without precedent in this Commonwealth. It is so unfair 
 that Mr. White, honorable man that he is, when I asked him 
 why he introduced so extraordinary a proposition as that, 
 said that he thought it might end the question at the outset 
 and save a good deal of money, or something to that effect. 
 He was frank enough to admit that he thouMit it niijrht kill 
 the measure. Are you going to be made a handle of in this 
 matter ? Are you going to allow a handful of men to come 
 up here and get your aid to slaughter this project in that 
 manner ? I do not believe it. 
 
 Then, as to the question of ballot. I wonder it has not 
 occurred to these gentlemen, — perhaps it has, — that when 
 this bill comes before the people, we have ample authority 
 to vote by ballot, if we see fit. A town meeting is, in this 
 respect, a law unto itself. It comes right down to this : If 
 you pass the bill with these restrictions upon it, you over¬ 
 ride a principle which has been in successful operation for 
 over a hundred years ; you establish a dangerous precedent; 
 you disappoint the town of Brookline ; you allow a few dis¬ 
 affected citizens to come up here and effect more, at this brief 
 hearing, than six hundred of their fellow-citizens, who were 
 faithful to their duties at the town meeting, and you ignore 
 entirely the fact that the town of Brookline is perfectly com¬ 
 petent to take care of itself, and adopt the ballot if it sees 
 fit. Are the opponents afraid to go to a town meeting of the 
 old-fashioned New England sort, the best test that has ever 
 been devised by human ingenuity for the fair and proper 
 treatment of local questions ? Are they afraid to be sub¬ 
 jected to such a crucial test as that; and are they trying, in 
 an outside way, to override the will of the majority of their 
 fellow-citizens? I leave it to you, confidenth% to set the 
 seal of your disapprobation upon their position, by passing 
 this Act in its entirety, as submitted here by the petitioners, 
 and as approved by everybody except these few objectors. 
 
STATEMENT OF HENRY M. WHITNEY. 
 
 17 
 
 STATEMENT OF HENRY M. WHITNEY. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: 
 
 The selectmen of the town of Brookline and the men who 
 favor this great project of carrying out Commonwealth Ave¬ 
 nue, for which the city of Boston and the State of Massa¬ 
 chusetts are indebted more, perhaps, to this Legislature thirty 
 years ago than to anybody else,—we, I say, who come up 
 here in support of this measure, have found ourselves placed 
 in a false light. Everybody is agreed that Beacon Street 
 should be widened. There is not a dissenting opinion upon 
 that question in the whole town. Even Edward Atkinson 
 himself, impervious as he is to all argument by his oppo¬ 
 nents, will concede that; and that is all that the selectmen 
 ask. It is not that you should sit in judgment upon the 
 (juestion whether this avenue shall be 160, 150, or even 70 
 feet wide. It is Avhether or not you will, in response to the 
 unanimous request of the town of Brookline, give them leave 
 to treat this county way as if it were a townway. For every¬ 
 body will admit that if our proposed avenue of 160 feet is 
 not carried, it comes right back to the question : Give us an 
 avenue of 70 feet. 
 
 Now, this question of the widening of Beacon Street is 
 not a new question in the town of Brookline. It has been 
 before the County Commissioners and before the town, time 
 and time again, and the only reason why it has not been 
 widened before, is the great expense involved to the town 
 and county in carrying it out. That has, up" to this time, de¬ 
 feated any attempt to widen it in the slightest degree. 
 Now, gentlemen come up here and gravely ask you to impose 
 conditions upon the widening of Beacon Street in the town 
 of Brookline that exist upon no other highway in this Com¬ 
 monwealth. Is there any reason why Beacon Street should 
 be placed under any other conditions as to widening than any 
 other street in the town ? Are not all the citizens of the 
 town on a perfect equality in respect to that matter as upon 
 
18 
 
 BEACOX STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 all others? But you are gravely asked to give your sanction 
 to an Act which shall prevent, except by a two-thirds vote 
 of the town, by ballot, any action whatsoever upon that 
 street. Suppose the town of Brookline comes here and asks 
 you to let it treat all the streets in the town that are now 
 county ways, as townways? That would be a perfectly 
 proper and reasonable thing to do, and it is a thing that will 
 ultimatel}^ have to be done ; and your action upon this ques¬ 
 tion, gentlemen, I trust will be such as will establish a 
 })recedent which all future Legislatures can look to. We ask 
 you simply to settle this question on the proper principles of 
 equity and justice. We are not here to try the question 
 before you as to whether this avenue is to be 160 feet wide, 
 or any other width. My own private affairs are not matters 
 of discussion before this committee, exceping in so far as 
 they relate to the subject-matter of this petition. I am 
 perfectly willing that this committee, the Legislature, and 
 everybody else, shall know all there is to be told in reference 
 to that, or anything that I have asked the town of Brookline 
 to do. 
 
 Now, what have we heard? What is the opposition? 
 Why, we have heard from our opponents everything under 
 the sun except what applies to the question at issue here. 
 They have not stated one single reason why this application 
 of the town of Brookline should not be granted. Is there any 
 reason why, because this avenue thirty-seven years ago was 
 laid out as a county way and has been treated from that time 
 to this in all respects as a townway, the county never having 
 done anything to it except to establish grades which are ad¬ 
 mitted to be bad, and ever since 1851 it has been in the 
 possession of the town ; the people living upon the line have 
 paid their taxes, the repairs have been made in the usual 
 way, and now you are gravely asked to come in and impose 
 a condition upon Beacon Street that will make it something 
 entirely anomalous in the whole history of this Common¬ 
 wealth. I say that this petition does not provide for anything 
 else except that the Legislature will permit the town of 
 Brookline to treat Beacon Street in its own way and leave 
 
STATEMENT OF HENRY M. WHITNEY. 
 
 19 
 
 the town, as every other town in the Commonwealth is left, 
 at liberty to say what they consider necessary for the public 
 good and convenience. What is that? A^^hat is private 
 convenience and necessity? Why, it is simply what the in¬ 
 dividual can afford to have of all the good things in the world 
 that shall add to his pleasure or his comfort. So, indeed, is 
 it with the streets. Give us the democratic doctrine and let 
 the community itself decide how much pleasure and how 
 much comfort they may have in the streets or avenues, and 
 you may leave it in perfect safety for those people to decide. 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, we did not proceed 
 upon this question of widening Beacon Street without proper 
 advice. A¥hen the question was first taken up I went to the 
 chairman of the Board of Selectmen, Mr. Chandler, and I 
 said, “Of all the men in Massachusetts, whose opinion do 
 you regard as the most valuable upon the question of town 
 affairs?” Said he, “Judge Hoar’s.” “Very well,” I said, “I 
 will retain Judge Hoar.” I did retain Judge Hoar, and here 
 is his opinion touching this very question : 
 
 “To the third question I answer, that in my opinion the 
 selectmen of Brooldine can lay out a town way on either side 
 of the existing highway, or partly on one side and partly on 
 the other, in such manner as when built to make practically 
 one street, subject to the approval of the town as in other 
 cases, and may assess betterments or make agreements in 
 relation to compromise, according to the provisions of the 
 Statute.” 
 
 We proceeded for several months under the advice of Judge 
 Hoar and under the advice of other counsel, and it was not 
 until the very day that the selectmen met to lay out this 
 street that there was any intimation that any further legisla¬ 
 tion was necessary. AYhen we met at that meeting the 
 counsel of the town hesitated. He said : “This is a county 
 way; there may be some question that would endanger the 
 betterments.” And we, desiring to treat the town with the 
 utmost fairness in all respects, said: “Mr. Chairman and 
 gentlemen, if you think so, we will wait.” And this applica¬ 
 tion to the Legislature is for the interest of the citizens who 
 are not upon the line. It is in order that any property which 
 
20 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 may be specially benefited shall bear its part of the burden. 
 It is to insure that the people who live remote from this line 
 and who are interested only in the general tax of the town, 
 shall be saved as much as possible from the expense of this 
 improvement. That is all. It is not because I believe, or 
 have believed, that any further legislation is necessary, but 
 it is in order to make absolutelv sure that the interests of the 
 
 4 / 
 
 people of the town, and especially of those who live remote 
 from this quarter, shall be protected, that we are asking you 
 for this simple bill, which will give* the town of Brookline a 
 right to consider that road as a townway which for thirty- 
 seven years we have in all respects treated as a townway, 
 and not impose restrictions upon this way which are not 
 equally imposed upon every other highway in the town. 
 
 Now, Mr. Atkinson comes up here ; and what does he tell 
 you? Why, he tells you : “ Put it off a year. Turn it over 
 to the next General Court. It will not do you any harm. 
 Put it over to the next General Court.” And he tells you a 
 lot of nonsense. There is not a particle of truth in most of 
 what he tells you. He holds up, as you will remember, the 
 fact that the Lawrences have a great claim in court for land 
 damages', and therefore there is no haste about it. Well, I 
 hold in my hand a notice issued by the Street Commissioners 
 of Boston on the 24th of January, 1887, providing for the 
 laying out of Beacon Street to the Brookline line. Mr. 
 Atkinson speaks of that of which he knows nothing at all. 
 He has assailed the engineers employed by the promoters of 
 this enterprise, and he has undertaken to reflect upon the 
 selectmen of the town in language which I question if he 
 would have dared to use in the town hall of Brookline. 
 Here are these two engineers, men educated as engineers, 
 men of the highest character and integrity, who have made 
 survey after survey of this line, as well as many others in 
 Brookline, and have made the calculations with absolute 
 accuracy, published the quantities, and published the prices 
 for removing the earth,—estimates which cannot be ques¬ 
 tioned by anybody and which any Board of Selectmen can 
 rely upon with perfect confidence. He undertakes to come 
 
STATEMENT OF HENRY M. WHITNEY. 
 
 21 
 
 in here and assail the figures which they have given on the 
 cost of construction, on the ground that they are not proper 
 men, and then he has undertaken to reflect upon the charac¬ 
 ter of the Selectmen of Brookline. And why? Simply 
 because they have been unable to resist the logic of events, 
 and like men, when they have investigated a subject as they 
 have this, have had the courage to come forward and do 
 what they have done. I know from my experience that no 
 men ever gave any project more careful investigation, ever 
 devoted more hours to it, and if they have leaned at all, they 
 have leaned in the direction of a larger cost than these very 
 engineers. 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman, this plan has been introduced. I 
 did not intend to say a word as to fliis “ Plan for the widen- 
 inof of Beacon Street ” to this committee, for I do not think it 
 is properly a part of this hearing ; but as it has been introduced, 
 I desire to say a few words upon it. 
 
 I hold in my hand the report of the committee appointed 
 under the Eesolves of 1856, Chap. 76, “in relation to land 
 in the Back Bay, and accompanying documents ; also, the 
 Fifth Annual Report of the Commissioners on the Back Bay.” 
 From ’51 to ’56 the attention of the Legislature has been 
 repeatedly called to the property of the State in the Back 
 Ba 3 ^ In their report they say this : 
 
 “ Four separate Governors, six separate State administrations, a board 
 of commissioners frequently renewed by changes, and lastly, the present 
 committee, selected under circumstances forbidding the possibility of 
 local or partisan bias or prejudice, have all concurred in directing the 
 attention of the Legislature to this property, and recommending that it be 
 surveyed and cherished.” 
 
 This was the origin, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, of 
 Commonwealth Avenue, and it appears that this committee 
 and the commissioners had to meet for a long ^me the preju¬ 
 dices of the city of Boston in laying out this territorv. 
 
 This report says : 
 
 “The territoiy in question is now a useless and unsightly waste. 
 There is, at the same time, a palpable lack of room for dwelling-houses 
 in and near the city of Boston. Stores are usurping the streets formerly 
 occupied by mansions, rents are enormously high, and it is becoming a 
 
22 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 serious problem where the people whose business draws them to the 
 metropolis of New En»;land and the capital of the State shall be accom¬ 
 modated. The Commonwealth’s lands in the Back Bay are situated in 
 precisely the most eligible location for dwelling-houses. The conversion 
 of a waste of water into a magnificent system of streets and squares, 
 with dwelling-houses for a numerous population, is a transformation 
 dictated by the soundest statesmanship and the wisest political economy. 
 There are obvious advantages in the execution of this policy, at least in 
 its preliminary stages, by the State rather than by private individuals. If 
 the territory in the Back Bay were exclusively private property it might 
 be ‘improved’ in accordance with the dictates of a narrow-minded and 
 short-sighted policy, which should seek to secure the most rapid return of 
 money for the least original outlay, without regard to the higher consid¬ 
 erations of permanent value and public welfare which the State is bound 
 to cherish.” 
 
 I desire to leave this document with the committee for ex¬ 
 amination, because it is a subject with which I, for one, am 
 proud to be connected, and I know that if we can cany out 
 the work of the State begun thirty years ago, you and I and 
 every one of us, if we live thirty years from this time, will 
 look back upon what we have done in furtherance of the pro¬ 
 ject with satisfaction and pleasure. 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman, what was the original plan of the 
 laying out of Commonwealth Avenue? It was proposed to 
 have two or three avenues, but the main avenue was to be 
 120 feet in width. Under the proper committee new inves¬ 
 tigations were instituted and it was found desirable to change 
 the width from 120 to 200 feet, and the width between the 
 houses from 160 to 240 feet, and the reasons for it are all 
 given here. I should be very glad to read this entire report 
 to you, for it is full of instruction and inspiration, but I will 
 dwell only upon these particular parts. It goes on to speak 
 of the advantages of widenins: this avenue to 200 feet, and 
 in order to accomplish the widening of this avenue from 120 
 to 200 feet, the State actually surrendered twelve acres of 
 land in the fifll basin as compensation to the Water Power 
 Company for the additional 80 feet on its main avenue. 
 
 “ After much deliberation,” 
 
 — the report goes on to say, — 
 
 “ the committee determined to lay out the central avenue as broad as a 
 due regard to the width of the other streets and the depths of the lots 
 
STATEMENT OF HENRY M. WHITNEY. 
 
 23 
 
 would allow; and by a unanimous vote it was decided to make it 200 
 feet in width, besides reserved spaces of 20 feet in front of the houses on 
 each side, making a total width of 240 feet between the houses.” 
 
 In order to carry out this magnificent avenue this com¬ 
 mittee assumed certain obligations for which they made 
 apology and asked the Legislature to ratify them, which it did. 
 
 Now, gentlemen, thirty years ago there was not a foot of 
 land west of the Public Garden. It was all, as this com¬ 
 mittee say, a barren waste, and every foot of filling had to 
 be brought from fifteen to twenty miles away in the country ; 
 and yet those gentlemen had the courage to stand there and 
 pay forty cents a square foot for filling. And what was the 
 result? Go there and see for yourselves. Is there any 
 section of the city of Boston, is there any section, indeed, of 
 the State of Massachusetts, which is more creditable to the 
 State, to the city and its citizens, than that very spot? The 
 Institute of Technology was the creation of that movement; 
 the Art Museum, the large block of land for the Public 
 Library and kindred institutions, hundreds of thousands of 
 dollars given to various institutions, and upwards of four 
 millions of dollars poured into the treasury of this Common¬ 
 wealth,— all these were the results of that magnificent 
 enterprise. 
 
 Now, what have we sought to do? Profiting by the 
 example set us by the members of this Legislature thirty 
 years ago, now that the buildings have reached the limit of 
 the avenue (for it was laid out, under the instructions of this 
 committee, simply to the Brookline line)—now that the street 
 is entirely made to its limit, made, indeed, to the forks of 
 the road,—we have undertaken to carry on the work set by 
 the State, two miles and a half farther. There is Common¬ 
 wealth Avenue, the extreme corner of that map. This 
 plan is not original with us. We started, as gentlemen 
 have said, with the idea of making this extension of Com¬ 
 monwealth Avenue 200 feet in width, but we found that the 
 cost of doin^ so would be too o^reat. 
 
 Now, it has been stated as a reason whv tliis committee 
 should impose additional restrictions upon the laying out of 
 
24 
 
 P.EACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Beacon Street, that I and my associates did not go to every 
 man who owned land upon the line of the road and tell him 
 what we proposed to do, before buying a foot of it. We 
 did not proceed in that way ; the State did not proceed in 
 that way. We proceeded in the only way that it was possi¬ 
 ble to proceed to make the thing a success, and the only 
 difficulty that we encountered, — and that is the reason why 
 
 Ave are here to-day, — was that there were some estates upoii 
 
 • 
 
 the line that could not be bought. The owners are asking 
 for large damages and they are unwilling to pay one single 
 cent of betterments. Desiring to make the expense as light 
 as possible to the town of Brookline, my associates and my¬ 
 self, representing one-half of the land upon the line, have 
 given it to the town, free of all claims for grade damages, 
 and all claims of CA^eiy name or nature, and haA^e added one- 
 half the cost of construction of the AA^hole line. And yet 
 men come up here and gravely say : “ Why shouldn’t you 
 be made to })ay the damages that everybody else asks, and 
 the cost of construction besides?” It is charged that the 
 stock that represents our property has advanced in the mar¬ 
 ket. True. We expect it Avill advance. We expect that 
 the property upon this avenue will do exactly AAdiat Ave have 
 said it will ; that it Avill, by its increased value, pay back to 
 the town of Brookline in taxes, more than the cost of con¬ 
 struction. We are not alone in that belief. The A enerable 
 chairman of the Board of Assessors, William Lincoln, Esq., 
 at the very first hearing upon this question, came forward 
 and stated that, in his judgment, the increased value of the 
 property upon the line, the moment that it Avas laid out, Avould 
 a great deal more than pay the interest upon the whole cost of 
 construction, and that Avithin five years the town Avould 
 realize $100,000 income from it. It is not a LTopian dream. 
 There are 600 feet of land on Commonwealth AA^enue today 
 that pay as much tax to the city of Boston as the Avhole two 
 miles and a half of this line. Every single foot of land 
 upon Commonwealth Avenue, from Arlington Street to Dart¬ 
 mouth Street, is taxed at more than $13 a square foot, and 
 more than $3000 a running foot. That, mind you, is exclu- 
 
STATEMENT 0‘F HENRY M. WHITNEY. 
 
 25 
 
 sive of the personal tax, and the personal tax of people who 
 are able to occupy those houses is much more than the real. 
 
 Now, how have we proceeded? I am perfectly free to 
 admit that we bought, in the first place, all the land upon 
 the line of Beacon Street that we could buy, at the lowest 
 price at which we could get it. We have paid for it. We 
 bought it in the open market, and paid whatever was neces¬ 
 sary to pay, and we were perfectly willing to take our 
 chances upon the whole thing. I say we have offered to 
 give the town over six thousand feet of land, which is one- 
 
 half the number of feet of land to be taken. And what did 
 
 * 
 
 we do ? We went first and employed Mr. Olmsted, a man 
 who stands second to none in this land for laying out ave¬ 
 nues of this kind, whose fame extends* from Maine to 
 Mexico; and ^ve paid him for laying out this avenue in as 
 tasteful a manner as he knew how. We })laced no restric¬ 
 tions whatsoever upon him. AYhat did we do next? AYe 
 employed two of the most competent engineers that I know, 
 — or that anybody else, in my judgment, knows, —to make 
 actual surveys upon this land. There is no guess-work about 
 it. M^eeks and weeks were spent in making these surveys. 
 For three or four weeks a corps of a dozen men was em¬ 
 ployed until eleven o’clock at night in making these estimates. 
 There is no 2 :uess-work about the whole thin«:, although it 
 was charged repeatedly here the other day by Mr. Atkinson 
 and others. I say that there are no estimates which cannot 
 be fully relied upon anywhere. 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, what have we added 
 to this avenue of a democratic character? We have placed 
 in it a railroad track. The only objection that any citizen 
 can make to Commonwealth Avenue is, that it is a place 
 that only the rich can enjoy. AYe have placed upon this 
 avenue a railroad from one end of the road to the other. 
 That brino’s it within the abilitv of men who live within 
 reasonable distance of the avenue to enjoy its blessings in 
 going to and from their business. There are hundreds and 
 thousands of men who will dwell within this region within 
 the next thirtv vears, whether this avenue is built or not, to 
 
 VC' 
 
BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 
 M'honi the ability to ride back and forth over an avenue of 
 that kind Mull be a blessing, the value of \vhich it is impossi¬ 
 ble to overestimate. It M'ill give to the laboring man, the 
 mechanic, the clerk, and to the ])oor woman, the only op- 
 i)ortunity vdiich they may possibly have of looking upon a 
 areen tree or oreen orass from one vear’s end to the other. 
 I say, that in addition to the increased value of the land, 
 the carrying out of this improvement in the manner which 
 Ave have jwoposed is a thing which Avill Iwing the greatest 
 good to the greatest nunilAer of people. 
 
 XoAV, we hope the Legislature of the State of Massachu¬ 
 setts will impose no restrictions upon this avenue that are 
 not just and })roper. "\Ve say, that' there is no reason Avhy 
 this avenue should be treated any differently from any other 
 
 V 
 
 avenue in the town of Brookline. AVe sav, that the citizens 
 are competent themseh^es to decide this question ; and we 
 ask you here, in the home of this great improA'ement, that 
 it shall suffer no detriment; that it shall not go out Avith the 
 sign of your disapproA^al in any AA'ay, shape or manner, but 
 that you shall, in so far as it is consistent AAuth your consti¬ 
 tutional duty, aid in ca ery Avay the carrying forAA ard of this 
 great enterpri se. 
 
 Pardon me one moment lonoer. The citA' of Boston, as 
 I haA^e shoAvn you, haA^e giA'en notice of their intention to 
 lay out Beacon Street at this end. The cars are now run¬ 
 ning and filling Beacon Street from the forks of the road to St. 
 Mary’s Street. It has been proposed to enlarge the bridge, 
 and it is hoped that it Avill be done immediately, before the 
 cars are taken off,—the Boston & Albany Kailroad haA'ing a 
 contract to take their cars off before the first of ^larch. 
 We desire the most prompt action upon this question. It 
 is unfair to ask the citA" of Boston to hiA" out this aA'enue, 
 unless Brookline is to lay out the other end. We belieA^e 
 that this committee, fully understanding this question, Avill 
 agree Avith us, and giA^e us prompt and decisiAX action. And 
 I may say that the toAvn also desires })rompt and speedy 
 action. 
 
TESTIMONY OF MR. BAKER, TOWN CLERK. 
 
 27 
 
 TESTIMONY OF MR. BAKER, TOWN CLERK. 
 
 ✓ 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) I think you said you had been town 
 clerk for thirty-five years? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. During that time, of course, you have been familiar 
 with the proceedings of the ofiScers of the town, the select¬ 
 men, in laying out and locating roads, have you not? A. I 
 have. 
 
 Q. AYill you please state to the committee whether in 
 this particular case they took unusual precaution to advise 
 the town on the subject? A. I should think, from what I 
 know of it, that they took very great care to inform them¬ 
 selves in relation to the matter. The}^ had quite a number of 
 hearings,—several preliminary hearings, and then some two 
 or three formal hearings. 
 
 Q. AYhen did they first begin to consider the matter? 
 A. I should think as early as June or July; I do not recol¬ 
 lect exactly. 
 
 Q. Of last year? A. Yes, sir, of last year. 
 
 Q. And when were the meetings held? You mean by 
 meetings, I suppose, meetings open to the public, do you 
 not? A. Yes, sir, meetings in which they invited those 
 who were interested in this matter to appear before them, 
 and give them such information as they desired to obtain. 
 
 Q. And how long a period did that cover? A. As I 
 have it in my mind, I think the first meeting was held some¬ 
 time in July. 
 
 Q. And you say there were several of those meetings 
 prior to the town meeting which we have spoken about here 
 so often? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. How often do the selectmen hold their regular meet¬ 
 ings? A. Twice a week. 
 
 Q. AV'hen you speak of the meetings which were held, 
 you do not refer to these meetings, do you? A. Meetings 
 in which this special matter was up for consideration, to 
 which they invited people to come and appear before them, 
 and give their views in relation to the matter, either for or 
 against. 
 
28 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Q. Those meetings were notified pu])licly, were they not? 
 A. They were. 
 
 Q. So, if I understand you correctly, ever since last July 
 the selectmen have been holding at intervals public meetings, 
 at which any citizen had an opportunity to be heard upon 
 this matter, either for or against; am I correct? A. That 
 is what 1 mean ; yes, sir. 
 
 Q. Now, I want to ask you what precautions they took 
 when they held the town meeting of the 20th of December, 
 which is the meeting that we have spoken of, the meeting 
 which authorized this petition ? A. They pursued the usual 
 course. They issued their warrant, a copy of which I have 
 put into the hands of the committee, and also gave a report 
 upon the articles in the warrant stating their views, which I 
 have also placed in the hands of the committee. This was 
 distributed to every house in town four days before the town 
 meeting. When the meeting was held, every person was 
 supposed to have had complete and full notice of the meet¬ 
 ing, and of the objects of the meeting. 
 
 Q. Has it not often been the case in town meetings that 
 the meetings themselves have voted to adopt the ballot upon 
 certain questions? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. That course is open, of course, in the future as it has 
 been in the past? A. I consider it entirely competent for 
 the town meeting to devise any measure by which they will 
 be governed during that meeting, either in voting or other¬ 
 wise. 
 
 Q. From your long experience in these matters,—and I 
 may add, gentlemen of the committee, that Mr. Baker has 
 had legislative experience as well,—are you familiar with any 
 precedent for such legislation as is sought here by the amend¬ 
 ment proposed? That is, lohere a town has voted unani¬ 
 mously to petition the Legislature for a certain Act, the Legis¬ 
 lature has passed the Act with an amendment requiring a 
 two-thirds vote, by ballot, before the toion can have what it has 
 asked for? A. I do not know of any such case. 
 
 Q. Have you ever heard of any such case in any other 
 part of the Commonwealth? A. I never have ; no, sir. 
 
TESTIMONY* OF CHARLES U. COTTING. 
 
 29 
 
 TESTIMONY OF CHARLES U. COTTING. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) You are a resident of Brookline? 
 A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Mliat is your occupation? A. Manager of real . 
 estate. 
 
 Q. You have had a large experience in that line, have 
 you not, sir? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. You have managed a great deal of property in the 
 city and in Brookline, I believe? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. How long have you lived in Brookline? A. Forty- 
 five years. 
 
 Q. Are you familiar with this so-called Beacon Street 
 improvement? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Speaking as a citizen of the town, do you feel that 
 any information has been withheld from the citizens by the 
 selectmen, acting for the town? A. As far as I know, and 
 I think I do know, the town have full information in regard 
 to it. I attended two nr three hearings myself, and I at¬ 
 tended the last town meeting at which the question, which I 
 understand will come before you to-day, was voted upon. 
 
 I think the parties whom I directly represent pay taxes on 
 somewhere from a million to a million and a half of dollars, — 
 that is a wide margin, I know, but I state it within bounds, 
 — in the town, and therefore I feel that they have a direct 
 interest in the town, and a direct interest in any expenditures 
 which the town may make. I have considered this matter 
 widely, and I think it is a wise movement for the town to 
 make, or for the town to be authorized to make. 
 
 Q. Is it not for the interest of Boston as well? A. 
 There is no question about it in my mind, although I was 
 only looking at it from the standpoint of Brookline. I think 
 it is decidedly for the interest of Boston. 
 
 Q. Are you aware that the city of Boston has already 
 issued notice of their intention to widen the Boston end of 
 this street? A. I saw it in the newspaper yesterday morn- 
 
30 
 
 BEACON STBEET IMPRO\^MENT. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Hyj)!-:.) Do the people whom you represent 
 own i)roperty ])ordering on the line of this })roposed im¬ 
 provement? A. Yes, sir; nearly all of them. 
 
 Q. And Inn e they relinquished a ])ortion of their land 
 to the town l)y written releases, for the i)urpose of this ini- 
 })rovement, if the town shall undertake it? A. They have. 
 In my own ease, I have given twenty per cent of my land 
 which Imrders on this street, for the henefit of this improve- 
 nient, because I believe it will be an iinprovement. Of 
 course, in giving my own land, I look at it from simply a 
 selfish view. 
 
 Q. Now, supposing this project should be given up for the 
 ])resent is it probable that so large an amount of land could 
 again be l)rouo’ht together to be given to the town, as has al- 
 ready been secured ? A. I do not believe it could, sir. It was 
 with a great deal of difficulty I could get my own people to 
 agree, they were so scattered. Of course, before I could 
 give their land, I had to consult with them, and it was with 
 great difficulty I could reach them all so as to obtain their 
 consent. I know in my own circle it would be very difficult 
 
 c.' 
 
 to do it again. 
 
 Q. Are any of your people on this avenue interested in 
 the YYst End Land Company? A. Not a dollar, sir. 
 The}^ have not a dollar of interest, and I have not, directly 
 or indirectly. My only interest is as a citizen of Brookline, 
 as you know. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. B AY.) I ask you now, as an expert in real 
 estate, familiar with toAvn matters, is it not fair to assume 
 that it would cost as much for the town to widen this street 
 to one hundred feet, without the aid that is given by this 
 company and the interests it rei)resents, as it would to 
 widen under the proposed plan to one hundred and sixty 
 feet? A. I do not think there is any doubt of that. If I 
 understand your question, it is, supposing the toAvn should 
 issue the ordinary order of notice that they were to Aviden 
 
 t ^ 
 
 the street to a hundred feet, and make the l)est bargain they 
 could, and go on and do it, A\diich Avould cost the more, to 
 do that or to widen it to one hundred and sixtA' feet under 
 the present plan? Is that the question? 
 
TESTIMONY OF CHARLES U. COTTIXG. 31 
 
 Q. That is it. A. I think the advantage Avould he in 
 favor of the widenins: to one hundred and sixty feet, because 
 there has been so much land contributed. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Hyde.) One single question more, Mr. 
 Cotting. I may say to the committee, that I suppose those 
 of us who know Mr. Cotting, will agree that there is no 
 man in Boston who has a larger experience in real estate 
 matters, or whose judgment would be regarded as based 
 upon more experience than his would be. "What do you 
 think, if this improvement is carried through, taking the 
 town as a whole, as to whether or not it will be a benetit 
 to the town to have the improvement made? A. I think 
 the general benetit will be for the town. 
 
 Q. (By the Committee.) Is this land that is to be con¬ 
 tributed by the land holders, to be contributed on condition 
 the street shall be one hundred and sixty feet wide? A. I 
 have not seen the other releases, but the release of the land 
 which I represent is based upon the street being widened to 
 one hundred and sixty feet. 
 
 Q. Otherwise than that, the land would not be contrib¬ 
 uted? A. The land would not be contributed. And more 
 than that, the town has only until the first of July, — some¬ 
 body will correct me if I am wrong; July 1st, I think, is 
 the limit. One of the parties who signed a release has 
 already gone abroad, and I know it would be very difficult 
 to get his consent again. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Hyde.) M^ould you want to undertake, if 
 this was not taken advantage of by the town by the 1st of 
 July, to get your releases renewed? A. No, sir. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) You are in favor, then, of the ut¬ 
 most promptness of action? A. I am. As I understand 
 the question, it is, whether the town shall be authorized to 
 consider this question. I think the quicker it is done the 
 better; and if the town decides it does not want to do it, it 
 can so vote, and the matter can be settled one wav or the 
 other. 
 
 Q. In your judgment, is not the town the jn-oper party 
 to consider this question on its merits (after it has the 
 
32 
 
 BEACON STRP:ET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 right to do so), without going to anybody else? A. I do 
 not knoM^ as I understand correctly, unless gentlemen pro¬ 
 pose to put the town under guardianship, and have some¬ 
 body else decide for her. 
 
 t 
 
 Mr. Fay. That is the suggestion I made yesterday; 
 that if the amendment were adopted, I should apply for a 
 general act of guardianship. 
 
 Mr. CoTTiNG. I do not knoAV exactly what the question 
 is ; but if you ask me Avhether I think the toAvn meetings in 
 Brookline are up to the average of town meetings through¬ 
 out the State, I should say, decidedly, they were ; and the cit¬ 
 izens are fully competent, I think, to decide any question 
 for themselves. I never kncAV anything to be so hurried 
 through the town meeting, that it was not sifted to the bot¬ 
 tom before it got through, and that the citizens did not act 
 understandingly upon it. The question of the introduction 
 of water was one invoh ing a a ery lieaAy expense ; that was 
 thoroughly considered, and it Avas a very wise move. The 
 next large expenditure Ave made Avas for sewers, and that 
 was a very wise moA^e. I do not believe you could get one- 
 tenth of the people to put themselves back again, even if 
 they could. And I do not think there is any question which 
 the citizens of Brookline are not competent to decide for 
 themselves. All of the people are intelligent, and I think 
 the people are capable of deciding this question in town 
 meeting. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF \YILLIAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) You are an officer of the town of 
 Brookline, are you not ? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. What office do you hold? A. I am chairman of the 
 Board of Assessors. 
 
 Q. How long have you been on the Board of Assessors ? 
 A. Fifteen years. 
 
 Q. Hoav long have you lived in Brookline ? A. Thirty- 
 five years. 
 
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Q. , State whether or not you are familiar with this Beacon 
 Street improvement project, with the localities and with the 
 general plan proposed? A. I think I am, sir. 
 
 Q. What is your judgment in regard to it; whether or 
 not you think the Act which is asked for should be granted ? 
 A. I should take up two or three points in answering that 
 question, if you would allow me. 
 
 Q. Please go on in your own way, and state briefly and 
 pointedly to the committee what you think as to the whole 
 subject. A. As to what makes this particularly desirable 
 for the town of Brookline at the present time, I think the 
 thing to be kept in view at all times is that the value of this 
 improvement depends largely, and almost wholly, upon the 
 style with which it is carried out. The plan which is pro¬ 
 posed by this syndicate of gentlemen meets my views as 
 likely to accomplish the great object that is desired. By the 
 construction of this beautiful avenue, adapted to the uses of 
 a city of 400,000 inhabitants at one end and a charming- 
 place of suburban residence three miles away at the other 
 end, the population of the city will be drawn out along the 
 line of this road, and this will secure the occupation and de¬ 
 velopment of all the adjacent lands for valuable estates, and 
 will very much enhance the value of the property. 
 
 Q. Passing, if you please, to the practical cost of con¬ 
 struction under this plan, can you give the committee any 
 information as to the comparative cost under this arrange¬ 
 ment, with the assistance rendered by this syndicate, and the 
 cost of widening without any such assistance? A. Well, 
 sir, I suppose the gentlemen of the committee are as compe¬ 
 tent in every respect, perhaps, except as to their knowledge 
 of the value of the land, to answer that question as I am. 
 But in my judgment it would cost the town of Brookline less 
 to carry out this plan as presented by these gentlemen, than 
 it would to widen the street to a hundred feet, and under<ro 
 all the diflSculties which they would have to undergo when 
 all these advantages have been cast aside, and they would 
 have to construct the road the best way they could. 
 
 Q. So that, in your judgment, the town will get sixty 
 additional feet of width under this plan at no greater cost 
 
BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 M 
 
 tlian it would have to pay to widen to one hundred feet? 
 .V. That is my judgment. Another very important point 
 which should be kept in mind here, is that the value of the 
 adjoining estates will not be enhanced greatly by the widen¬ 
 ing to a hundred feet. An avenue one hundred feet wide 
 will not be such an avenue as is proposed by this plan. It 
 Avill not be the attractive avenue which will give the value to 
 the adjoining lands tjiat will be given if this plan is carried 
 out. That, I think, is a very important matter, because I 
 think the enhanced value of the real estate on the line of 
 this road will more than pay for the whole of the expense, 
 to say nothing about the addition of personal estate to the 
 town of Brookline which will be liable to taxation. 
 
 Q. What effect do you think it will have Upon the taxes 
 of the town? A. I think it will furnish the town with 
 taxable property to such an extent that it will diminish the 
 rate of taxation on the rest of the property in the town, and 
 be of great benefit to all the inhabitants. 
 
 Q. You are heartily in favor, then, of the project, are 
 you ? A. I am very heartily in favor of it, indeed. 
 
 Q. So far as you know, what is the general sentiment of 
 the town ? A. I should think the general sentiment of the 
 town was strongly in favor of it. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF SULLIVAN COOLIDGE. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) You are a resident of Brookline? 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. How long have you lived there?’ A. Most seventy 
 years. 
 
 Q. And your occupation is what? A. It has been 
 farming. 
 
 Q. Are you familiar with Beacon Street, its locality’and 
 so on ? A. I am, sir. 
 
TESTIMONY OF SULLIVAN COOLIDGE. 
 
 35 
 
 Q. Are you familiar with the projected improvement of 
 Beacon Street? A. I am, in some sense. 
 
 Q. You know it is proposed to widen it to one hundred 
 and sixty feet? A. I know that is the proposition now. 
 
 Q. In your judgment as a long, and I assume a life-long, 
 resident of Brookline, whether or not this is an expedient 
 and economical project for the town to embark upon? A. 
 Y"e consider it so; very much so. 
 
 Q. It is extremely desirable, you think? A. I do, very. . 
 - Q. How about the cost of it; do you think it will pay 
 for itself? A. I do not know as it would cost a great deal 
 more to widen it out to one hundred and sixty feet than it 
 would to one hundred feet. 
 
 Q. That is, you mean, on account of the gifts of land 
 from the Land Company and others? A. Yes, sir. And 
 then, having the railroad separate from the travelled part of 
 the street, I think, will enhance the value of the propeidy 
 very much. We know that railroads are a great benefit, 
 but they are a great nuisance for us who have teams, and have 
 to drive over them. 
 
 Q. So that the plan of shading the tracks, and at the 
 same time protecting the roadway, is, in your judgment, an 
 excellent feature of this project? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. Fay. That is a point, I may remark, gentlemen, 
 which possibly has not been brought out, as yet, and it ex¬ 
 plains, perhaps, the “ park” theory of certain remonstrants. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Planting spaces ” are to be put on each side of the street 
 railway track. That will be a great advantage, because 
 when the trees are there it will render the railroad cars 
 themselves less obtrusive, less unsightly, and it will also be 
 a protection and a safeguard against runaway horses, or any¬ 
 thing of that kind ; and it will also add very materially to the 
 beauty of the street, without turning it into a park, but sim¬ 
 ply leaving it as a highway treated in a novel shape. That 
 is what the witness refers to. I have not asked the previous 
 witnesses anything in regard to this, but as they have all 
 said they heartily approve the plan, I assume they approve 
 that feature of it. 
 
36 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 0 
 
 TESTIMONY OF PHILIP S. ALLEN. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) Are you a native of Brookline? A. 
 I have lived there thirty-seven years. • 
 
 Q. You are familiar with the cost of the construction of 
 streets? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. May I ask what your occupation is? A. Contractor. 
 
 Q. Have you examined the estimates for the proposed 
 ‘construction of Beacon Street? A. Yes, sir. I had a' 
 schedule of the quantities required in all parts of this con¬ 
 struction and I carried out the cost beside each item, and 
 gave it to the engineers to make their estimates, with other 
 contractors who did the same, as I was told. 
 
 Q. Have you examined the estimates which have been 
 made by Messrs. Aspinwall and Lincoln? A. I have, sir. 
 
 Q. Whether or not in your judgment they are conserva¬ 
 tive and safe estimates ? A. I think they are. The esti¬ 
 mate I made at the time was on a 200-foot avenue, which is 
 more, of course, than the cost of constructing a 160-foot 
 avenue. 
 
 Mr. Fay. I may state here, gentlemen, perhaps with pro¬ 
 priety, that the original plan of the West End Land Company 
 was to make this avenue 200 feet wide, and afterwards, at the 
 request or suggestion of the town, through its selectmen, 
 they modified the plan to 160 feet. 
 
 Q. You made your estimates on the basis of a 200-foot 
 street? A. Yes, sir; and I only estimated for the quanti¬ 
 ties presented by the engineers. 
 
 Q. You say you have lived in Brookline for thirty-seven 
 years; state whether or not this matter has been fairly and 
 squarely brought before the town; whether there has been 
 any neglect of duty on the part of the petitioners, or whether 
 there has been any information withheld to which the town 
 was entitled, in your judgment? A. I should not say there 
 had been anything withheld. I think the people have had 
 full liberty to investigate, and they have had all the oppor¬ 
 tunity they could ask for to look into this matter. 
 
TESTIMONY OF PHILIP S. ALLEN. 
 
 37 
 
 Q. What is the sentiment of the town in regard to it, so 
 far as you know? A. Well, I am over all parts of the 
 town, and it is rarely I meet a person who is opposed to this 
 scheme. There may be some individual who owns a place 
 on the line, who wants to get all the award he can, or who 
 does not want to have to remove from where he lives, and 
 there may be a few others, but it is very rarely that I meet 
 one. 
 
 Q. The general sentiment is in favor of it? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. Fay (to the Committee). When I ask that question, 
 as I have asked it of several witnesses, I mean, of course, 
 with proper limitations as to expense. That is something 
 we will decide after you give us the Act. We do not go 
 for it at any price, but we go for it at a proper price. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF HON. JOHN W. CANDLER. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) You are an old resident of Brook¬ 
 line? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. 1 How long have you lived there ? A. About thirty- 
 eight years. 
 
 Q. During that time you have held several official posi¬ 
 tions, have you not? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. You have represented the town here in the Legisla¬ 
 ture, and in Washington? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. You have had more or less familiarity, I presume, 
 with the laying out and construction of townways? A. 
 Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. Have you given any attention to the subject of the 
 Beacon Street improvement,—to the proposed construction 
 of the avenue? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. What means of information have you had, as a citi¬ 
 zen of the town, to familiarize yourself with this project? 
 A. I have read the reports very carefully. 
 
 Q. What reports do you refer to, sir? A. Everything 
 that has been published that I could see. 
 
38 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Q. There has been a good deal puldished, has there not? 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. The discussion of this matter has occupied several 
 months, has it not, as stated by Mr. Baker? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. Is there anything else in your judgment, as a citizen 
 of the town, and as an ex-official of the town, which the 
 selectmen could do, in order to throw more light upon this 
 project, before the town votes upon the acceptance of the Act ? 
 A. I should think it was not necessary to discuss it further. 
 Of course, that is a matter which individuals will make up 
 their own opinions about. So far as I am concerned, I am 
 satisfied. 
 
 Q. I am not speaking, understand me, about the dis¬ 
 cussion on the merits of the project, but I am speaking now 
 of the preliminary work which is required or needful to be 
 done; whether the town officials have, to your knowledge, 
 neglected their duty in any respect? A. I think it has 
 been very carefully done. I think there has been more 
 attention paid to this than to any important measure that I 
 remember which has been brought before the town. 
 
 Q. Has there not been a good deal of discussion of this 
 subject in the two local newspapers of the town? A. I 
 have noticed a good deal of discussion, and I have heard it 
 generally discussed by the people. I do not know that I 
 recall any special discussion in the papers, but I have read 
 articles in the papers in regard to it. 
 
 Q. Have you any interest in this matter, except that of 
 a citizen ? A. A general interest; I am a property holder 
 in the town. 
 
 Q. None of your real estate touches this street in any 
 part? A. Nothing of my own. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Hyde.) I should like to have you state in 
 your own way,— you generally have some views upon mat¬ 
 ters in your own town,—what you think ofMhe whole 
 matter, and what its benefit will or will not be? A. 1 have 
 looked at it in a general way, Mr. Chairman. I have been 
 very much interested in the laying out of avenues in Brook¬ 
 line. That has been the one thing that Boston and Brook- 
 
I 
 
 TESTIMONY OF HON. JOHN W. CANDLER. 39 
 
 line have neglected for 25 years. We have had no proper 
 direct communication between Boston and Brookline. For 
 a great many years we have gone through Roxbury in the 
 horse cars to Boston, and we have had the Milldam, which 
 is at an angle the other way, which we could drive over, but 
 there has been no direct communication with Brookline, 
 either by private conveyance or by horse railways. Twenty 
 years -ago I advocated in the Legislature the laying 
 out of a direct avenue to Brookline, — the extension of 
 Boylston Street. I felt it was very important that we should 
 have a line of horse cars to accommodate the masses of the 
 people with more rapid transit than we then had, and at 
 lower prices, and I got through the Legislature, twenty years 
 ago, a charter for a horse railway upon the extension of 
 Boylston Street. It would have been a wise thing for the 
 State and the city and the town, and it would greatly have 
 increased the value of property, if that thing had been carried 
 through twenty years ago. Feeling an interest, as I do, 
 in everything that is of interest to the town of Brookline 
 and to Boston, when this project came up,, which is now 
 before you, although I had no personal interest in it 
 whatever, I examined it, and I thought it was an admir¬ 
 able scheme. The more I looked at it, the better I was 
 impressed with it. I hope the rnen who are in it will make 
 some money. You cannot get capital, which is conserva¬ 
 tive, to take hold of any enterprise unless there is some 
 prospect of a return from it, and I hope these men will 
 make some money out of this. But at the same time I am 
 satisfied, as a citizen of the town, that the town will be very 
 much benefited, if the project can be carried out, as I hope 
 it will be. My views, you see, are general. I insist upon it 
 that the city of Boston, the authorities, and the influential 
 men in Brookline, have not been alive to the necessities and 
 the demands of the two localities in this direction. The 
 growth of Boston is towards Brookline, and years ago straight 
 avenues and means of communication should have been laid 
 out between the town and the city. There is no reason why 
 the rich man, if he wants to build his house at this end of 
 
40 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Commonwealth Avenue, should not do so, but it is a good 
 plan, also, to lay the avenue out so that the poor man shall 
 be able to have quick transit, and be able to have a house, 
 which shall be accessible, at the other end of the avenue. I 
 was so well satisfied that this was a wise thins: for the benefit 
 
 O 
 
 of the people, that I have looked into it with more care than 
 I ordinarily should, and on general principles I am very 
 strongly in favor of it. I hope facilities will be extended, so 
 that everything can be done in a legal and proper and con¬ 
 servative way. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) In your judgment, what would be 
 the effect of carrying out this improvement, on the taxes in 
 Brookline? A. I think it would have an effect, on the 
 whole, to reduce taxation. I base my approval of it on gen¬ 
 eral principles. I say that no avenue that is called for is 
 ever laid out in a city or town, but what it promotes the 
 growth of the town; and no rapid transit can be extended 
 into the suburbs of a city without benefiting the town by in¬ 
 creasing the value of the taxable property. There was a 
 great deal of opposition to the parks, but if you will look 
 into the statistics, as I have done, you will find that they 
 have been of great benefit. 
 
 Q. You refer to the system of parks in Boston? A. 
 I do. 
 
 Q. Has it not been the uniform experience, Mr. Candler, 
 that the extension of avenues with horse railroads upon them, 
 has developed and improved the property abutting on the 
 
 avenues? A. Certainlv. 
 
 •' 
 
 tp:stimony of hon. willhim aspinwall. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) You are a resident of Brookline? 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. How long have you lived there? A. I have lived 
 there a part of every year for 53 years, and I have been a 
 voter and tax-})ayer there for 40 years. 
 
TESTIMONY OF HON. WILLIAM ASPINWALL. 
 
 41 
 
 Q. During that time you have held several positions, have 
 you not, in the town? A. Yes, sir; I have been town 
 clerk, selectman and assessor. I believe the only office I 
 now hold is trustee of the Public Library, which office I 
 have held for about twenty-five years. 
 
 Q. You were at one time Senator from that district, were 
 you not? A. ‘I represented the town twice in the Legisla¬ 
 ture, in *1851 and 1852, and the County of Norfolk under the 
 old constitution, in 1854. 
 
 Q. So that, practically, you have held almost every office 
 within the gift of the town. Is not that so, sir? A. Yes, 
 sir; all but school committee ; I never was on the school 
 committee. 
 
 Q. State whether or not, during your residence in Brook¬ 
 line, you have been more or less actively interested in town 
 matters ? A. , Yes, sir; I have always considered, since I 
 became a voter in Brookline, that it was my duty to attend 
 the town meetings, and I have done so whenever I was 
 physically able.^ Sometimes I have been unwell and not able 
 to go, but I have considered it a duty to myself and a duty 
 I owed to others, to attend. 
 
 Q. Now, Mr. Aspinwall, in your large experience both 
 as town official and as a citizen voting at town meetings, 
 please state whether or not you have ever heard of any legis¬ 
 lation such as is proposed here by this amendment; that is, 
 requiring a two-thirds vote, by ballot, for the acceptance of 
 an x4ct which is petitioned for unanimously by the citizens in 
 a town meeting? A. I never heard of any such legislation, 
 and I never heard of any such proposition for legislation 
 before. 
 
 Q. Were you present at this meeting of December 20th ? 
 A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. When the vote asking for this Act was passed? A. I 
 was present; I took part in the discussion, and made a few 
 remarks. 
 
 Q. Whether or not the subject was pretty thoroughly dis¬ 
 cussed at that time? A. Very thoroughly indeed. I never 
 heard a subject more thoroughly discussed, although most 
 
42 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 of the discussion was entirely outside of the article in the 
 warrant. 
 
 Q. What was the object of the meeting? A. The object 
 of the meeting was to consider this very proposition, as to 
 whether the town would instruct the selectmen to petition 
 the Legislature for substantially this Act. 
 
 Q. And, after this long discussion, what'did the meeting 
 do ; I mean, with regard to authorizing this to be done? A. 
 The vote was passed, as has been read to the committee, 
 almost unanimously ; in fact, I may say substantially unani¬ 
 mously ; and I believe it has been so stated here by the 
 opponents. 
 
 Q. Did you hear anybody vote against it at the time ? 
 A. No, sir ; I do not recollect any vote against it. 
 
 Q. What knowledge had you of this matter prior to the 
 meeting; how had it been brought to your attention ? A. 
 You mean, of the widening of Beacon Street? 
 
 Q. Yes. A. The widening of Beacon Street is a matter 
 which has been in my mind for a number of 3 ^ears, and in 
 the minds of a good many other persons. Three or four 
 years ago, perhaps it is, I got up a petition, addressed to 
 the county commissioners, to widen Beacon Street, and 
 there was a hearing upon it. The opposition we had at 
 that time was precisely the opposition we have here. The 
 Stearns family opposed it, as they opposed the laying out 
 of Beacon Street thirty years ago, on the ground that it was 
 going to damage their property, when, in fact, it rendered 
 it ten times as valuable as it was before. They got damages 
 at that time, and they always get damages. 
 
 Q. Mr. Stearns is the gentleman who was so ably mis¬ 
 represented here by his attorney, the other day? A. Yes, 
 sir. 
 
 Q. He lives on the line of the street ? A. Yes, sir. 
 These gentlemen, I believe, certainly those whose names I 
 have seen upon the petition to be presented by Mr. White, 
 are substantially the opponents of this scheme ; and I may 
 say, further, that they are the constant opponents of any 
 scheme of public improvement which is going to increase, as 
 
TESTIMONY OF HON. WILLIAM ASPINWALL. 
 
 43 
 
 they think, their taxes. I noticed the names for the first 
 time this morning; and I noticed the names of a great many 
 persons who never attend a town meeting, except to vote 
 against an appropriation of money for the public good. 
 
 Q. Is it not a fact that some of the gentlemen who were 
 at first opposed to this project at the preliminary meetings 
 in the lower town hall, afterwards became convinced that the 
 project was a good one, and favored it in the upper town 
 hall at the subsequent meeting? A. Yes, I think so. I 
 think Mr. Foster was opposed to it at first, and afterwards 
 he made one of the best speeches there was made in favor 
 of it, as one of the best business men of Boston, and 
 respected in that way in the town of Brookline. I do not 
 remember who else spoke in that meeting, but there was 
 quite a number. 
 
 Q. I do not care to go quite so much into detail as that. 
 My purpose, Mr. Aspinwall, and I will say so for the benefit 
 of the committee also, is to show that frequent meetings 
 were held and that the selectmen not only neglected no 
 usual opportunity and precaution to bring this before the 
 town, but took unusual care in the matter. Following out 
 this line a little further, Mr. Aspinwall, will you state 
 whether or not they had an^^ plans and estimates and specifi¬ 
 cations at these preliminary hearings ? A. Yes, sir, they 
 did. 
 
 Q. For the enlightenment of the citizens? A. At all 
 the meetings which were held by the selectmen, they had 
 the plans and specifications, and had the engineers present, so 
 that any questions could be put to them, and there was a 
 very thorough examination of the matter. I would say I do 
 not know any matter that has ever been before the town of 
 Brookline, with the exception of the water question, that has 
 ever been so thoroughly ventilated as this has been. The 
 two papers in Brookline and some of the Boston papers have 
 had articles upon it and reports of the hearings, and it is im¬ 
 possible that anything could be more generally discussed than 
 this matter has been. It has been discussed in every possi¬ 
 ble way, on the cars, on the streets, and wherever the people 
 have met. 
 
44 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Hyde.) From having lived in the town all 
 these years, and probably knowing the people of the town as 
 well as any man there, will you state in a general way, your 
 opinion of whether this is a desirable thing for the town to 
 do? A. I have no question about that, sir. It is a desir¬ 
 able thing for the town, taking the town by itself, and it is a 
 desirable thing for the great community of which the town 
 forms a part. Practically, the town of Brookline is part of 
 the metropolis of the State, part of the city of Boston. It is 
 enclosed by the city of Boston almost entirely, with the ex¬ 
 ception of a small boundaiy on the city of Newton, and 
 within 25 years it will be almost impossible, if such an 
 avenue as this is laid out, to distincruish where Boston beofins 
 and Brookline ends. We who live in Brookline are all Bos¬ 
 ton people, really. We sleep in Brookline, but all our 
 business is in Boston, and the interests of Brookline and 
 those of Boston are identical. Everybody knows how much 
 the interests of Boston are concerned in this matter. Indeed, 
 it seems to me there has rarely been a matter before the 
 public, the outcome of which may be made so beneficial to 
 the metropolis of the State, and even to the State itself. 
 I do not think anybody doubts that if this territory had 
 been a part of the Back Bay territory, in the same condition 
 that that was in, in 1857, the State w-ould not have termi¬ 
 nated Commonwealth Avenue where it did. I have no doubt 
 that within five years after this road is laid out, it will be 
 continued b}^ the cit}^ of Newton to Newton Centre, and per¬ 
 haps further towards Worcester. It may even be carried on 
 to Worcester, with the hope of making that city the capital 
 of the Commonwealth. (Laughter.) 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) Have you any personal interest in 
 this matter, other than as a citizen? A. None at all. If I 
 had any personal interest, as I stated, I think, in the town 
 meetinof or before the selectmen, it would be rather adverse 
 to this matter. I am interested in real estate in Brookline 
 not on this avenue. That real estate is in the market for 
 sale, and I think that my friend Whitney, having so large an 
 amount of land on what will be Commonwealth Avenue ex- 
 
 I 
 
TESTIMONY OF HON. AVILLIAM ASPINWALL. 
 
 45 
 
 tended, will bring property into competition with what I 
 have already for sale, and I think, perhaps, the properly 
 which I am now selling will not sell quite so quickly as it 
 otherwise would. 
 
 Q. Do you not think that, while it benefits him, it will 
 also benefit your property in the end? A. I have no doubt 
 it will benefit all the property in the town of Brookline. I 
 have no doubt it will act favorably on all the property in 
 the town. But I was speaking of special benefit, and, per¬ 
 haps, of special injury. 
 
 Q. You live at some distance from the street? A. I 
 live a half a mile, I should say, from Beacon Street. 
 
 Q. You have had large experience in these matters ; will 
 you please give the committee the benefit of your judgment 
 as to the practical value of voting by ballot ? A. I do not 
 see any value at all, so far as the community is concerned. 
 I consider it merely an opportunity given to the minority to 
 defeat this scheme. That is undoubtedly the object they 
 have in view. They think they can manage to get one-third 
 of the votes, or a little over one-third, perhaps, in opposi¬ 
 tion to it, and in that way can defeat the wishes of the other 
 two-thirds of the town. I do not believe in that way of 
 conducting business in a town or anywhere else, unless in 
 special cases. It may be necessary sometime to put a con¬ 
 trol upon the borrowing power of a town, and I think the 
 Legislature has been wise in that respect. But for general 
 purposes I think the majority ought to rule, and especially a 
 majority in a town meeting. I do not believe in putting it 
 into the power of people who do not come to town meet¬ 
 ings usually, to come there on some special occasion, with 
 their minds made up and their ballots in their pockets, to vote 
 against the opinions that have been formed by other citizens, 
 upon full discussion of the question face to face. 
 
 Q. Is it not possible that the use of the ballot puts a 
 premium upon “ stay-at-homes,” the people who do not come 
 to town meetings ? A. Certainly; that is the way it has 
 always operated. 
 
46 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Q. Htive you not in your experience known the town 
 to resort to the use of the liallot, its own act, in 
 town meetings? A. I remember two cases. One was 
 on the extension of Harrison Place. Some years ago they 
 had a ballot on that question, and my belief is that what was 
 the public good was at that time defeated by the votes of 
 people who came to the meeting without knowing anything 
 about the question, but with their minds made up to vote in 
 a certain way. Then, again, on the water question, in 1872, 
 the town decided to take a vote by ballot. Prior to that 
 time the town had repeatedly expressed itself in town meet¬ 
 ing in favor of introducing water. It had applied to the Leg¬ 
 islature, and had obtained an Act for introducing the Charles 
 River water. But, by a great effort on the part of the op¬ 
 ponents to the introduction of water, they defeated, by a 
 small majority, the friends of the measure. In less than six 
 months afterwards, the town voted to introduce water, how¬ 
 ever, and within a year after that, water was introduced; 
 and we have the best water in the Commonwealth of Massa¬ 
 chusetts, I think. The ballot operated to delay the intro¬ 
 duction of water, which was an absolute necessity to the 
 poorer classes of our people. 
 
 Q. Voting by ballot in those two cases you have stated 
 worked very unfavorably ? A. It undoubtedly defeated the 
 popular will. 
 
 Q. Whether or not, in your judgment, it is wiser to leave 
 the question of the ballot to the meeting of the citizens, who 
 ask for this Act, than it is to try to forestall that action by 
 the adoption of this amendment, or of any of these amend¬ 
 ments? A. I think it is perfectly safe to leave it with the 
 town. In one of the cases I have spoken of, —that relating 
 to Harrison Place, —the town did not vote to take the vote 
 by ballot; ])ut the selectmen, in their warrant, called the 
 citizens to deposit their ballots on that question. The select¬ 
 men could do it in this case, if the}^ saw fit, and the town 
 could vote by ballot. 
 
 Q. Then, I will modify my question. Is it not perfectly 
 safe, in your opinion, to leave the interests of these remon- 
 
TESTIMONY OF HON. WILLIAM ASPINWALL. 
 
 47 
 
 strants in the hands of the selectmen, as has been done be¬ 
 fore? A. It seems to me perfectly safe, sir. 
 
 Q. What, in your judgment, would be the attitude of the 
 Legislature towards the citizens of Brookline, who petition 
 unanimously for this Act, if it should pass an Act requiring 
 them to give a two-thirds vote, by ballot, in its favor, before 
 they can avail themselves of it? A. It seems to me it would 
 be treating the town of Brookline very differently from the 
 way they treat any other town or city in the Commonwealth ; 
 that it would, substantially, be saying that the town of 
 Brookline was not competent to take care of its affairs, 
 and that it had a large body of irresponsible individuals 
 who were ready to vote away money for any purpose, — 
 especially for something that was likely to be of some per¬ 
 sonal benefit to themselves. 
 
 Q. Whether or not, Mr. Aspinwall, it might not follow, 
 as a further inference, that the Legislature paid heed onl}' 
 to the few remonstrants who came up here, and ignored the 
 deliberate action and the unanimous vote of the citizens in 
 town meeting assembled? A. I should so look upon it; 
 and I think the people of Brookline would so look upon it. 
 
 Q. (By the Chairman.) I believe you said you usually 
 attend the town meetings ? A. Yes. 
 
 Q. It has been testified here that there were 600 voters 
 at this meeting on Dec. 20th; how does that compare with 
 your average town meeting? A. It was much larger than 
 usual. We very seldom have a meeting, I should say, where 
 the attendance is over half that number. Even our annual 
 meetings are scarcely ever as large as this meeting was. 
 
 Q. As an old resident of Brookline, and one who usually 
 attends the town meetings, do you, in your judgment, think 
 there was a suflScient notice <?iven of this meetino^ of Deceni- 
 ber 20th, so that the town’s people could have come if the}’ 
 had seen fit to? A. There is no doubt about that. The 
 meeting had been talked about a long time, or quite a con¬ 
 siderable time, before the warrant was issued, and according 
 to our by-law, the warrant must be fully served at least four 
 days before the meeting is held. It was actually served, I 
 should say, nearer seven days before. 
 
48 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Q. It has been intimated here, or it has been testified to 
 here, that there are two hundred and fifty or three hundred 
 citizens of Brookline who only pay a poll-tax. I would like 
 to ask, for my own benefit and for the benefit of the committee, 
 whether the larger proportion of that six hundred at the 
 meeting were poll-tax payers or property-tax payers? A. 
 Allow me in the first place, Mr. Chairman, to correct the 
 statement that has been made, that there are two hundred 
 and fifty or three hundred poll-tax payers only in the town 
 of Brookline. The majority of the tax payers in Brookline 
 are poll-tax payers. But who are they? They are not sim¬ 
 ply the laboring people. They are the sons of men Avho 
 ov/n property, and they are clerks who, perhaps, have no 
 personal property in the town of Brookline, and hire houses, 
 for which they pay rent, but do not pay taxes, except in the 
 way of rent. These are a very large proportion of the peo¬ 
 ple who are down on our list as poll-tax payers, simply. 
 Many of them are men who pay taxes in the city of Boston 
 on their business, and they are the sons of men of property, 
 although not owning property themselves. Then there are 
 the people Avho own nothing at all, who pay no tax in any 
 way, the laboring population, the journeyman mechanics, 
 and so on, but they are a very small proportion of the whole 
 number of merely poll-tax payers. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) How did that meeting compare with 
 the average town meetings, in respect to intelligence and 
 financial responsibility, if I may use those expressions with¬ 
 out offence? A. I should, say the representation of those 
 who pay a tax on property, and their representatives in the 
 sons of such gentlemen, was much larger than usual. There 
 was, of course, a large number of the poorer class of people 
 present. But I want to say this for the poorer class of i)eo- 
 ple in Brookline : I believe they are just as safe to trust with 
 such questions as this as the rich men, and more. I think 
 they are more public spirited, as a rule, than the rich men, 
 who, as a general rule, look more closely to their tax bills 
 than any other class in the community does. The middle 
 class in Brookline, and the laboring class in Brookline, the 
 
TESTIMONY OF IION. WILLIAM ASPINWALL. 
 
 49 
 
 mechanics and the laboring men, are quite as safe to l)e 
 trusted with the interests of the town as the rich men are, 
 and for this reason especially, that they do attend the town 
 meetings, while the rich men do not, but make up their 
 minds outside. 
 
 Q. (By the Committee.) Do you think there is ain^ 
 proportion of the citizens of Brookline who would attend 
 the town meetings and vote for that measure in consideration 
 of the work they would get out of it? A. No, sir, I do 
 not think so. There may be a few men who would, but 
 after all, what is that? They have a selfish motive, just as 
 other men will vote on the other side for a selfish motive. 
 One man will vote against a measure because it is going to 
 make him pay fifty cents more tax, and the other man will 
 vote in favor of it because it is going to put fifty cents into 
 his pocket. It is selfishness on either side. 
 
 Q. My question is, whether there is any considerable 
 proportion of such men who are merely poll-tax payers*? 
 A. No, I do not think there is any considerable number of 
 people who are actuated by any such motives. 
 
 Q. I believe a gentleman who testified yesterday, Mr. 
 Rice, gave an estimate that there were 250 of that class. 
 What do you say to that? A. I have lived in the town of 
 Brookline fifty years, and Mr. Rice has not lived there filty 
 months. Perhaps he knows better about the people of Brook¬ 
 line than I do, but I should trust my own opinion sooner 
 than I would his. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) Now we are on that line of inquiry, 
 I want to ask you a question or two concerning Mr. Rice’s 
 statements here. You saw him at the town meetiim', and 
 sat near him? A. Yes, sir, not very far from him. 
 
 Q. 4Yhether, in your judgment, he had any following 
 whatever in his line of tactics ? I believe he did not formu¬ 
 late any motion ; but whether there was anybody who seemed 
 to sympathize with him or follow him in what he said ? Did 
 he have any influence? xl. None at all, sir. I think his 
 proposition fell as cold upon the meeting as anything I ever 
 heard. Town meetings have a way of expressing their feel¬ 
 ing without an actual vote, and I never saw any proposition 
 
BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 :>() 
 
 treated with more silent contempt than that was. Every¬ 
 body supposed, — of course Mr. Eice set that at rest the 
 other day, — that he represented the Metropolitan Eailroad 
 Company there, and that he was making a proposition for 
 their benefit. That is what everybody said at the time, and 
 what everybody has said since, until he contradicted it. 
 
 Q. Whether your judgment differs from his as to the 
 amount of weight his proposition carried? A. Entirely, sir. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Hyde.) The question the chairman asked 
 you has not been directly answered yet, I think, whether 
 there was a larger proportion of men at the meeting, who 
 only pay a poll-tax, than is usually at the town meetings ; 
 what do you say as to that? 
 
 The Chairman. I mean simply, poll-tax payers, who 
 pay nothing else and represent nothing else. A. I should 
 say there was a larger proportion of property represented 
 there than usual. Of course there was, if that is so, a less 
 proportion of people who merely pay a poll-tax. 
 
 Q. (By the Committee.) Is there an element of your 
 citizenship who generally, outside of this particular project, 
 attend vour meetino^s and vote for measures in consideration 
 of the work they can get out of them? A. No, sir; I do 
 not think there is any considerable number of our people 
 who take such a view of questions. I think our laboring 
 population, I speak now of mechanics and day-laborers, are 
 quite as well informed upon public afiairs as any class in the 
 community. They discuss them more, and I think they 
 perform their duties as citizens better, because they do 
 attend the town meetings. Some vote one way and some 
 another, and I do not believe they vote simply from the idea 
 that they are going to make a dollar or two, or ten dollars, 
 or something of that kind out of a job. 
 
 Q. The reason I ask the question is, that somebody 
 stated yesterday there was a large influx of laboring men, 
 owing to the public works of the town, and that they were 
 always ready to vote in consideration of the work they got; 
 and when he was asked how manv such men there were, he 
 stated there were about two hundred and fiftv. IVhat do 
 you say as to that? 
 
TESTIMONY OF HON. AVILLIAM ASPINM'ALL. 
 
 51' 
 
 The Chairman. That was the statement of Mr. Rice. 
 
 A. I am not familiar with the details of town affairs now ; 
 that is, as to the number of laborers employed; but I should 
 be astonished beyond measure if it was proved to me that 
 there was anything like that number of men employed upon 
 the public works in Brookline. (Mr. elames, one of the 
 selectmen, “ Not half!”) I do not think it is possible. I 
 do not see why the magnitude of the expenditure involved 
 in this case is any reason for adopting a different mode of 
 procedure than is common in the conduct of the town 
 affairs. I think, if the town is capable of conducting any 
 of its affairs by a majority, it is fit to conduct all its affairs 
 by a majority, except where the State has made a general 
 law, as it has in regard to municipal indebtedness, which I 
 think is a wise provision. But that applies generally. It is 
 not made to apply to a particular town. I think that special 
 legislation against the Democratic-Republican doctrine that a 
 majority shall rule in town affairs, is decidedly inexpedient. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Fay.) One question I omitted, which I will 
 ask, with the permission of the committee. Is this a town¬ 
 way, or a parkway? A. It is a town way. 
 
 Q. It is a road, is it not? A. It is a road. 
 
 Q. And, therefore, it ought to be treated like one in lay¬ 
 ing it out? A. Yes, sir. 
 
 Q. I would like to ask whether you consider that the 
 town of Brookline will be benefited as a town,—not the 
 individuals who own property where this road will be, if 
 this plan is carried out, — but whether the town in general 
 will be benefited in proportion to the expenditure that will 
 be called for? A. Yes; I have no doubt it will. And, as 
 Mr. Foster, who is one of the best business men in the city 
 of Boston, said, and I agree with him, if it cost twice as 
 much, I believe the town of Brookline would get it all back 
 in money before many years. The taxable property would 
 be so much increased that the cost to the town, eventually, 
 would be nothing. 
 
 The Chairman. I will ask if the rest of your evidence is 
 not merely cumulative, to the effect that the witnesses are 
 old residents of Brookline and are in favor of the project? 
 
52 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 Mr. Fay. There are several more citizens of Brookline 
 here who are prepared to testify to the same general facts 
 that have already been testified to, but if the committee are 
 satisfied with what they have heard, we will not put on any 
 more witnesses. 
 
 The Chairman. It is the opinion of the chair that inas¬ 
 much as the witnesses you would call would testify substan¬ 
 tially as has been testified, it will not be necessary to hear 
 them, and the chair would ask you merely to hand in their 
 
 N * 
 
 names. 
 
 Messrs. Jerome Jones, Wm. J. Griggs and Jacob W. 
 Pierce, large owners of real estate in Brookline, not abutting 
 on Beacon Street, were also present and favored the Act^ 
 as submitted, without any amendments. 
 
 REMARKS OF HENRY D. HYDE, ESQ. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: 
 
 I will only say a few words, in a narrative form, to show 
 how this matter has come up. Beacon Street, at its present 
 width, has been found to be insufiScient for the public neces¬ 
 sities, and for many years a discussion has been going on as 
 to its being widened. Those of us who live in this com¬ 
 munity and are familiar with the location know that although 
 this is the direct avenue leading out to the West, there never 
 have been any substantial improvements in real estate in that 
 direction. There have never been any means of transporta¬ 
 tion, and within the past twenty-five years hardly a half a 
 dozen houses have been erected upon the line of the avenue 
 in the town of Brookline. While other parts of the town 
 
 have been accommodated bv the steam railroad and the horse 
 
 %/ 
 
 cars, and have grown rapidly, this part of the town has 
 merely held its own for many years. I have lived in Boston* 
 about twenty-five years, and I do not remember of more than 
 two or three houses that I have seen in the course of con¬ 
 struction on that street in the town of Brookline during that 
 
REMARKS OF HENRY D. HYDE, ESQ. 53 
 
 time, and I am informed that there have been hut very few 
 more. 
 
 Now, about a year ago, Mr. Whitney, who has always been 
 a resident in the town since he has lived in this part of the 
 State, became a irood deal interested in this matter, which 
 had been for some time talked of among many public-spirited 
 citizens of the town. It was very evident that nothing could 
 be done if each man, having his own little lot of land, was 
 put in the position of trying to get just as much as he could 
 out of it. There must be the brins^in^ together of a large 
 
 o o o o 
 
 amount of land, or else the price would be run up so high 
 that it would be impossible to secure the land and to carry 
 out the enterprise. 
 
 Now, those of you who are familiar with the location 
 there will remember that Commonwealth Avenue has been 
 extended until it joins Beacon Street, and that it is being so 
 rapidly built upon that there are only scattering lots left, 
 and very soon those will all be occupied. What next shall 
 be done? Shall that beautiful avenue 200 feet wide, with its 
 shade trees and beautiful drive-ways, a joy and a delight to 
 all who come to Boston, and the pride of the State, stop 
 when it comes to Beacon Street, or shall it be carried further 
 West by the further carrying out of the policy which has 
 
 4 
 
 been so profitable to the State and to the city of Boston ? 
 Mr. Whitney made up his mind that if the lands could be 
 brought together, there was an opportunity for the extension 
 of this avenue. Without saying anything to anybody, using 
 his own mone}^, he went to work and bought up very large 
 tracts of land bordering upon the present Beacon Street, and 
 he then invited gentlemen to join him in making a certain 
 proposition to the town. 
 
 d'here were at that time five selectmen, and Mr. lYhitney 
 made a suggestion to them that if such a thing as this were 
 done it would be done for all time, and tlie town would have 
 a magnificent avenue, and that it could have it at a merely 
 nominal expense compared with what it would cost at any 
 other time. The selectmen of the town took the matter u]) 
 and said they would look into it. And they took a good 
 deal of time in looking into it,—what it would be, what the 
 
54 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 grades would be, and what were the possibilities. And 
 finally they said they would take the sense of the town in¬ 
 formally upon it. They said: We will not hold a town 
 meeting in the sense of voting legally upon it, but we will 
 informally take the sense of the town.” Therefore they gave 
 notice on a certain day in mid-summer, last Summer, to all 
 the people of Brookline, that they would like to have them 
 come and express themselves, and con, in regard to the 
 matter,—whether it was a desirable thing for the town to 
 enter upon, or even to further consider. It was not a meet¬ 
 ing at which there was to be any voting, but every man was 
 to have an opportunity to express his opinions. 
 
 Now, at that meeting there came in a petition signed by 
 several hundred of fhe leading people of the town. When I 
 say leading people, I do not speak of them in any sense 
 except as leading tax-payers, but on that petition was placed 
 a great majority of the taxable property of Brookline. 
 Many of the citizens were away at the time, but still there 
 was a large meeting. I was present, and the selectmen said 
 to the citizens, “If you have anything to say, or con, we 
 would like to have you express your sentiments.” There 
 was quite a discussion. This man said his house would be 
 taken, and another said his land would-be taken. “Well,” 
 the selectmen said, “we are not going to move in any haste ; 
 we are not going to disturb anybody ; we only want to get 
 your opinion and then we shall decide what to do about fol¬ 
 lowing the matter up.” The result was that so far as there 
 was any expression that day, it was very largely in favor 
 of the measure. The selectmen felt they were authorized 
 to look into the matter further, in view of what was said 
 and of this petition from so large a number of the tax-payers, 
 representing more than a majority of the tax-paying prop¬ 
 erty in the town. 
 
 And they proceeded to look into it, and engineers ran the 
 lines to find what the fills would be and what the cuts would 
 be. At first this was talked of as an avenue 200 feet wide. 
 The selectmen, meanwhile, were constantty making inquiries, 
 and constantly feeling their way to see whether this was or 
 was not a desirable project. As they began to talk with the 
 
REMARKS OF HENRY D. HYDE, ESQ. 
 
 55 
 
 people who lived on the line of the road, and more or less 
 of whose estates would be taken, some of them came for¬ 
 ward and said, ‘‘ If you make it as wide as you propose, it 
 will ruin my lot. I have got a lot so shaped that I might, 
 perhaps, be willing to give my land for this if you do not 
 take quite so much, for I believe in it, but if I have got to 
 give as much as will be required under this plan, what I have 
 left will not be worth anything. Now, you make it a little 
 less wide and we will favor it.” The. selectmen, after con¬ 
 sulting with these men and taking their views, adopted the 
 plan of 160 feet instead of 200 feet, and that was found to 
 enable many estates to remain of such size as the owners 
 desired, and still to give this beautiful avenue. The result 
 was that finally the plans and the drawings and the estimates 
 were made upon an avenue 160 feet wide. 
 
 Now, everybody knew this was going on. It took some 
 fifteen field men to do it, and anyone driving out there 
 in the pleasant weather of the Autumn would see these men 
 out surveying and running the lines, and seeing how to take 
 upon this side and upon that, and it was a matter of com¬ 
 mon talk in the town. Because, it was going to give Brook¬ 
 line this grand avenue, and people naturally were interested 
 • in it. So it was not a matter that was hid, but was a matter 
 under full discussion. Any gentleman of us who lives in 
 Boston, and who met Brookline people during the Autumn, 
 found they were full of this subject, and were thinking it 
 over and considering it. 
 
 All the while the selectmen were very cautious about ex¬ 
 pressing themselves ; they did not say whether they would 
 or would not favor it, when the time came to decide upon it. 
 They simply said the feeling of the town was such that they 
 believed it was their duty to look into the matter, and get 
 the figures, and lay them before the town. Well, the re¬ 
 turns were made by the field men, and, after they were 
 brought together, knowing how often estimates do over-run, 
 I personally went down, and saw the engineers, and made a 
 verification of their figures in a variety of ways. For exam¬ 
 ple, I said, “Are you sure as to the amount of earth you 
 
50 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 will have to remove?” “Yes, we know our estimates are 
 snle ; we will guarantee our figures are right.” “ How as 
 to the eost; how have you figured that, and what steps have 
 you taken with contractors to verify your figures?” “ Yes; 
 we have gone over everything.” And it is a thing which is 
 easily verified. There is no rock cutting, practically, on the 
 whole line ; it is nothing but earth, and we know very well 
 Avhat the cost is of movins^ earth in road construction and in 
 railroad construction. It is so much a cubic foot or cubic 
 yard, and there is not much difficulty, when you know the 
 nature of the soil, in telling what it will cost to move it. 
 And the nature of the soil is well known there ; there is, 
 practically, no rock cutting, but it is so much filling and so 
 much levelling. The engineers, therefore, allowed a large 
 percentage for margin, and then handed in their figures. I 
 have had some experience with such figures, and I believe 
 the town of Brookline can rely on them. I do not believe 
 there is any sensible man in the town, certainly no selectman 
 or any man who has gone over the matter at all, who can 
 examine the figures that Messrs. Lincoln and Aspinwall have 
 made, without coming to the conclusion that it is safe to act 
 on them. 
 
 The [)rincipal question is that of land damages. When a 
 thing of this sort is started it is soon in the air; everybody 
 sees it is desirable, and a man who owns a piece of land 
 immediately puts a fancy price upon it, and before the time 
 for laying out the road has come, the land has advanced so 
 that the damages claimed are enormous. And we must bear 
 in mind that we are not dealing here with a locality in which 
 land is i>:iven awav, but where all the land even now has a 
 large value. The serious question with the selectmen, there¬ 
 fore, was. What shall be done about the land damages? They 
 said, “We are not going to lay this road out and let every¬ 
 body come in for damages afterwards. We are going to find 
 out what it is ffoin^ to cost for damaofes, as far as we can, 
 before we take any further steps.” So they came to the 
 AVest End Land Company, which owned nearly half the 
 frontage, and said, “Will you give your land for this pur- 
 
i; EM AUKS OF HENRY D. HYDE, ESQ. 
 
 57 
 
 pose?” Mr. 'Whitney said they would. “Well,” the se¬ 
 lectmen replied, “while we are willing to take your word, 
 and that would be sufficient for us, yet we want it fixed so 
 that if you should die no possible question could arise, and 
 Ave shall insist that you convey or release in Avriting to the 
 town all land damages, and all slopes and everything of the 
 kind, and that the town be allowed a proper time in Avhich 
 to do the work.” The result is that deeds Avere given to the 
 town for about one-half of all the land required on the entire 
 length of the road on both sides. The agreements expire 
 next July. If the toAvn lays out the way before next Jul}" 
 all this land Avill be given free ; and, of course, if the toAA n 
 does not lay it out, the land goes back to the owners. 
 
 And you Avill remember Avhat Mr. Cutting said in this 
 connection. I do not knoAA" hoAV many of the committee 
 know Mr. Cotting, but he is one of the largest representa¬ 
 tives of trust propert}" in the city of Boston. He represents 
 the large David Sears estate, the HemmenAvays, the Fifty 
 Associates, the Amos Lawrence estate, and an immense 
 amount of property. He and parties he represents have a 
 large interest in land upon this avenue. Their land is the 
 highest price land upon it, and unless they would give re¬ 
 leases to the town the selectmen said they Avould not feel 
 authorized to recommend the toAvn to proceed. Their land 
 commences at St. Mary’s Street, near the Boston line, and 
 runs out half a mile, and is already valuable, Avorth, say, a 
 dollar a foot. Will these people give their land? Avas the 
 next question. And Mr. Cotting Avent to Avork Avith Mr. 
 Meredith, a Avell knoAvn real estate agent, and they obtained 
 the giving of that land by the different families interested, 
 and deeds have been filed Avith the toAvn for acceptance before 
 the first of July. 
 
 And then there Avere Jordan & Marsh, Avho OAAmed a large 
 tract of land on the line of the road. Mr. Marsh Avas dead ; 
 but Mr. Jordan said he Avould, and Mr. Hutchins, of 
 Hutchins & Mffieeler, representing them, said they Avould 
 give their deeds to the toAvn. So noAv I think four-fifths of 
 the land has been oriven to the toAvn, and the remainino- one- 
 
58 
 
 liEACON STREET IMPROVEME^’T. 
 
 fifth is owned by people who have not yet been able to 
 answer. One gentleman sent me word night before last, 
 representing a large number of. heirs out of the city, that in 
 a day or two he expected to have the paper signed releasing 
 their land to the town. He is one of the leading; business 
 men in Boston, and his wife is one of the heirs. Every man 
 has been asked to say whether he would give his land or 
 not, and if he would not give it, what would he take for it. 
 It is now narrowed down to a very few people who have 
 declined to give their land or take a reasonable sum for it. 
 If a man has a house and lot, and if he gave his land would 
 have nothing left, nobody expects him to give it. All we 
 ask of him is to settle at a fair price. 
 
 The selectmen have been so careful and diligjent, they 
 have been at work upon it all the Fall and early Winter, that 
 they have now got this down to a point where there is not a 
 possible chance that the town will have to pay heavy land 
 damages. I don’t care how many juries there are, I do not 
 believe that by taking what land remains to be taken the 
 town can get any large amount on its hands. In all my ex¬ 
 perience with such matters I have never seen a body of men 
 Avho have been so diligent and cautious as this Board of 
 Selectmen has been. If we asked an5^ questions as to what 
 they proposed ultimately to do, they would never tell us, 
 but they would simply say, “We want to know that the 
 town will be protected before we will express any opinion 
 about it.” Finally, when the lands, so far as they could 
 then be obtained, had been obtained, they had a meeting, 
 and they had a full board in attendance. There were at first 
 five selectmen, but one resigned afterwards, and that left 
 four, and the four brought the matter before the town. 
 
 But now I must go back a little, and consider another 
 matter for a moment. The first thought in connection with 
 this improvement was that some provision must be made for 
 transportation. Three years ago the people of Brighton 
 and the people of Brookline united in a petition to the 
 Metropolitan Railroad Company for railroad facilities giving 
 direct communication with Boston, but they did not obtain 
 
J{E3IAliKS or IIEXKY D. HYDE, ESQ. 
 
 59 
 
 them. The selectmen of Brookline, therefore, when this 
 matter came up, said that if this avenue was to be built and 
 so many people were coming out there, some means must be 
 provided for their transportation. Two hearing were given 
 by the selectmen upon the subject, and at the conclusion of 
 the heariims the selectmen <?ave to the West End Railroad 
 Company a location along Beacon Street in the town of 
 Brookline, but upon this condition: They said, “We are 
 not going to give you a location to go trading around on, 
 but you must sign an obligation that you will actually build 
 the road within twelve months,” and the company did. The 
 selectmen tied the railway company by a personal contract, 
 as no other railroad corporation ever was tied, saying: 
 “We are not going to give you something that is not going 
 to be used for the benefit of the town, and unless you sign 
 an obligation to build this road, you shall not have a loca¬ 
 tion.” And the obligation was signed that the parties would 
 build the road. 
 
 After having done all this, having spent so much time in 
 investigation, and having taken six months to confer with 
 the people of the town, the selectmen thought they were 
 
 m 
 
 ready to go forward and lay out the.road, after which the 
 matter would come before the town meeting for approval. 
 And then the question came up,—this being a county way, 
 and as the plan proposed widening it in some places on one 
 side and in some on the other, and thus in a sense shifting 
 the location,—how far the town had control over it, whether 
 they had all the authority that was necessary to do that and 
 assess betterments. That raised a novel question. Since 
 the county laid the road out the town has always dealt with 
 it as a townway, making all the repairs and doing all that 
 has been done to it, and the county never has had anything* 
 to do with it since it turned it over. Eminent legal authori¬ 
 ties held that the town had full authority, but, with the 
 extreme caution which has characterized them throughout 
 this entire matter, the selectmen said, “We don’t want to 
 enter into a project which is going to involve us in litigation 
 with our own people, and we want this done in a way so it 
 
60 
 
 BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 shall be legal, and so we shall have no question about it; and 
 we don’t want to have to go into court, the first shovel-full 
 of earth we dig, and have the question decided there of 
 whether this is a town or a county way. We are going to 
 proceed cautiously, as we have from the first, and we are 
 going to the Legislature and ask them to declare that this is 
 a townway, and that we have the same rights over it that we 
 do over any other town way.” 
 
 And all the town asks here, gentlemen, is that the Legis¬ 
 lature will declare that Beacon Street in the town of Brook¬ 
 line is a town way, and then the town will have a right to 
 deal Avith it. Tlnit is a common risfht of the citizens of the 
 
 O 
 
 towns all over the CommonAA^ealth. And it is an inherent- 
 right, because, about the first thing a man wants after the 
 riofht to liv^e, is the ri^ht to 2:0 someAvhere. Massachusetts 
 gives her people free highways, and to each town the 
 ■authority, within its own limits, to determine what highways 
 are necessaiy for the convenience and use of the citizens, 
 they paying the bills. Now, all they ask here is that this 
 committee Avill report to the Legislature this Act, and that 
 the Legislature will pass it, giving them the control of this 
 ns a toAvnway. It is wholly Avithin their limits, and they are 
 paying the bills themselves; they don’t ask the countA" to 
 pay anything. 
 
 Now, irrespective of the gentlemen who are associated 
 with him, Mr. Whitney has been very much interested in 
 this project as a public-spirited citizen. He believed that 
 nfter he aa'rs gone, and his children and his grand-children 
 would have taken his place, this avenue would be such a 
 magnificent public benefit, that people would remember with 
 gratitude anybody who had been instrumental in giving it to 
 them. He became so much interested in it, that one day, 
 when somebodA^ came in before the Board of Selectmen and 
 
 ft/ 
 
 began to talk about having to pay more faxes, ^Ir. AVhitney 
 .said, “I will tell you what I will do. I am a citizen of 
 Brookline; my fiither liA^ed and died here and I expect to 
 live and die here, also ; I loA^e this town, and I will give you, 
 out of my own pocket, $100,000 for the construction of this 
 
REMARKS OF HENRY D. HYDE, ESQ. 
 
 61 
 
 iivenue.” It was a most munificent ofter, and he stands 
 today pledged to it. Of course the citizens have thanked 
 him aofain and ao^ain for it, but it will be remembered lon^ after 
 they are gone, and his name and memory will be connected 
 with this avenue as lon^ as it shall last. This is somethino' 
 entirely aside from his associates. It is an offer made by 
 him personally, as a citizen of Brookline, and made in the 
 spirit which I have stated. 
 
 If there has been anything that has been carefully con¬ 
 sidered in Brookline of late years, if there has been anything 
 that the town has been united in, it has been this project. 
 Mr. Atkinson has been at two or three of the meetimys 
 and has taken the same position he has here. Every citizen 
 has a right to favor or oppose any matter that comes before 
 him, but it is certainly his duty to attend the town meetings, 
 and it may happen, as it has in this case, that men who 
 are at first opposed to a project, when they come to hear 
 it discussed will change their minds and be in favor of it. 
 Some people always feel cautious about things, some peo¬ 
 ple are always conservative in their tendencies, and some 
 people have habits of objecting. I will say frankly, I 
 am not a citizen of Brookline, but Brookline has a great 
 reputation on the town meeting question. There is no other 
 town in the Commonwealth where there is such a large atten¬ 
 dance at the town meetings, and where there is such a full 
 discussion of questions. Mr. Atkinson said people some¬ 
 times get tired out before a vote is reached, and that may be 
 true, but there is a free and full discussion. They discuss 
 everything. If there is a town in the Commonwealth that 
 can safely be left to manage its own affairs, it is the town of 
 Brookline. There are always people there ready enough to 
 let fly at somebod}^ else, whenever they can get a chance. 
 There is a great deal of independence there. Nobody con¬ 
 trols that town, and nobody undertakes to, and everyliody 
 knows that if a matter comes up in town meeting it is bound 
 to be discussed. There is no choking it off. There is pre¬ 
 sented there, perhaps, the best exponent of the old-fashioned 
 town meeting, in the freest and fullest sense, that can be 
 
62 
 
 BEACOX STliEET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 found in the Commonwealth, certainly in any town as large 
 as that. The meetings are held in the evenings, so that all 
 the citizens can attend, and things are fully discussed. 
 
 Therefore, I believe you Avill be perfectly safe in granting 
 what has been asked for here by the selectmen, represented 
 by Mr. Williams, who has carefully draAvn this bill; and, 
 furthermore, I belicA^e you will go outside of one of the 
 traditions of the Commonwealth and of its law-makers, if 
 
 vou refuse to allow the town to control these matters which 
 
 «/ 
 
 are AAnthin its own limits. And when they come here and 
 ask you to put them in such a Ava}" that they shall not be 
 iiiAmlA'ed in any legal intricacies, but that they shall haA^e 
 plain sailing all the AA^a}^ through, so that every man who 
 ofiA^es his land shall knoAV he is ^roino: to have the benefit of 
 the* avenue, so that CA^ery man whose land is taken shall 
 know it is legally taken and he shall be paid for it, and so 
 that every man who builds a house upon the avenue shall 
 know he will ha\"e transportion to and from the city, I 
 believe you should grant their petition, and give the town 
 the control of this matter that they ask for. I know it is 
 the wish of the toAvn, and the sentiment of the whole com¬ 
 munity today is in favor of the widening of this street. 
 
 Mr. Williams. I have only a word or tAvo to say, and 
 before saying it I should like to put a question to Mr. James. 
 It will only take a moment, and inasmuch as the course of 
 the selectmen has been attacked by one or two of the remon¬ 
 strants, I think I ought to call them. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF HORACE JAMES. 
 
 Q. (By Mr. Williams.) You are a member of the 
 Board of Selectmen? A. I am. 
 
 Q. When Avere you first on the board? A. I was 
 elected first in 1867, twenty years ago. 
 
 Q. How many years have you been ofi* since that? A. 
 Three. 
 
 Q. Hoav many streets have you laid out in toAAUi. A. 
 About fiftA^ 
 
TESTIMONY OF HORACE JAMES. 
 
 63 
 
 Q. How many have you constructed under the orders of 
 the county commissioners in addition to those fifty? A. 
 About a dozen. We have widened and altered nearly all the 
 county ways, except Beacon Street, and perhaps we have 
 made some alterations in Beacon Street, which were not by 
 order of the county commissioners, however. 
 
 Q. I will ask you whether or not the details of the prac¬ 
 tical construction of these fifty or sixty roads have fallen to 
 you while you have been a member of the board? A. To a 
 certain extent. 
 
 Q. Do you think the board have taken proper precau¬ 
 tion to investigate this subject and inform the town with 
 regard to it? A. I do. I don’t think, but I know. 
 
 Q. Mr. Aspinwall, of Messrs. Aspinwall & Lincoln, is 
 the son of the gentleman who has testified here? A. Yes, 
 sir. 
 
 Q. (By the Committee.) On what proportion of this 
 proposed avenue have the claims for land and grade damages 
 been actually released to the town? A. I think on about 
 three-quarters. 
 
 Q. And the estimate of the selectmen, of $264,000 for 
 land damages, refers to what proportion of the length of the 
 road? A. About a quarter part, perhaps. 
 
 CLOSING ARGUMENT OF MOSES WILLIAMS, ESQ. 
 
 In closing this case for the town, I am not going to discuss 
 the main question. I wish to speak especially with regard 
 to the amendments which are proposed here to the bill which 
 is offered by the selectmen. I do not consider that the first 
 amendment is within the purview of the vote of the town. 
 It does not seern to me it js what the town voted that the 
 selectmen should ask for here, and therefore I pass that by ; 
 although I think there are practical objections to it, which 
 would be sufficient reason for rejecting it, independently of 
 the vote of the town. 
 
 I would state that I appear here simply and solel}' 
 for the selectmen. I have refused retainers in aid of the 
 project, I have also refused to be emplo^^ed against it. I 
 simply represent the selectmen, and have no other connec¬ 
 tion in any way with the enterprise; no stock in the railroad 
 
1)4 . BEACON STREET IMPROVEMENT. 
 
 company, ancV no connection Mnth it or with any land upon 
 the proposed avenue. I have been from the first a believer 
 in the enterprise, if it could be carried out at a proper cost. 
 I have stated that I signed the original petition, and have 
 made ho secret of that, but beyond that I have no connec¬ 
 tion in any v^ay with the enterprise. 
 
 Mr. Hyde referred to the fact that some months had 
 passed before any suggestion was made that any legislation 
 was necessary in regard to this matter, Judge Hoar hav¬ 
 ing given an opinion that the town had authority to proceed. 
 That is true. It is also true that my opinion was not asked 
 with regard to it until just before the time when the to\vn 
 took action. At that time, at the request of the selectmen, 
 I investigated the subject. I then talked with Judge Hoar, 
 who happened to be an old and intimate friend of mine, 
 and with Mr. Hyde and Mr. Drew, and with other gentlemen 
 who had investigated the matter, and they all agreed, I think, 
 without exception, when they heard the matters I suggested, 
 that it would be safer to apply for a special Act to enable the 
 town to carry out this great public improvement, rather than 
 to place any weapons in the hands of the parties who had 
 refused to "ive their land, which would enable them to extort 
 lar^e damages out of the town. This Act is intended to be 
 an Act for the prompt settlement of this matter with the 
 minimum of cost to the town of Brookline, and in that view 
 I must object to these amendments. 
 
 It is perfectly true that it has been held in one case by 
 the Supreme Court, as my brother AYhite said, that a town 
 can make a conditional acceptance of a way. The first case 
 which Mr. Rufus Choate ever argued determines that 
 question, the case of Jones v. Andover, 4 Pickering. But 
 while it may be expedient for a little town in the country to 
 vote to lay out a road costing $500, providing it did not 
 cost any more than that, it is very unwise to apply such a 
 doctrine to this great improvement, which is to run along 
 over several miles, and which is to cost between $300,000 
 and $400,000. And I believe if such a clause as this were 
 put in here, that “ such expenditure shall in no case exceed 
 the appropriation made therefor at such meeting, and all 
 
CLOSING AKGUMENT OF MOSES WILLIAMS, ESQ. 
 
 65 
 
 contracts made for expenditures beyond the said appropria¬ 
 tion shall be void,” the town’s interest might very seriously 
 suffer, because the town might be prevented from expending 
 a little more money than at first contemplated, and thus 
 getting the benefit of the betterments. It is very obvious 
 that the betterment arising from a thoroughly constructed 
 and finished avenue, such as is proposed, is one thing, and 
 that the betterment arising from such a work partly done 
 and then stopped, is another. In my judgment you may by 
 this amendment compel the town to limit its betterments to 
 such as may arise from a partially constructed street. 
 
 The only other point is the objection Mr. Blume made in 
 the interest of one of the abutters who did not want the time 
 extended. No valid reason was shown for it. I think it is 
 obviously just and right that if these parties are to have the 
 enormous benefit from this improvement, they should pay 
 their share of the cost, when other gentlemen along the line 
 of the road have given their land. If these gentlemen are 
 coming in to collect their damages, we ought certainly to 
 have a right within three years to ►go to the Court, or if they 
 take us before a jury, to show to the jury that they have re¬ 
 ceived a very large benefit, and that they ought to pay their 
 proportionate share of the cost. I think it is very important 
 that the matter should be dealt with as promptly as possible 
 by the Legislature. The whole matter will be before the 
 town, and it ought to be left without any amendment. 
 
 Mr. Geokge Griggs. I would like to ask the counsel 
 for the town whether, if the bill passes in the shape in 
 which it now is, the selectmen will be confined in their lay¬ 
 ing out of the road to this particular plan, or whether it can 
 be modified to the extent of varying a few feet or a few 
 rods one way or the other. 
 
 Mr. Williams. I would say I am perfectly clear in the 
 opinion that it can be modified in any way the selectmen and 
 the town may see fit. The suggestion has been made to me 
 . that we usually have our annual meeting in March, and that 
 that is a strong additional reason for prompt action in this 
 matter by the Legislature, in order that the town may call 
 it up and settle it before the regular routine business of the 
 town is in order. 
 
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