516 



MARYLAND. 



To add a new section to the code relating to plead- 

 ing, practice, and process. 



To add a section to the general laws relating to 

 specific enforcements of contracts. 



Relating to setting of pound nets in Elk, Sassafras, 

 and Bohemia rivers and their tributaries, in Cecil 

 County. 



To add a section to the general laws, title, " Plead- 

 ings," sub-title " Judgments in detinne and re- 

 plevin." 



To amend general laws relating to insolvents. 



To provide for the further publication of the ar- 

 chives of Maryland by the Maryland Historical So- 

 ciety. 



Relating to compensation of witnesses. 



To add a new section to the general law relating to 

 crimes and punishment. 



To amend charter of Agricultural and Mechanical 

 Association of Washington County. 



To protect game in Cecil County. 



To provide for payments of wages and salaries due 

 employe's of insolvent employers. 



To protect pheasants and partridges in Frederick 

 County. 



To incorporate the Church of the United Brethren 

 in Christ. 



Amending and re-enacting the liquor-law relating 

 to licenses. 



To prohibit the use of car-stoves on steam railroads 

 after May, 1890. 



To incorporate the town of Berlin, Worcester 

 County. 



Authorizing Dorchester County Commissioners to 

 build a bridge on Transquekin river. 



Abolishing distress for rent in Baltimore city, and 

 substituting ejectment in lieu thereof. 



To make valid deeds, mortgages, bonds of convey- 

 ances, and bills of sale. 



Providing for punishment of minors guilty of 

 felony. 



Regulating the practice of medicine. 



Requiring insurance companies to have $5,000 stock 

 and to bond financial officers. 



To permit creditors of insolvents to be represented 

 by attorneys at creditors' meetings. 



To punish false pretenses in obtaining certificates of 

 registration of cattle and other animals. 



To protect fish in the waters of Washington County. 



To repeal the charter of the Baltimore and Ohio 

 Relief Association. 



To authorize the Mayor and City Council of Bal- 

 timore to subscribe to the erection of a monument to 

 Francis Scott Key. 



To incorporate the Cremation Company of Balti- 

 more. 



Appropriations. Among the items in the gen- 

 eral appropriation bill are the following : Mili- 

 tia, 1889, $50,000; 1890, $40,000; pensions, 

 $520 ; schools, $500,000 ; school fund, $34,069 ; 

 schools, academies, and colleges, $44,500 ; 

 Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Frederick, $25,- 

 000; St. Mary's Industrial School, $15,000; 

 Female House of Refuge, $3,000; Maryland 

 Institute for Deaf, Dumb, and Blind, $7,000; 

 Maryland Agricultural College, $5 (equal to 

 no appropriation) ; indigent blind, $15,000 ; 

 House of Correction, $25,000 ; House of Ref- 

 uge, $15,000 ; House of Reformation and In- 

 stitution (colored children), $10,000; Insane 

 Hospital, $20,000 ; additional buildings for 

 same, $7,500. Total for 1889, $1,535,917; for 

 1890, $1,670,692, against $1,607,582 for 1887 

 and $1,711,392 for 1888, which shows a reduc- 

 tion of $112,365 in the appropriations for 1889 

 and 1890 compared with 1887 and 1888. The 



militia, which received $50,000 in 1887 and 

 $30,000 in 1888, will receive in 1889 $50,000, 

 and in 1890 $40,000. The interest on the 

 public debt in 1887 and 1888 was $600,000 

 each year, while in 1889 and 1890 it will be 

 but $575,000 each year. 



Changes in Tax-Laws. The Maryland Tax 

 Commission, in its report to the General As- 

 sembly, says: 



The most undue burden and severest inequality 

 Buffered by the people of this State are those which 

 arise from the unjust discrimination made in favor of 

 the railroad corporations. Unfortunately, $250,000 of 

 the $400,000 a year which the railroads ought iustly 

 to pay to the State, are intrenched behind charter 

 and contract exemptions claimed to be irrepealable. 

 The charter of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Com- 

 pany provided that " the shares of capital stock of the 

 said company shall be deemed and considered per- 

 sonal estate, and shall be exempt from the imposition 

 of any tax or burden by the State assenting to this 

 law." Our Court of Appeals subsequently enlarged 

 this exemption by holding that the exemption of the 

 shares of stock from taxation carried with it the ex- 

 emption of the property and franchises of the com- 

 pany, and that, under the Constitution of the United 

 btates, this exemption is irrepealable. It seems pe- 

 culiarly unfortunate that an exemption which, by its 

 terms, applied to the shares of stock in the hands of 

 the individual stockholders was thus held to extend 

 to the franchises and property, including real estate, 

 held bv the corporation in its capacity as a legal en- 

 tity. The case of the exemption of the Northern 

 Central Railway is still more flagrant than that of the 

 Baltimore and Ohio, and has less show of legality or 

 right. The part of this road which lies in Maryland 

 was formerly the Baltimore and Susquehanna Rail- 

 road, which was chartered hi 18'27, witli the same ex- 

 emption, word for word, as that contained in the 

 charter of the Baltimore and Ohio. We recommend 

 that a gross-receipts tax be imposed upon telegraph 

 companies at the rate of 2 per cent. ; and 3 per cent, 

 upon telephone, express, title-insurance, safety de- 

 posit and trust companies, parlor-car and sleeping- 

 car companies ; and 1 per cent, on domestic insurance 

 companies, leaving the tax as at present, 1 i per cent. 

 on the gross receipts of foreign insurance companies. 

 These taxes will, of course, be in addition to the tax 

 measured by the companies' dividend^ 



A new bill, drawn by Prof. Richard T. Ely, 

 was submitted with this report to the Legis- 

 lature. 



Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The management 

 of this canal was the subject of much discus- 

 sion in the Legislature. A delegation from 

 Baltimore, including representatives from the 

 commercial organizations, urged the passage 

 of a bill permitting its lease. The Western 

 Maryland Railroad Company has offered to 

 take it at a rental of $45,000, and a bill was 

 presented to the Legislature to that effect, but 

 it failed to pass. 



Political. The Democratic State Convention 

 was held in Baltimore on May 11, and after 

 choosing electors adopted a platform, of which 

 the following are important items: 



National taxation ought to be limited to the aggre- 

 gate annual sum needed for the following purposes, 

 namely : The interest on the public debt, with ade- 

 quate annual provision for the payment of the princi- 

 pal of that debt at maturity ; for the payment of pen- 

 sions granted by the United States, and to provide 

 the means for all necessary expenses of an economic- 

 ally administered government. 



