MARYLAND. 



519 



or national, banking associations, or other 

 incorporated institutions or companies incor- 

 porated under the authority of the State, or 

 located and doing business therein, whose 

 shares of capital stock are liable to assessment 

 and taxation by the laws of the State. He is 

 also required to perform all the duties in ref- 

 erence thereto which have heretofore devolved 

 by law upon the Comptroller; to report the 

 assessment of such shares of the capital stock 

 to the Comptroller, subject to appeal and re- 

 vision ; also to report the amount of the basis 

 of assessment for State purposes in the several 

 counties and the city of Baltimore, with his 

 suggestions in regard to the same, to the Gen- 

 eral Assembly at each regular session thereof. 

 The appropriations made to the various char- 

 itable, educational, and other institutions, for 

 the nine months of the fiscal year ending Sep- 

 tember 30, 1878, were as follows : to the Deaf 

 and Dumb Asylum, $18,750; to St. Mary's 

 Industrial School, $6,000; to the Maryland 

 Industrial School for Girls, $2,250; to the 

 Maryland Agricultural College, $4,500; to the 

 Board of Directors of the Maryland Institution 

 for the Instruction of the Blind, $11,250; for 

 the education of the deaf, dumb, and blind 

 colored children of the State, $6,375 ; to the 

 Lying-in Hospital for Indigent Women, $2,250 ; 

 to the House of Refuge, $11,025 ; to the House 

 of Reformation and Instruction for Colored 

 Children, $7,500; to the Managers of the 

 Maryland Hospital for the Insane, $11,250; to 

 the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of 

 the Mechanic Arts, $2,250 ; for heating and 

 cooling apparatus, water-supply, cisterns and 

 drains, gas-supply, and furniture for the House 

 of Correction, $74,000 ; for the support of the 

 Maryland Penitentiary, $7,500 ; to the several 

 counties of the State and the city of Baltimore 

 for the support of the public schools, white and 

 colored, and for the State Normal School and 

 the State Board of Education, $375,000, and 

 such other sums as may be received to the 

 credit of the free-school fund from tax on the 

 circulation of banks and from the interest on 

 stock standing to the credit of said fund, togeth- 

 er with the sum of $34,069.36 to be placed to 

 the credit of the free-school fund, provided that 

 the sum of $25,000 of the receipts for public- 

 school tax shall be distributed for colored 

 schools, after deducting the amount payable to 

 the Colored Normal School, and the balance for 

 white schools, the State Normal School for 

 whites, and the State Board of Education. 

 There was also appropriated $575,000 for in- 

 terest on the public debt. The amount of the 

 annual tax for 1878 was 18| cents on each 

 $100. It was assessed for the following pur- 

 poses : 5 cents to meet the interest and create 

 a sinking fund for the redemption of the defense 

 or bounty loan ; three-fourths of a cent to meet 

 the interest and create a sinking fund for the re- 

 demption of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum loan ; 

 1 cent to meet the interest and create a sink- 

 ing fund for the redemption of the Maryland 



Hospital loan; 10 cents to aid in the support 

 of the public schools, to be distributed among 

 the several counties and the city of Baltimore ; 

 and 1 cent to meet the interest and create a 

 sinking fund for the redemption of the Trea- 

 sury Relief loan. The early completion of a 

 branch canal from the Chesapeake and Ohio 

 Canal to the city of Baltimore was regarded 

 as a matter of great importance to the pecu- 

 niary and material interests of the State and 

 of the city. To advance its construction at a 

 moderate cost, the Managers of the House of 

 Correction were authorized to hire to the Canal 

 Company such able-bodied convicts as the com- 

 pany might desire, and to receive in payment 

 for their services the stock of the company. 



An act for the prevention of cruelty to ani- 

 mals was also adopted. Another act author- 

 ized the appointment of Commissioners to ad- 

 just and settle the boundary line between the 

 States of Maryland and West Virginia. An- 

 other act creates an Insurance Department and 

 provides for the appointment of an Insurance 

 Commissoner, who shall hold his office for four 

 years. 



A memorial about three hundred feet in 

 length, weighing fifty pounds, and containing 

 about ten thousand signatures, was presented 

 to the Legislature on February 19th, in oppo- 

 sition to a local-option law. One portion of 

 the memorial is worthy of notice : it sets forth 

 the magnitude of the interest involved in the 

 selling of liquor. It says : 



The taxable capital invested by liquor dealers in 

 the city and State approximates $12,000,000 ; the 

 breweries in the State are worth $8,000,000 ; our ho- 

 tels, whose liquor trade amounts to $500,000 per an- 

 num, and without which they would not prove re- 

 munerative investments, and would have to be aban- 

 doned, represent another $5,000,000. Saloons repre- 

 sent another $5,000,000. The grocery trade depends 

 to-day, to a very great extent, on the sale of wines 

 and liquors, these sales aggregating over $2,000,000 

 annually. The various others to-be affected, such 

 as the drug and canned-goods trade, and tobacco 

 manufacturers, will feel the pull at their purse- 

 strings, while they swell the fisrures $10,000,000 more. 

 The maltsters have $2,500,000 invested. Thus, in 

 dealing with those directly to be affected, we find a 

 basis for taxation of over $60,000,000, netting the 

 State at the present rate (17+ cents on the $100) over 

 $100,000, which will prove a loss to the State's ex- 

 chequer, besides $150.000 at present derived from 

 license fees, making the loss over $250,000, which 

 alone would raise taxation 6 cents on the $100, with- 

 out taking into consideration the decline in that class 

 of property now occupied by the liquor men and the 

 loss from trade in general. This would increase 

 the tax rate 25 cents on the $100. In addition to 

 this, over 20,000 legal voters and tax-payers, many 

 with' families to support, would be thrown out of 

 employment and add to the already large number of 

 the idle. The loss to the city of Baltimore by thus 

 reducing her taxable basis $50,000,000 will raise her 

 taxation rate from $1.75 to $2.25, and the counties 

 will be affected in the same proportion. The capaci- 

 ty of our distilleries is 4,000 bushels of grain per 

 day, and the average consumption 2,000 bushels, 

 equal to 600,000 bushels per annum. Our breweries 

 mash 500,000 bushels of malt and barley per year, 

 and 5,000 bales of hops. What will be the result of 

 driving from our State these great consumers of 



