MARYLAND. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



571 



Resolved, That while we recognize the duty of the 

 State to provide means by which those confined in our 

 penal and reformatory institutions, particularly the 

 young, should be taught trades by which they may 

 earn a livelihood and become useful citizens when 

 they return to society, we declare that the employ- 

 ment of convict-labor under the contract system, in 

 competition with the labor of honet men, is unjust 

 and demoralizing, and should be prohibited by law. 



Resolved, That we are in favor of such a modifica- 

 tion of our Constitution and laws as shall restrict the 

 aggregate amount of bonded debt which any county 

 or city within the State shall contract to some small 

 percentage of the assessed value of the property with- 

 in the same. 



Resolved, That the colored schools of the State are 

 entitled to the same care, supervision, and financial 

 support as the white schools. 



Resolved, That the first duty of every true son of 

 Maryland, at this period of her history, is to secure 

 the complete overthrow of the corrupt ring, by means 

 of which, one man rules as with a rod of iron the 

 Democratic party of the State, and through that party 

 subordinates the interests of the State and the people 

 to his own selfish purposes. 



The Democratic State Convention met on 

 the 16th of September, and nominated J. Frank 

 Turner for Comptroller, and Spencer 0. Jones 

 for Clerk of the Court of Appeals. The fol- 

 lowing are the more noteworthy resolutions: 



The larger part of these men [Republican office- 

 holders] obtained their places before the passage of 

 the Civil-Service Act of 1883, as rewards for par- 

 tisan services to particular Republican leaders. An- 

 other portion, appointed since that year, owed their 

 places to their selection for political reasons, by 

 Republican superior officers from lists of candidates 

 supplied by Republican examiners, examining boards, 

 and special examining boards. They would not 

 have been appointed to, or kept in office, under 

 any rightly constructed or administered system of 

 civil service. They ought not to be allowed to re- 

 main parts of a Democratic administration. A civil- 

 service system which permitted such appointments, 

 or which can be so managed as to secure the retention 

 of such incumbents, requires speedy and radical re- 

 form. 



The existence of a great army of subordinate Fed- 

 eral office-holders, each holding his place by a per- 

 manent tenure, is not to be desired. When changes 

 of administration occur, these fixed stipendiaries ob- 

 struct heads of departments and superior officers, with 

 whom they do not sympathize in opinion, and prove 

 great obstacles to administrative reforms. The for- 

 mation of such a body, we believe, is in opposition to 

 the letter and spirit of our Federal Constitution, and 

 to the settled convictions of a people loving demo- 

 cratic institutions. 



The fitness of men to serve their country as subor- 

 dinate public officers ought to be tested in such man- 

 ner and under such regulations as Congress may deem 

 best adapted to ascertain it. Their tenure of office 

 ought to depend upon their actual, or continued, fit- 

 ness to perform official duties. During such time as they 

 may remain public officers they ought to be left free 

 to perform the political duties ot a citizen in such man- 

 ner as their individual convictions may dictate, pro- 

 vided, in so doing, they do^ not neglect their official 

 labor or violate the proprieties of public or official life. 

 They ought not to be assessed for any political pur- 

 poses, but should be left wholly free to use their 

 means in such proper manner as they may prefer. 

 These fundamental principles are the true basis of 

 any just theory of civil- service reform. They have, 

 in effect, been totally disregarded by the Republican 

 party and those whom it placed in power. 



At the election on Nov. 3, the Democratic 

 ticket was successful. The vote for Comptrol- 



ler was as follows : Democratic, 102,912 ; Re- 

 publican, 72,304 ; Prohibition, 1,903. The Sen- 

 ate of 1886, with one vacancy, consists of 21 

 Democrats, 4 Republicans. The House has 79 

 Democrats, 10 Republicans, 1 Fusionist. 



Baltimore. The election for mayor and mem- 

 bers of the City Council occurred on Oct. 28. 

 Two tickets were in the field, one supported by 

 the regular Democrats, and the other by the 

 Republicans and by Democrats dissatisfied with 

 the party management in city and State affairs. 

 The Democrats nominated for mayor, James 

 Hodges, a merchant, and the Independents, 

 Chief Judge George W. Brown. The Inde- 

 pendents had large hopes of success, but the 

 Democrats had control of the election machin- 

 ery and carried their ticket through. Hodges 

 received 30,888 votes, and Brown 28,664 ; ma- 

 jority, 2,225. The first branch of the Council 

 has 13 Democrats and 7 Independents; the 

 second branch, 6 Democrats and 4 Independ- 

 ents. On Nov. 3 the people of the city voted 

 for sheriff and other officers. The Democratic 

 ticket was successful by a plurality of 10,000. 



MASSACHUSETTS. State Government. The fol- 

 lowing were the State officers during the year: 

 Governor, George D. Robinson, Republican; 

 Lieutenant-Governor, Oliver Ames; Secretary 

 of State, Henry B. Peirce ; Treasurer, Daniel 

 A. Gleason ; Attorney - General, Edgar J. 

 Sherman; Auditor, Charles R. Ladd. Judi- 

 ciary, Supreme Court: Chief-Justice, Marcus 

 Morton ; Associate Justices, Walbridge A. 

 Field, Charles Devens, William Allen, Charles 

 Allen, Waldo Colburn, and O. W. Holmes, Jr. 



Legislative Session. The Legislature met on 

 Jan. 7 and adjourned on June 19. Its work 

 is represented by 387 acts and 81 resolves. 

 Perhaps the most important of the bills af- 

 fecting the capital of the State is that which 

 amends the charter of the city so radically as 

 to make almost a new instrument of it. By this 

 act, the power of the City Council is reduced 

 to the exercise of purely legislative functions, 

 and the mayor is made in fact, as well as in 

 name, the executive magistrate, the only limita- 

 tion placed upon his authority being that his 

 appointments must be confirmed by the Board 

 of Aldermen. As a result of the same causes 

 which led to the charter bill, that to limit the 

 debt and taxation of the city was passed. In 

 this bill it is provided that the tax rate, exclu- 

 sive of the State tax and sums required to be 

 raised on account of the city debt, shall not 

 exceed in any year $9 per $1,000 of valuation, 

 based on the average valuation of the city for 

 the preceding five years, and the limit of the 

 borrowing capacity of the city is fixed at 2& 

 per cent, of the same valuation up to Jan. 1, 

 1887, and 2 per cent, thereafter. 



The smoking of opium and the maintaining 

 of opium "joints " has so increased as to ne- 

 cessitate the passage of a law that the keeping 

 of such "joints," the selling or giving away of 

 opium, or its preparation to be therein smoked 

 or otherwise used, or the visiting of such places 



