MARYLAND. 



457 



be given to those who will act as supervisors 

 of election in Baltimore city." 



Mining. The yield of coal from the George's 

 Creek coal-field for the year was largely in 

 excess of the production of any former year, 

 being not far from 3,000,000 tons. The ont- 

 lay tor labor and transportation within the 

 State to market this product is estimated at 

 over $7,000,000. 



Political. The regular quadrennial canvass 

 for the election of Governor occurred this 

 year. The Democratic Convention met at Bal- 

 timore on July 27, and nominated the follow- 

 ing ticket : for Governor, Elihu E. Jackson ; 

 for Comptroller, Louis Victor Baughman ; for 

 Attorney-General, William Pinckney Whyte. 

 A platform was adopted, which approves the 

 national Administration, deprecates civil-ser- 

 vice reform, demands a reduction of the tariff, 

 and urges a more stringent law to prevent the 

 importation of foreign paupers. Upon local 

 issues it declares : 



That the Democratic party, mindful of its fulfilled 

 pledges to wage-earners to place upon the statute- 

 books of the State laws which would protect their 

 health, their personal safety and welfare, and guaran- 

 tee to them an equal right with owners of capital to 

 make peaceable combinations for their own protec- 

 tion, renews its pledges to embody in the organic law, 

 upon are vision of the present Constitution, their right 

 to peacefully assemble and organize for their own pro- 

 tection, and now promises to enact such further laws 

 as time and experience may demonstrate to be for 

 their welfare and happiness. 



That the Democratic party, recognizing that por- 

 tions of the present election laws of the State have 

 been upon the statute-books for more than twenty- 

 five years, and are more or less ineffectual to accom- 

 plish at the present day absolutely fair elections in 

 districts whose population is dense and shitting, and 

 ever foremost in protecting the purity of the ballot- 

 box and the sanctitv of elections, hereby pledges that 

 it will earnestly endeavor at the coining session of the 

 General Assembly to have placed upon the statute- 

 books an election law which will embrace not only 

 Jill the beneficial provisions of the Tilden act, but will 

 embody, also, all those additional safeguards to guar- 

 antee the purity of elections which experience has 

 taught should be incorporated into it. 



That inasmuch as the provisions of the present Con- 

 stitution in providing for a system of taxation and of 

 registration require that they shall be respectively 

 uniform in their operation throughout the State, it is 

 the sense of this convention that the present laws of 

 registration and of taxation are as nearly complete and 

 accurate as they can be made under the present or- 

 ganic law. And the Democratic party now engages 

 that in a revision of the Constitution it will use its 

 best efforts to have embraced within its provisions the 

 requirement of a more thorough system of taxation 

 and of an annual registration of voters in cities whose 

 inhabitants number ten thousand and upward. 



The Republican nominations were made at 

 Baltimore, August 24, and were as follow : 

 tor Governor, Walter B. Brooks; for Comp- 

 troller, Robert B. Dixon ; for Attorney-Gen- 

 eral, Francis Miller. The platform favors the 

 Blnir Education bill, civil-service reform in 

 both State and nation, restriction of pauper 

 immigration, and legislation for the protection 

 of labor. Upon local questions it contains the 

 following: 



Resolved, That the President of the United States, 

 by his action in regard to the Federarappointments in 

 tnis State, has given conclusive evidence that his pro- 

 fessions of civil-service reform are hollow and delu- 

 sive, and his failure to call the Federal office-holders 

 to account for their open and shameless disregard of 

 his own declarations that they should not engage in 

 efforts to control the political action of their'own 

 party, is a confession 01 insincerity on his part, or a 

 proof that his will is controlled and dominated by the 

 stronger will of the senior senator from this State. 



Resolved, That the colored people of Maryland, in 

 their own separate schools, are entitled to the same 

 provision for the education of their children as is en- 

 joyed by the children of the whiteSj and we declare 

 the present grossly unjust and unfair discrimination 

 against the colored schools to be a disgrace to the 

 State. 



That the enforced system of tobacco inspection, 

 which entails an expense upon the treasury burden- 

 some to the taxpayers, and which in its inefficiency 

 depreciates the value of our products, is a reproach to 

 the State. 



Resolved, That we are opposed to the calling of a 

 constitutional convention at this time, and we favor 

 the submission to the public of all questions of consti- 

 tutional amendment in the manner prescribed by the 

 Constitution when urged by a large portion of our 

 people. The deep-laid schemes of the managers of 

 the Democratic party for the destruction of the Chesa- 

 peake and Ohio Canal and its removal as a competitor 

 with railroad monopoly, which are now nearing their 

 consummation, and will result in the impoverishment 

 and ruin of a large number of our fellow-citizens, can 

 only be thwarted by the defeat of their candidates for 

 the Legislature, and the best interests of the people of 

 the whole State demand that this should be done. 



We declare ourselves in favor ot the following spe- 

 cific measures of reform : 



That more efficient laws be passed against bribery 

 and improper use of money in all forms of election, as 

 well as against lobbying, and we pledge ourselves to 

 enforce the present laws upon the subject, without 

 respect to party. 



For an equitable system of taxation, so as to relieve 

 the overburdened agricultural interest of the State 

 from its present depressed condition. For a revision 

 of the revenue laws, so as to enforce the prompt pay- 

 ment of public money into the treasury by collectors 

 and other fiscal agents. 



For a curtailment of the expenses of legislation, and 

 the correction of the hitherto reckless and extravagant 

 expenditure of public money by the General Assembly 

 in printing, in useless and unnecessary officers and 

 employe's, and in appropriations out of the State 

 treasury as a reward for partisan services by the crea- 

 tion of unnecessary commissions, codifications, and 

 contracts. 



For revisions of the laws regulating the procedure in 

 our courts, lessening the expense to the taxpayer and 

 to litigants. 



For" law s preserving the sinking fund inviolate, as 

 demanded by the Constitution. 



For using the surplus in the treasury to the extin- 

 guishment of the State debt which falls due in 1888 as 

 far as the same will go, instead of expending it in use- 

 less conventions and other unnecessary purposes, and 

 the refunding of the balance by offering it in the finan- 

 cial markets of the world, so as to secure the lowest 

 rates of interest, and prevent it from inuring to the 

 benefit of present holucrs to the prejudice of the tax- 

 payers. 



'Resolved, That to secure fair elections is the para- 

 mount issue before the people of this State. We assert 

 that the following conditions, made effective by law, 

 are absolutely essential if elections are to elect, viz. : 

 Provide registration by non-partisan boards annual 

 in the city, quadrennial, with annual reviews, in the 

 counties; minority representation not only among the 

 officers of election and registration, but in the boards 



