MARYLAND. 



tlir 1'Yderation of Labor of Baltimore passed the 



following : 



fJ, That, inasmuch as (!ov. Hrown totally 

 organi/cd labor in liis a|>|Miiiitmt>nt <>f 

 . ..ibor Stati.-lieiaii, and inasmuch an organized 

 . us tin' HL'enev which brought t lie otnce into 

 existence, we, tin- delegates composing organized 

 lal"T in this federation of ull the skilled trades of 

 Baltimore and vicinity, hereby express our disap- 

 proval <>t' tho action or Gov. Brown by refusing to 

 lize any document coining from said statisti- 

 cian's oilicc, until (iov. It row n or some other Governor 

 ze "n_'ani/.cd lal>or by the appointment of one 

 of the lalior representatives to occupy the office. 



Legislative Session. In the early days of 

 tho session the bill for the repeal of what is 

 known as the Eastern Shore law, in reference to 

 the election of a United States Senator, was the 

 subject of interesting debates. Action on it was 

 somewhat retarded by an attempt to complicate 

 with it the election of Treasurer and police com- 

 missioner. Western Shore members were re- 

 minded that there were two State officers to be 

 voted tor. and that there would be no guarantee as 

 to where the Kastern Shore votes would go if the 

 Western Shore insisted on forcing their position 

 too far. The law now on the statute books has 

 Ix-en in force since 1809, and was only broken 

 once, in 1867, when Gov. Swann was elected 

 Senator, and the law was immediately re-enacted. 

 At the time of its passage it was urged, in sup- 

 port of the bill, that the Eastern Shore had one 

 third of the population and 8 of the 19 counties 

 in the State, and the facilities for travel were 

 exceedingly limited. Now the Eastern Shore 

 has but 9 counties and about one sixth of the 

 population of the State, comprising, in fact, but 

 one congressional district, while the Western 

 Shore, in addition to Baltimore City, has 14 

 counties. 



No one questioned that the United States 

 Senate would seat a Senator from Maryland 

 elected regardless of the law, yet, so the advo- 

 cates of the measure said, as long as it is on the 

 statute book no member of the Legislature 

 would seriously vote for a Western Shore Sena- 

 tor, after taking an oath to support the laws and 

 Constitution of the State. After several read- 

 ings of the bill it was finally killed, but not 

 until March. 



The assessment bill was the most important 

 question under discussion during the sittings of 

 the General Assembly. As no assessments had 

 l>een made since 1876, the political parties in 

 t heir resolutions had laid stress upon the necessity 

 for new valuations. Gov. Jackson had vetoed 

 last year the bill then under discussion. The 

 bill introduced early in the session was passed 

 by the House of Delegates almost unanimously 

 at the session of January, 1892, after consider- 

 able debate, but it was not acceptable to the 

 Senate. That body adopted a far more strin- 

 gent bill. When this was presented to the House 

 it was. for some reason, not fully discussed or 

 debated. The exigency of other business, and 

 the unwillingness of the House to adjourn with- 

 out passing an assessment bill, probably inclined 

 that body to defer to the judgment of the Sen- 

 ate, audit therefore passed the Senate bill. It be- 

 came at once apparent that the bill thus passed 

 whatever may have been its actual merits, was 

 VOL. xxxn. 28 A 



not satisfactory to the people, and it was vetoed 

 by the Governor. In announcing but decision 

 the Governor said : 



I earnestly hoped that the difficulties in the way of 

 the passage of an acceptable bill would be largely re- 

 moved by the adoption at our last election of the 

 fifteenth article of our bill of right*. Unfortunately, 

 that amendment was rejected, and the General As- 

 sembly was left to deal with the subject. I'nde.r the 

 controlling restrictions of that article of the Constitu- 

 tion, on the one hand, it was their d ity to obey the 

 constitutional mandate "that every ptnon iii this 

 State, or person holding property therein, ought to 

 contribute his portion of public taxes for the support 

 of the Government, according to his actual worth in 

 real and personal property." On the other hand, it 

 was incumbent upon them to pass a bill which, while 

 complying with the imperative provision of the Con- 

 stitution, would at the same time be reasonably prac- 

 ticable in its operation, fairly free from objectionable 

 details, and likely to remedy existing evils and in- 

 conveniences. 



A bill to place in the hands of the Governor 

 the right to appoint county school boards with 

 the consent and approval of the Senate was intro- 

 duced. These boards, to consist of 3 members 

 each, were to be elected for two years. The St at e 

 Board of Education, represented by 5 members 

 before the Senate and House Committees on Edu- 

 cation, made no objection to the measure. While 

 before the committee, the State board also urged 

 additions to the Normal School ; provision for 

 the annual holdings of State institutes for teach- 

 ers; the establishment of school libraries; and 

 the distribution of free books for children, pro- 

 posing, as a means to procure these books, an 

 addition of 2 cents on the $100 of the school tax 

 fund, all of the direct tax fund to be set aside 

 for the maintenance and improvement of the 

 public schools. The Pearre school bill was dis- 

 approved of by them. The discussion of the 

 Toadvin bill in the Senate some weeks later led 

 to one of the most spirited debates of the season. 

 When the two bills, calling for $204,000 to pro- 

 vide free books for the schools, were presented 

 to the Governor, he vetoed them, declaring that 

 the treasury of the State does not admit of such 

 large appropriations at this time, when some pro- 

 vision snould be made for creating a sinking fund 

 to extinguish the $4,500,000 of loans that mature 

 within the next ten years. 



A measure known as the oyster-planting bill 

 was introduced into the House of Delegates. This 

 contained a proposition to cultivate the barren 

 lands at the bottom of the bay. There were 200,- 

 000 acres of natural bars and 400,000 of barren 

 bottoms, which, under cultivation, would yield 

 40,000,000 bushels of oysters. It was said that 

 in Connecticut the yield of the cultivated Innls 

 was 9 times that of the others. Although there 

 was much favorable comment on this bill, it was 

 finally killed. The experiments lxing made in 

 the same direction in Virginia would, it was said. 

 destroy the value of those in Maryland. Various 

 other bills relative to the cultivation, protection, 

 and sale of oysters were introduced, and a final 

 compromise was made, by which the two meas- 

 ures were united, the other bills being with- 

 drawn. This measure, known as the general 

 oyster bill, provides for the culling of oysters on 

 their natural beds, and makes it a misdemeanor 

 to have in possession oysters more than 5 per 



