The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-04-24
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS,
EMIL THE EASTERN SHORE LAW.

ENiL | He fANl thN Slitht LAW
The Baltimore Sun says: IL is now be
licve that the Legislature at the late sc>s-
ion repealed the famous Eastern Shore
law without knowing it. All the incidents
connected with the passage Of the new
election law, which has been approved 10y
the executive and is now in force,
The election law was originally prepared
by the Reform League of Baltimore AMI
introduced in the Senate by Mr.. Doilcr,
of Baltimore city. 1t was referred to the
committee on election reforms. OF this
committee Senator Randall was chairman
and majority were republicans. Inc
committee took the bill, and in order to
make it better suit the conditions of the
counties and to shorten the measure, which
was of prodigious length, Mr.. Randall re-
ported it with between forty and fifty
amendments The democrats accepted all
of these and added few Others, one doing
away with the new registration in the
counties among the rest The Republican
Senators voted against this and several
other amendments offered by the demo-
Gratis. and it was publicly given out that
the Republican House would not pass the
bilwithout Il new registration all over the
State, and the democratic Sen tte would
not except the bill with that feature.
The election bill in its title repeats the
entire article :'5 of the code relating to
elections and all acts amendatory thereto
and re enacted the same with amendments
Section 1l5 and l16 of article 53 contain
the so called Eastern Shore law. which
provides that one federal Senator shall be
an inha bitant of the EastcrnShore and one
Of the Western Shore. Section 10 provld
eS for the election Of Senators by the Lag
islature upon ioing ballot by the two
al
finally agreed upon by the Senate and or
dered to be engrosSed for third reading
in the title and the enacting clause repeats
all of article }3 of the code except sec
tons rs and 49,
While the bill was being engrosSed III
the Senator Mr.. Pennington introduced 1t
in the House in the form us was under
stood that it came from the Senate com
mitted before the democratic amendments
were adopted 1t appears now, if the type
written copies of the law which hav" been
made are correct, the bill as introduced by
Mr.. Pennington omitted the line in the
title and in the enacting clause which re-
tanned sections Is and l16 of article 81
on the statute book, and apparently in the
hurry and confusion of the closing days OF
the session this omission was not discover
ed by the Senate.
clung tenaciously to the Eastern Shore
law. The democrats were so liklcy for 1t
and one republican Senator, who refused
to vote for Mr.. Wellington, did so because
as he explained, he felt himself in con-
science bound to obey the law Before
Mr. Wellington had been elected Il reSolu-
ton was adopted by the Senate protesting
against the proposed violation OF this
time -honored statued, and subsequently
the Senate refused to pass, or at least did
not pass, the usual resolution asking the
Governor to issue a commission to the Sen
ator who had been selected.
The law was ignored by the General
Assembly as having no, binding force, al
though it had until the. last session been
the rule and the settled policy of the
State almost from the beginning of the
federal government. Perhaps it is uSt as
well that it should now be omitted from
the statute books The State of Maryla nd
is entitled to be represented in the Senate
of the United States by its very best citi-
zcns regardless of their place of habtation
within the State The observance of the
law and its mifltainance on the statute
book has all along been cgarded by many
people as more Il matter OF party pDlcy
than anything else 1.-THE majority of the
L. rislature should continue to thnk that
the Eastern Saore has 4 mo,al right to one
Senator, or if they think that it will be Il
good party policy to continue one Senator
on the Eastern Shore, then there is moth
ing to prevent it, 1t can be done just as
elfcctually without the law as with it. and
consequently if the law has now disaD-
peared there is no occasion for rending
our garments or lifting up the voice of
lamentation.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE SURPLUS.
The Philadelphia Times SAYS: There is
a class of party speakers and writers who
assume, and sometimes with safety, that
people have short memories and that 1t Is
unnecessary to adhear to facts. For cX-
ample, the chairman of the New Jersey
Republican Convention thought he had
made telling point when he said that
''under this Democratic regime the surplus
in the Treasury, which so distressed our
Democratic friends, mysteriously dlsap-
| peared, and has never been heard of since.
The national finances are too serious Il
| subject to be discussed for pastisan effect
| but even from that standpoint 1t might be
thought that the disappearance of the sur
plus was a thing that Republican cam
J paign orator would prefer to say little
| about When Harrison was elected Presi-
| dent the net cash in the Treasury outside
| the hundred million gold reserve was
| 1913, 5:}:', S}4 When Cleveland was elect
| ed, four years later, it had been reduced
| to SCOOPS, 9lS, and before March this
| small sum was so nearly exhausted that
| the Treasury was obliged to postpone the
payment of warrents and the gold reserve
| itself was infringed upon. The surpius
| had disappeared before the Democratic
regime came in.
And there was nothing mysterious
| about its disappearance. 1t was spent. In
| the four wears from 1885 to 1899 the eX-
| cess of receipts over expenses had been
| 1896, 529, 900 In 1889 it was SS1, 16l 900,
and for the fiscal year of 1890 for which
the appropriations had been made by the
old Congress under the old revenue laws,
it was $l05.3t5,o 0o. Then the Reed Nc
| kinley Congress got to work, reducing
the revenues slightly and increasing the
! expenditures largely. In 1891 the surplus
| revenue was reduced to &31 240, 900; in
1892 to 1895, 900, and in 1893 to 81 BIZ 900.
| The Mckinley act and the Sherman act
were then well under way, and the next
| wear the surplus had changed to Il deficit
| Of 500 500, 900.
Daring this year the Sherman silver act
was repealed AMI the tariff put in opera
| ton, and for the tiscll year Of 1895 the
deficit was re .luced to 2,Soo 900. TINS
| year it will be further relIca1 to about
S2J. 000,O)0 or less and in another year,
| with no change in the revenue laws, it
woul lprobably disappear. But even in
| 1895 the receipts were larger than in 1892,
and would have yielded large surplus if
| the expenditures had remained the same
as in 1899 or | %.
The Reed Mckinley Harrison regime
| was able to increase the annual appropri-
| ations one hundred millions in three years
without immediate disaster, at the same
time issuing four millions month of new
demand notes, solely because Of the pleth-
oric condition in which it found the Treas
urv 1t left the Treasury bankrupt, with
Il currency panic clearly foreshadowed,
and the present administration has been
struggling against odds to mitigate the
evil results of four years Of financial blund-
cring That is the truth, though it may
not suit partiSans to acknowledge it.
DEMOCRATIC CAUCIS.
Tim Senate adjourned early Monday in