Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-06
Gov. Lowndes Set Many Reforms
During His Administration.
STATE TREASURY IN GOOD SHAPE
Schools and State Institutions Left
in FIourishing Condition.
TO BALTIMORE
pecial Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
STATE HOUSE, Annapolis January 5, 1900.
Wednesday next Governor Lloyd Lowndes
will retire from the executive mansion and
will turn the office over to his democratic
successor, Colonel John Walter Smith. at
present representative in Congress from the
first district.
With Governor Lowndes' retirement will
close the only republican administration
Maryland has had since the war, and the
democrats will resume the power in this
state Of which they We're deprived four
year ago.
The administration of Governor Lowndes
and the real good accomplished during the
incumbency of his party have been re-
markable when it is considered that parties
and politicians rarely regard the pledges
on which they are intruSted with authority
by the people AT the time this administra-
ton assumed charge in 1896 Maryland was
far behind the other commercial states of
the Union in many particulars, and public
affairs We're managed in the same anti
quated way that obtained throughout the
south prior to the war. The laws in force
We're, in many important particulars. bur
densome and cumbersome, and were used
as cloaks to cover injustice, rather than as
rules for the enforcement of justice and
progress. All this has been changed, and
today the public statutes of Maryland are
as fair and equitable as those of any of
the progressive commonwealth of the
north.
Change in Election Law.
The election laws prior to 1886 were full
of contradictions, and were intended and
were used as covers for fraud and corrup-
ton. and elections were travesties on de-
cency and farces as expressions of the pop
ular will. Now the opposite is the case,
and every possible legal safeguard sur
rounds the ballot box. The tax and assess
ment laws were unjust and absurd. Now
they equitable and just. The public
buildings were inconVenent and IN many
instances almost ruinous and sadly out of
repair, while the management of the penal
and public charitable institutions was cor
rupt in most cases and in others shiftieSS
and extravagant. Now all that is changed,
and the new states prison and house of cor
rection are models of their kind, and the
new insane asyiums, as well as the other
charitable institutions, are all that the
most progressive people could ask. In fact.
in every branch of the public service the
whole system of care and management is
changed and in four short years the dir-
ference is so great and almost startling
that a gentleman who was familiar with
them in former times, and who visited them
very recently. said that he would not nave
believed such improvements could have
taken place had he not seen them himself,
and he expressed his surprise that a gov
ernor who had been able to accomplish so
much for the people should nave falled OF
reelection.
Lowndes the Moving Spirit.
In all these improvements and changes
Governor Lowndes has been the moving
and inspiring cause. and has not only urged
them on, but persisted in his efforts until
he has attained his point. He has devoted
the most of his time to the duties of his
office and to him it has been at all times a
burden and a public trust. He has made
longer and more frequent visits to the
various public Institutions than any of his
predecessors, and his visits have not been
the usual mere perfunctory affairs, but
have been full of work and careful eXami-
nation Of the closest and most rigid char
acter. When he has found that persons in
charge We're inefficient or careless he has
put others in their places and in every re-
spect he has really revolutionized the man
agement of the public institutions until
now all of them are models OF efficiency,
and as such a course of pride to the state.
Another important matter which has so
greatly improved as to be almost irrecog-
nizable is the school system. Under the
OLD democratic ring regime, the public
schools were managed as a part of the
political machine, and as such were made
to do good service for the party organiza-
ton. Governor Lowndes. often in the face
of the protests of influential men of his
own party who wished to follow the corrupt
precedentS established by the democrats.
has literally lifted the whole public school
system of the state entirely out of the mire
of politics, and has placed it on the high
plane that it ought to occupy. He has
given this branch of the public service
more careful attention than any of his pre-
decessors. all of whom looked upon their
connection with the schools as a mere incl
dent of their position and paid very little
heed to the duties incumbent thereon The
contrary has been the case with Governor
Lowndes, and he deserves the title of
friend of public schools perhaps more
than any other honor he has won since he
mad n1,
The public school system owes more to
him than to any other one man in the
state, and he is the only Governor Mary
land has ever had who interested himself
to any great extent with the subject To
him belongs the credit of elevating the
public schools to their present position, and
making the system of free education the
best of that in any state in the south.
States Finances in Good Shane.
An examination of the record made dur
ing the past four years shows that the re-
publican administration has been almost
without a flaw. The finances of the state
are on a firm and stable basis, and with
care the entire state debt can be Wiped
out and taxes for state purposes reduced
to a mere trifie in short time The Sc
curities are quoted away above par in the
markets, and are in steady demand The
laws passed have all been improvements
and have been for the benefit of the whole
people. No partisan legislation of any sort
has been enacted, and, what is more sur
prising, none has been attempted. While
Governor Lowndes and the other state Off
Gals have appointed, as general thing re-
publicans to office, they have not done so
exclusively, and many democrats have
been retained. while others have been ac-
tually appointed to vacant places Not one
scandal. or even one breath of scandal, has
attached to any one connected with the
state government, and the democrats, when
they take possession. will find affairs in a
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