The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-07-19
G0RMAN AND THE B. 4 @.
Col. ncCardeIl Tells of the Blight of
His Political Influence.
His Recent appointment in the Directory
of the Baltimore and Ohio Road BY Gov
eTnor Smith an Exhibition of small
Politics.
ANNAPOLIS, Md, July IS, 1900.


Comptroller's Office the Chief Clerk
has virtually turned his duties over
to the other clerks, and given his
attention almost exclusively to his
private affairs and politics. OF the
five Clerks in the office two are
absent most of the time-on full pay
of course
In the Land Office one of the new
clerks appointed June /, has not yet
made his appearance. This gentle
man is a Mr.. Brewington, of Wico-
mico. 1t is said that he divides the
salary with Mr.. Thos. Taylor, of this
city, who is at his desk most Of the
time. Gen. Bond, the other clerk, no
one seems to know anything about.
He is said to show up about one day
in the week.
The State House and annex make
a building of considerable dimen-
sions, and necessarily there is a very
complex underground system of
drain pipes, watermains, gas pipes
and electric wiring, on that account
Coy. Lowndes decided not to remove
the night watchman, a Democrat of
the name of Sewell, on account of his
thorough familiarity with this system
and his well established reputation
as reliable man. His place was
wanted however under the reform ad-
ministration of John Smith and he
was discharged q few days ago to
make place for an ex-member of the
House of Delegates from Cecil county.
1t is said that there is not an EN-
ployee around the building now who
has the knowledge necessary to the
proper care and protection of the
building in case anything got wrong
with the drainage, water or gas sup
ply.
Now, it may be said that these are
small matters, and hardly worthy of
notice. But they show Indifference
to the public interest; they prove the
charge that the present administra-
tion is being conducted upon the
theory that public position is a
private snap, and that the men who
accept places in good faith, and with
the purpose of giving their time and
and attention to the public business
are the exceptions. That this is true
-scandalously true-of the present
administration cannot be denied.
Coy. Smith has appointed Senator
German and Col. L. Victor Baugh-
man directors on the part of the Bal
timore g. Ohio Railroad Company.
If this course was taken in order to
goad President Cowen it is a fine ex-
hibition of cross roads politics, and
well worthy of the political pigmy
now in the gubernatorial chair of
this State. A line of history here is
in order. 1t is a well knownSact now
that for many years the B. g. 0. paid
dividends that it was not earning;
that it was in fact bankrupted by the
long continued policy of borrowing
money to pay dividends at time
when the company was not paying
running expenses. This was at the
time when German was a dominant
factor in the political management of
the company, and when the political
directors, numbering eleven, and
named by the State and Baltimore
city virtually controlled its manage
ment.
This was the time when Director
German would step into the Office of
the general manager at Camden Sta
tion and demand to know why such
and such a man whom he had seen
on the train that brought him to Bal
timore City, was employed by the
company. The answer might be
that the man was capable and eff
cient in the discharge of his duty. If
he was it was not satisfactory, be-
cause the employee had been spotted
as political opponent of Director
German, and off went his head.
This was the time when every en-
ployee of the company who resided
in Howard county was required to be
politically active in Gorman's behalf
or lose his employment. This was
the time when Germans politics do
minated the board of directors of the
company and brought it nearer and
to the verge of bankruptcy.
Finally the Garrett interest became
alarmed. They knew the actual con-
dition of the company. The public
did not. This interest took a bold
course. They reorganized the direc-
tory and made Chas. f. Mayer presi-
dent. The first the new manage
ment decided upon was to get rid of
the political directors, and to accom-
plish this they announced that no