The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1902-01-24
THE LEGISLATURE.
Some Happenings of Interest
at the State Capital-Not
Down to Hard Work
Yet.

the lines Ol regular WOTh, dlltr
tile exciting preliminaries of the
past three weeks. A number of
bills were introduced, among
them being one to regulate SEES
sions of the Orphans Court of
Frederick county, introduced by
Mr.. Rohrback by request.
A Joint resolution to urge Con
gress to thank Admiral Schley by
name for the victory at Santiago
was reported favorably and or
dered engrossed for third reading.
The oyster law prepared by Mr..
b. Howard Hannah will shortly be
introduced.
The bill provides for the intro
duction of a general system of
oyster culture, under which the
natural beds which lie beneath
the Chesapeake bay and its tribu-
taries will be left to the public. as
at present, and the now barren
bottoms of the same waters will
be leased to individuals in tracts
not exceeding 800 acres.
Mr.. Leatherbury, of Anne
Arundel county, introduced bill
to abolish all hangings in Mary
land and have the death penalty
inflicted by the electric current,
as in the State of New York.
In the House of Delegates W. NJ
Kerr, of Baltimore City. intro
duced his bill to define and regu-
late the powers of the Mayor and
City Council in selling all or any
part of the city's holdings in the
Western Maryland Railroad. The
bill prohibits the sale of the city's
interest in the road except by an
ordinance of the Mayor and City
Council, in which shall be incor-
porated the names of the persons
so purchasing the property and
the amount of money to be paid
therefor. which said ordinance
shall be submitted to the legal
voters of the city of Baltimore at
the next general election to be
held in the said city, to be then
adopted or rejected by majority
OF all the votes cast.
Senator Jones has engrosSed for
introduction several important
bills. One of these authorizes the
State Buildings Commission tC
buy or condemn lot and to erect
thereon a plant for heating al
the State buildings. The bill will
appropriate Sl50.000 to pay fol
this lot and plant and for furnish
ing the new Court of Appeal,
building and library. Tie second
bill will provide for the erection
of an addition to the State House
to take the place of the three an
neXes which are to be torn down
The new annex is to contain com
modious and handsome chamber.
for the Senate and House of Dele
gates. This will leave the main
building exclusively for the ust
of the Executive and the Adju
tant General. The old Senate
Chamber will, of course, be pre-
served while the present House
chamber, Court of Appeals room
and other apartments can be di
vided up into committee rooms.
The first step in the fight tC
give the Eastern Shore the mex
United States Senator was takeI
when Delegate j. Cleveland
White, of Wicomico county. in
troduced in the House of Dele
gates the old law providing thai
one Senator shall be a resident o.
the Western Shore and one the
Eastern Shore. 1t is stated thai
the bill is backed by influ
ences sufficiently strong to secure
its passage. Mr.. White takes the
ground that the even division of
the Senators, one to each shore,
has always been the policy Of the
Democratic party and was first
ignored by the Republicans under
the leadership of Senator yelling
ton. Therefore, he argues, the
Democratic party owes it to the
people of the Eastern Shore to re
enact the old law.
Mr.. Isaac Lobe Straus, of the
Baltimore City delegation, has
prepared and will follow up legis,
lation in the General Assembly
looking to a complete and har-
monious revision of the election
system of the State. Mr.. Strauss
plans in this respect embrace,
first. the enactment of a thorough
going primary election law; sec
ond, approprite amendments to
the general election law, and
third, as capstone to the system,
an efficient corrupt practices act.
Mr.. Straus has already intro
duced into the House corrupt
practices act, which was prepared
under the auspices of the Reform
League. This act embodies the
main features of the statutes in
New York and other States upon
the subject of corrupt practices at
elections. 1t is a rigorous meas.