The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-03-08

now going on here at the State House.
The corporations are arrayed on one
side and the State is on the other.
1t is generally believed that the bonn
bardment of railway corporations which
began month ago and which is grow
ing more severe almost daily, is moth
ing more nor less than the careful un-
folding of skillfully prearranged plan
Almost every railway bill which has
been introduced has been link in the
chain. The plan is to recover for the
State what the Washington Branch has
withheld for number of years, begin
nlng with 1897; to get at the bottom of
and if possible convict the men respon-
sible for the sale Of the Chesapeake and
Ohio canal, that is the men, believed to
have been responsible in an unlawful
way for the fact that $3.50, 600 was the
very highest bid received for that I'M
mensely valuable property, and TO re-
cover to the State the whole of the sum
which it lost in the transaction; to beat
the Baltimore and Ohio, the Western
@ery land and other corporations with q
club into waving their tax-exempticns;
and lastly to repeal the tax-exemption
privileges Of the Baltimore, Chesa-
peake and Atlantic railway, originally
a small weak corporation, but now
corporation, under cover of whose eX-
emption the Pennsylvania railroad oper-
ates nearly all the roads on the Eastern
Shore.
On its face this campaign was begun
in systemless, haphazard way; it is
very probable that this appearanceEwas
also part Of the original plan. 1t is a
singular thing that very few people
around the State Heuse have the slight
est doubt but that practically all the
railroad bills will pass. Had the rail
way corporations been able to see
what was coming when this thingsopen-
ed up, probably they might have--nipped
it in the bud. There may be some adj
vantages in the quiet methods for which
Maryland's senior Senator in Washing
ton has so often been attacked and re-
viled. Even during the past week, the
flood of railroad bills had all thesout-
ward appearance of the usual mass of
bell-ringing pluggers which always APP
pear and always die in committee.
Some idea of what the legislation now
under way here will mean to the7people
of Baltimore and to Maryland if it is
passed, may be gathered from one single
item: in Baltimore city alone the Balti-
more and Ohio railroad escapes from
taxation annually an amount something
over 5000, 900, which it will be compelled
to pay if the Shannon tunnel bill, and
the privileges bill and the disorganiza-
ton bill pass, and it has already been
intimated that they probably will pass.
What effect it will have on the taxi rate,
if the very considerable Western Mary
land, Pennsylvania and other eXemp-
tons are brought under it isnearly i'm
possible to say, making no mention
whatever of the interest due from the
Washington Branch, and the other
phase of the situation all all filed with
possibilities of equal taxation for all.
and exemption and partial exemptions
for none.
The present Maryland legislature will
probably go down in State ANNALS with
a notable record; is below the average
possibly in intelligence and ability, but
at this time more real valuable legisla-
ton looks good for passage than has
been passed by any half dozen of its
more recent predecessors combined.
There must be some explanation for
this apparently anomalous conditional
Legislature below the average, and yet
legislature which promises to be the
means of accomplishing great end.
Possible the explanation lies in that
very fact that it is merely or largely a
means.
Mr.. German has for introduction a
corrupt-practice .act.
Mr.. Goodwin's patent medicine bill