The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1906-04-13
Major Venable for 1t.

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thinks that if the voters should decide
next November to call Constitutional
convention, there is little doubt but that
its acts would have to be submitted to the
people for ratification. He thinks that
the courts would So decide.
There are several reasons why we
need a Constitutional con vention," said
Major Venab!e a few days ago In the
first place, take the question of taxation.
Our laws are very ragged on the SUB
ject. The modern tendency is to base
taxation upon the income producing pow
er of property. Tue whole trend is to
ward an income tax. European countries
have it. Even the Chinese have it. The
Chinese system of tax alton is one of the
most equitable in the world Peunsvl
vania has an excellent law. Bat NJ .ry
land is not in liue with the IN lern prog,
ress in this RESI- ect.
Consider the njustice that results
from the varying m sth,ls Of assess n slt.
Out in Frederick c'unfy they have
rule by which they ASSESS property for
State taxes, vt for its fall valle, bu. f,r
70 or Is per cent Of its value. In Blti
more city they assess it for its full value
and sometimes for m IRE than the full,
value. The result is that we pay m IRE
for the support Of the State. proportion
ately, than Fred rick county, and other
counties which alopt similar practice
"M tssachusetts prpbtbly has the best
law to cover this. rl,re the 5t.tt's ex-
penses are ri ~ the c.ns, fees, II Dads
and schools, lnI II! THU = of thu sort,
are paid for IT by the Stat not even by
the Counties but by the townships.
These townships ire simi " t. our c,ul
ty districts Al if the people of any
township want ii r,sds II goa sch us
they sim lily order them n pay for them
"Tnen. our c,r,,rtt,,l lly! Every
la " knows they su5E t, b. revised
T m ], Tern tend lcv is to curb the pow
err of Legislatures IN increase the scope
of the general l,ys L-gisllt ures them
selves IN ght II 1t be dis ,se to do this,
but Constitution II c,1v5l;i)l m git
All this howl about the Pennsylvania
Railroads cut off has been caused by one
thing. Under the general law corpora
ton might be formed to build and oper-
ate that cut #, but the wording of that
law is peculiar, 1t says that corporations
shall be authorized to construct and
maintain railroads from any town, city
or village to any town, city and village.
The Pennsylvania did not propose to
start or end this cutoff at any particular
to wn, city or village, and SO they thought
to avoid trouble they had better get a
specific charter. That's what started the
row. They'd have done better to keep
quiet and parallel their tracks from the
ends of the cut off to the nearest town,
city or village
Think Of our courts! Certainly, the
Constitutional provisions regarding them
ought to be changed. Under the present
arrangement the cases wait on the judges;
u nder modern system the judges would
wait on the cases. We partition the
judges off and separate the cases into
many classes of law and equity. Here
are two important cases, say, AS and BIS,
that ought to be heard at once. But they
are both in the same judges court, and in
consequence A 8 case is heard and drage
along for weeks and BIS has to wait, he
losing his witnesses and his temper in the
meantime. Under general conselida
ton of the courts such as ought to take
place, the judges would be shifted around
from one court to another as the cases
were ready and much time would be saw
ed. Judge Harlan and Judge Stockbridge
have been working on plan of this sort
for years. A constitutional convention
could take the question up and settle it.
"A gain, take Batimore's representa-
ton in the General Assembly, 1t makes
me grsan to think of it. Half the popu
lation Of the State and only % members
out of 1873. Why, in some of the counties
one mans vote is worth five times as
much as mine This thing brought Eng
land to the verge of revolution in 1882;
some of the Parliamentary districts had
a representative for every nine inhabit-
ants, others for every 100000. An inc
quality like this is great cause of trou-
BILE. No wonder the counties did what
they wanted with Baltimore city at the
late Legislature A Constitutional Con-
vention would be very useful in remedy
ing this evil
"And so on. do not think that there
would be any difficulty in having the
acts of the Convention submitted to the
people. Virginia didn't do this-but
Virginia stands alone, as far as I know
The general course in all the States has
been to submit new Constitution to the
people. I know it is a disputed pein:
legally as to whether the provision in our
present Constitution requiring this to be
done is binding upon convention Great
ing new Constitution, but I do not
think a Maryland court would decide
otherwise. A mans opinion. and judges
opinion on points like this is usually a
matter of mental bias
Livery man is naturally either bull