Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-01-31

Communicated
CITY COUNCILS POSITION.
How Firemen's Money Was Appropriated By
State Mayor DouW Explains.

Mr.. Editor--As considerable dis
cussion has bsen made, both in your
paper and around thescity. in regard
10 the appropriation from the State to
the city and as there seems TO be mis-
statements and Misunderstanding in
regard 20 the matter. ! would be
glad if you will publish this state
ment SO the citizens may he better
informed.
Up to the year 1906. the state Of
Mary land Appropriated TO the Mayor
o. Annapolis the SUM OF $50 To be
spent by him for increasing the eff
cheney OF the Fire Department. It
has been the custom 10 divide this
money between ihe three fire compa-
, mics.
In 1905 bill was dgawn TO appro-
pirate the sum OF ten thousand dollars
10 purchase a fire engine and To in
crease the efficiency of the Annapolis
Fire Department. As / was assured
that there was no chance TO get this
amount through the Senate, the bill
was never introduced. II this bill
had been passed, is il reasonable to
suppose that The balance left after pur-
chasing an engine should be divided
between the companies without any
, supervision rs 10 its exne-diinr7
Toward the last few days OF the ses-
ison, a gentleman much interested in
the affairs of the city, suggested that
il was possible 20 get the sum of
81, 800 for the Fire Department, hut he
wished TO be assured that, if this
money was obtained, il would be
spent in actually equipping the de-
partment. The amount of 81 800 was
% l,,f L.
efforts of the said gentleman, the sum
of 5000 was appropriated. Out of thi $
sum the City Council has appropriated
the sum of $3.50 so that the fire COM
panies will receive the usual amount
and have not been cut down.
The City Council takes the ground
that money appropriated by the State
is for the purpose of aiding to protect
the States buildings and not for other
purposes. In my opinion, if the mem
bers of the finance and ways and
means committees learned that the
money was not being spent for the
purpose of protecting the public build
ings they would refuse TO give us flu
ture appropriations.
fit is right and proper that the fire
companies should have this or any
other amount of money to spend, it
should come from the city of Annap-
| oils and not from funds entrusted TO
the city for other purposes.
Every one should remember that
the present City Council consists of
FIVE members of the fire companies of
the city and the other three have al
ways shown by their votes that they
are friends of the iremen. If the
members of the Council thought that
they could eonscieutiously vote the
States money to the companies, does
it not seem reasonable that they, as
firemen. would be inclined to do so?
I, personally, have been a member
of one of the companies for nine and
one-half years and during that time /
have been honored with the conf
dence of the firemen on several occa-
sions and have always worked to
obtain all the money possible by le-
Ultimate means, but ! think the City
Council has stretched a point by
even appropriating $3.50 out of the
amount mentioned.
Respectfully,
JOHN dep. DOUW, Mayor.
S u p p L r,
A HOT SUPPER will be served by
the Ladies Of Eastport Baptist Church
nert Tuesday Niqht, February 9Th,
from to Q. 80 o'clock, SO that all can
have their supper at the usual supper
hour. Come and enjoy a good tcarm
supper for 25 cents. The proceeds 10
90 ri ,taadoI ra,afro IN, Tho