The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1912-03-15


bee ause that officer, when member OF
the last House of Delegates, vote:
against tie We Is Road bill, and we be
lieye its massage would seriously ane
Diet 'iment ally affect the revenues of the
county.
Prince Georges county is large ant
the several ections are distinct in theil
interests and occupations, We fee
thai in order to have all sections of the
county properly represented in the
| Commissioner Office, five Commission.
ers are none to many. To expect three
| mer to give no their time to looking
| after all financial matters of a county
| with an assessable busis of over seven.
| teen millions of dollars and to receive
therefor the meagre salary of $500 pei
| annum is farcical, land could only re-
suit in the getting of unfit Commission
| ers and the lowering of the efficiency
of the office. We do not believe the
| people of the county desire this, and We
| connot lend our support to such a
J measure.
The bill requiring the feeding of
prisoners in Marlboro Jail to be given
| out by CONTRACT, and compelling com
| mis- sioners to give such contract to
| the lowest bidder at or under IS cents,
will, if passed, undoubtedly result in
but one thing: the three persons in Mari
boro who can furnish prisoners meals, if
they have any ordinary common sense
land no one accuses them of "a slack of
business sagacity) will form a neat
little combination, one will put in a bid
at 35 cents which under the proposed
bill the Commissioners must accept, he
will pay each of the others a bonus of
say u cents apiece and the poor prison.
ers will have to get along as best they
can on 20 cents. 1t is we'll to re-
member that Senator Wells himself at
the session of 1910 had passed an act
increasing the compensation of the
man then furnishing meals on the
ground that he could not properly feed
prisoners on less than 35 cents. If that
were true then, it is no less true now,
and if the present bill is passed, the
prisoners must inevitably suffer. We
do not believe this is desired by the
people of the county, when it will not
decrease the money they have to pay
out, and will only result in bonus TO
two people who do nothing to earn it.
The bill decreasing the salary of the
guard to the Jail purports to save the
county $40 year. We are informed
Gudl III UCl ICkluCS tuE SaldEV
was split into three pats, the sheriff
getting one-third, the man appointed ON
nls recommendation getting one-third,
and the man actually doing the work
getting the last third. This was, of
course. entirely wrong and the County
Commissioners have remedied this "
ordering the appointee to do the work
himself. We do not feel that we sheu d
Con NJ o11cf . o,,
more definite information as to its effect
than we have been furnished, since wa
bel eve on the face of it that .
salary of 500 month is not
too much for a man who has the fre-
quent responsibility of guarding mur-
derers and other dangerous and desper-
ate characters. We may say here, that
q. no time have we been consulted by
our collea ue in the upper branch of
the General Assembly as to any of
these bills, it being his apparent pur-
pose to ignore all members of his party
elected since November 1909 possibly .
consistent stand since at least one of
the siguers of this letter was nominated
aud elected in spite of the opposition
of some of those very close to Senator
Wells.
The Standard Bearer is not similar
official to the Flag Raiser, and there
fore does not deserve the same fate as
that melted out to the latter by the
present House of Overwhelmingly.
extinguishment. He is the official who
sees that all the weights and
measures in the stores of the county
are correct. 1t has been impossible to
get q man to do this very necessary
work for the salary offered, and there
fore for the past two years at least, our
tax PAYERS have not had to pay any
thing for salary, the amount required
by law to be levied having been turned
back again. We are preparing for in
PRODUCTION bill providing that a
Sealer Of Weights and Measures shall
do the work for the county, and re.
ceive his compensation from the store
keepers themselves. thus insuring to
the people full value for their money
spent, without their being compelled to
pay for it on their tax bills. We think
this better measure than the one pro-
posed by Senator Wells which absolute
ly prohibits the doing of this work.
and leaves the people at the mercy of
any dishonest merchant who may see
fit to cheat them.
We are in accord with the opinion
that the Treasurer of Prince Georges
County receives too much money but
we are not in sympathy with the bill
proposed by which he is to be deprived
of the services of very efficient clerk
and, by the way, who was formerly an
adherent of Senator Wells, but who
must now have become lukewarm In
his support. We recall that the
additional allowance for this clerk was
asked for by Senator Wells son, when
he was County Treasurer. If it was
proper then, it must be necessary now
with the increased volume of money
which the county has to handle.
Neither are we agreed that the Treasur-
er should collect the States taxes for
nothing. We have therefore disapprov
ed the bill cutting out the clerk, and
we have amended the other bill so that
the Treasu er is allowed for collecting
the state taxes, but his compensation is
cut one thousand dollars. We trust the
Senator will accept this amendment
which saves the taxpayers just that
much each year.
We are unable, having been furnish
ed no information by anyone, to IN
diligently pass upon the bill reducing
the salary of the Sheriff. If this officer
receives only $4,000 and must pay out
of this his travelling expenses and the
salaries of his deputies. we do not
think it is exorbitant. If there are 9TH
er sources of income, not known to US,
we should like to have the Information,
and we hereby call upon Senator Wells
to furnish it to US at once, so that we
can pass upon the bill in time to put it
through if we find it to be meritorious.
In conclusion, we desire to express
to the people of the county our earnest
desire for all proper retrenchment in
the cost of running its affairs. and we
point as evidence of this our action in
cutting down the treasurer's salary, to
Mr. Whiteley's bill aboiishing the jury
commission and MIR. Marbury's bill
amending the road law, while measures
if allowed to pass the Senate by Sena-
ator Wells land their fate will be left
by that body in his hands), will save
the taxpayers about $4,000 per year, or
two cents on the tax rate.
Your