Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1913-01-22
COMMISSIONER WALTON
WANTS TO KNOW
Who Constitutes League" Or
Corporation" Referred to by
Mr.. HalIam Claude.
SAYS"FEW SIGNERS"TO PETITION.
II Governor Had Let Condemned hlau
Live Fewer Days Expense Of Exc
cuion WouId Have Been Lessened.

/ Live Fewer Days Expense OF Exe-
cuiOn WouId Have Been Lessened.
In your issue of the goth there ap-
peared an article signed by w. Hal
lam Claude, counselor for the League
of Incorporate Taxpayers or Anne
Arundel county. What want to know
is wIo constitutes this corporation?
Is it a Corporation Sole (that is con-
sisting of a single person. or is it Ag-
gregate, Consisting of two or more
persons.) He makes use Of the word
"wa the Undersigned citizens and tax
payers. and again, under item two,
he uses I'VE.
Therefore, should infer that it Is
aggregate and that two or more per-
sons had signed said petition or bill Of
complaint before the County Com
missioaers, when in point Of fact the
only signature upon any papers that
has come before our body is that of
ONE William e. Cecil. Is not this
misleading? The article, when read,
gives the impression to the average
reader that it is a complaint Of a
number Of taxpayers, whereas, in fact,
it is Of one only through his paid at
torney, w Hallam Claude. In this
Article there are seven items, men,
toned and excepted to. and J wish
to show the true state of the case to
the citizens and taxpayers of Anne
Arundel county by making the fol-
lowing analysis:
Item / S now pending before the
Circuit Court
Item 2, cost for death watchmen,
Sl64 This amount should have
been s204. Two watchmen a day and
night watchman, at 81 per day each
for 81 days. No one can say that So
per day is exorbitant, especially when
they had TO pay their own board. He
submits that we should limit the time
Of employment of these watchmen.
How can the County Commissioners
DO that when the Governor of the
State sets the time and date Of execu-
ton. In other words. the Governor
gave Jacobs fifty days from the day of
sentence to the day Of his execution.
The Judge ordered the death watches
and the Commissioners had to pay
the bill. There was only one way
out of this, and that was fer Mr.. Cecil,
through his attorney, Mr.. Claude, to
have requested the Governor to allow
Jacobs ten or twenty days instead OF
fifty. The common law also governs
this item. 1t is the custom through
out the land to allow certain requests
and extras in the way of food to all
condemned men and also decent bur-
ial.
Items 8 and were ne yer intended
to be paid as presented and were held
over from last Tuesdays meeting for
that very reason.
Item T. AS to this item, he sub
mits that an order should be passed
compelling the Jail physician to per-
form this duty without pay. Article
81, Section 2S, Page 1910, Public
General Laws of Maryland, expressly
states that the physician OF the jail
shall attend the execution and furnish
a certificate that the execution was
properly performed and for said SER
vice he shall receive the sum of SIS.
Fifteen dollars was paid
The above respectfully submit to
the citizens and taxpayers of Anne
Arundel county that they may see and
understand the true state OF affairs,
that all acts of the County Commits
sioners, with q few exceptions, are
governed by law and if they are bad,
the place to change them is the GEN
eral Assembly of Maryland.
We, as County Commissioners, do
our utmost in trying to keep the tax
rate down, but when laws are enacted
for OR government, we are compelled
to abide by them.
Very respectfully,
JAS. A. WALTON.
Commissioner for the Sixth District
of Anne Arundel County.