The citizen., 1914-03-27
THE OMNIBUS APPROPRIA.
TON BILL.

The public press announces that the
omnibus appropriation bill is nearly ready
to be presented in the Maryland Legis
lature This bill takes its name from
the old fashioned omnibus that people
formerly used to travel in. The people
rode inside, on top, before and behind,
all kinds and all colors and all condi-
tions. So the omnibus appropriation bill
comes as a conglomerate mess Of appropri
at ons of the peoples money. 1t is as
tonishing at this late day that the people
Of as much intelligence as are the people
Of the State Of Maryland will elect to it,
Legislature men who will continue to IN
troduce and support an omnibus appro
prlation bill 1t is an old device to
plunder the taxpayers in order 10 reward
favorites logrolling for other measures
v
islature to vote for corrupt graft schemes
that are desired to be passed by the Leg
islature. This is one of the old and
corrupt abuses that has been sanctioned
by the Maryland Legislature for many
years, and certainly it is now time that
the people open their eyes to this gross
abuse Of the rights Of the taxpayers.
The people of this State ought to refuse
to vote for any man to represent them in
the Legislature, unless he promises to
vote against the gross abuse of legisla
tive power as published The omnibus
bill carries many unjustifiable appropria-
tions and many others are far too extrav-
agant in amount. We have only time and
space for few Of them We wish to
call attention to the fact that the Legis.
lature Of Maryland is asked to appropri-
att SO, $50 to Charlotte Hall, $40, 900
of which is for buildings; S25, 900 to
Johns Hopkins University; st. Mary's
Female Seminary, Sc, 600; Washington
College, SIS, 900; Maryland Agricul-
tural College, s28, 900; Western Mary
land College, SIS, 900. These are all
private institutions. We mean by that
they are not State institutions; they are
neither owned or conducted by the State
OF Maryland, nor are they conducted
with any reference to the State of Mary
land directly. Why should the taxpay-
ers of Maryland be forced to contribute
their hard earned money to pay fat sal
aries to the officers and professors of
their present nstitutions. 1t must be
remembered at the same time that the
taxpayers are supporting the public
;hools, the teachers in which public
schools get salaries barely sufficient to
keep body and soul together, yet the
Legislature is voting away these large
sums of the peoples money to these pri
vate colleges and seminaries to provide
soft places for the professors and teachers
in them. The time has come in the
history of this State and in the enlight-
enment of the people and to crafty tho
plain dictates of justice that we should
abandon the support Of the public school
system and the private colleges and
schools at the same time Let us sun.
port one or the other; the taxpayers can
not afford to support both. Our public
school system is one Of the best in exist
ence, but it is very meagerly supported.
While it is said that the taxpayers can
not pay more to keep up the school sys-
tenn, yet hundreds of thousands of dol
lars is annually voted to private schools
and colleges. Let us, abandon the ON.
nibus appropriation bill and we will get
rid Of vicious system of graft and leg