The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1914-10-23
The Amendment on Ballot ReIafes 10
Sheriff OF Baltimore City.

Maryland voters will find on their
ballots this year "a constitutional
amendment to which comparatively
little attention has been paid and vet
which is an important one in pursuit
of the work Of bringing the States
governmental functions to the high
est degree of efficiency. 1t was con-
sidered carefully by the Legislature
last Winter and adopted without OPP
position.
The amendment relates entirely to
the office o. sheriff in Baltimore City
-it has nothing to do with that office
in any or the counties. 1t extends
the term Oh the sheriff TO be elected
in Baltimore next Fall, whoever he
may be, to four years instead or two,
as at present, and makes the terms
four years thereafter.
1t also authorizes the Legislature
to make the Office a salaried one, in
stead of keeping it on q fee basis,
and provides that the salary shall not
be over $4,000 a year; office expenses
may be provided for by the Legis-
lature also.
I'm every state where fee Offices
have existed formerly, they are be
ing placed now on q salary basis.
This Is regarded as being within the
dictates Of common sense and sound
business judgment. Every public
official elected ought to know just
what his remuneration is to be and
where he is to get money with which
to pay his Office force and other
subordinates. Reliance on fees ID
undemocratic, unbusiness-like and
unworthy a progressive city and
state. IN INSCRIPTIONS sheriff might
Be tempted to levy fees right and
left to which he has no claim; the
sheriff who 10 mindful OF his oath and
does the right thing may find himself
hard put to it to maintain his Office
under the fee system, to say nothing
of securing an adequate salary for
himself.
An instance OF this is the exper-
fence of the present sheriff Of Balti-
more, Thomas =. McNulty. Gathering
only the fees that he felt were allowed
by law, properly, he has not collected
enough to run his Office. He has
been compelled to cut down the sal
aries of his deputies-to which all
have submitted with considerable
fortitude rather than have some Of
the number laid off, and has had viz
tually no salary for himself.
Previous sheriffs, under the then
interpretations Of the law, have found
the Office more or less renumerative,
frequently more. Court construc-
tiona and present conditions have cut
away many of these fees, as they
ought to be cut away, until now the
Office of sheriff in Baltimore City Is
one Of the most poorly paid for the
official and his deputies, of any in
Maryland
Business men in the city and mem
bers of the Legislature saw these
conditions clearly and the result was
the constitutional amendment which
ig to 20 before the people at the next
election, i'm November. 1T IL believed
here in Baltimore that this amend
nent should be voted for unanimous
ly by the people Of the counties, az
stated, it affects the city only; it does
not touch the term nor relate to the
remuneration Of the sheriff in any
county.
The people of the city are tired of
the fee system; two years ago they
welcomed gladly the establishment
OF peoples court OF magistrates TO
gupplant the old magistrates system
with it, fees for justice and consta-
bles, and they are now DESTROYS or
extending this salary system to the
Sheriff's Office. They ask the people
of the counties to vote for this amend
nent and thus help place the sheriff's
office in Baltimore on the highest
plane it has ever occupied.
It is expected that Baltimore City
will give a heavy majority for the
amendment but the people here are
anxious that the voters In the coun-
Ties record themselves in it, favor
also.
That the present working OF the
Aheriff's Office here Is efficient, de-