The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-04-07
SOME OF THE THINGS THE LEGIS.
LATURE DID.

effectual system Of public
finance. If it is adopted by the
people, reason and experience
show that it will result in vastly
greater efficiency than the old
methods. even if it is admins
tered weakly; and if administer
ed strongly, the improvement
will be unreasonable.
Passed the bill which abolishes
Continuing appropriations.
No, greater evil has afflicted the
finances of Maryland than CON
tinuing" appropriations. The
State was paying annuities to
various interests, had been pay
ing some of them for more than
100 years, and never reviewed
them to ascertain whether the
beneficiaries were worthy or
whether the amounts were eX-
cessive, even though the bene-
ficiaries were worthy. The total
of such appropriations was ap-
proximately 81, 900, 900 a year.
Passed the Johnson Direct In
heritance Tax bill, which, it is
estimated, will yield the State
several hundred thousand dollars
annually. This tax is regarded
by most economists as one Of the
most fruitful and the least oner-
Gus. It has been urged for
many years, but has been de-
feated heretofore by special in
terests acting for wealthy men.
Passed the Educational Survey
Commissions bill, with only a
few minor amendments. This
bill provides for the gradual
remedy of defects in the States
educational system and for
machinery which, it is believed
by experts, will put the State
upon a proper educational stand
ard within a few years.
Passed bills abolishing various
useless or overlapping Offices and
creating the State Legal Depart
ment, the Conservation Com
mission, the Board of Penal Con-
troll. the Agricultural Board and
the Bureau of Statistics and
Labor. The details of these bills
are stated below.
Consolidation of the work of
the state government in a few
departments has been the ten
! dency in all the states which
have faced the problem Mary
land has had, and the bills men
toned constitute a long step by
this State in the right direction.
In addition to these measures
the value of which is disputed
by few persons, the Legislature
also passed a number of import
ant bills, regarding which there
are sharp differences of opinion
including one providing mothers
pensions and another creating 2
board of censors for moving
pictures. The bills to abolish
the envelope system, to institute
a system of uniform accounting
and to expend appropriations for
charity upon a per capita basis
were passed, but the one amend.
ing the Corrupt Practices act
failed.
And the Legislature broke two
traditions: 1t held its own ex-
penses down to approximately
20. 0OO less than the amount al
lotted to it; that is, it's expenses
were approximately S125. 900.
leaving $500 of the s15o OO0
appropriated. whereas no pre-
vious session in years had lived
within its appropriation and the
session of 1914 cost approximate
ly $2O7, GOO, or something over
$50, 600 more than this one.
And it did not reflect General
Murray Vandiver State Treasur-
er.
The Legislature started we'll
when it elected Philip D:.-Laird
Speaker of the House. Mr..
Lalrd's record in public life-his
peculiar record of an honest and
sustained demand of many years
Tor economy and efficiency
made him the logical choice for
Speaker. He was opposed bitter
ly by the Lee men and the
Mahon-Preston city men for
fractional reasons, and he was
opposed secretly by powerful
men in the Democratic organi-
cation because they knew thew