Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1917-09-28
They Cannot Understand.
From the Union-News. Baltimore county.
Have the advocates of annexation be-

| rEom the UnlOn-NeWS, Baltimore county.
Have the advocates of annexation be-
come so obsessed with their pet scheme
that they have lost their power of clear
thinking 1t would seem so. Are they
aware of the fundamental rule or maxim
that all successful and beneficial govern
ment must be by and with the consent of
the governed 1t would seem not.
They are apparently unable to distin-
guish between natural boundaries and
political boundaries, and they speak as if
Baltimore were situated on an island which
they were maliciousy debarred from en-
lareine. They lose sight of the fact that
the real city of Baltimore is growing all
the time, although much faster in the por-
tons which lie within Baltimore and Anne
Arundel counties than in the portions
which lie within the corporate limits The
idea of holding or attaining any particular
relative place in the list of cities accord
ing to population contained within the
municipal boundaries, to which they pro-
fess to attach much weight, is a merely
sentimental one, such rank being of less
Importance in the minds of the public than
the standing of a baseball club.
To show their utter lack of comprehen-
sion of the proper functions and force of
the State Constitution one of the propo-
nents of annexation speaks of the referen-
dun provided by Section of Article IS as
a fake" Others say there is no call for
it. or if there is one the question should be
submitted to the voters of the city as well.
Such plan has no foundation of rational
purpose and would not be an observance
of the spirit nor the letter of the Constitu-
ton. The debates in the Constitutional
Convention show most clearly that the
referendum to the people whose citizenship
is proposed to be changed was expressly
provided to apply to the case now pre-
sented by the attempt of the city to seize
practically one-half the population and
property of Baltimore county.
The claim that 1.-THE city needs room to
grow" may be passed by as absurd, in
view of the facts that one-fifth of the present
corporate city is still vacant land and that
its bill has been framed with view to
absorbing sections already largely built up.
What the city is after is taxable basis, not
room.
We recognize the fact that when sec
tons of the county adjacent to the city
become strictly urban in character they
will then be ripe for annexation, provided
the city can offer them as good or better
government than they are getting from the
county and at a cost no greater. When
the city can do this it need not fear to
submit its claims to referendum.
The people of the county at large can
not reasonably object to proper annexa-
ton bill-one that provides for referen-
dun and also provides for fair treatment
for the remainder of the county. The Bal
timore Extension Leagues revamped Field
bill does neither. With honesty toward the
taxpayers of the remainder of the county
guaranteed and Constitutional referendum
enforced justice will be maintained. for
the residents of the proposed annex will
have the opportunity to decide whether
the city or the county offers them the
better terms.
The annexationists manifest all the I'M
reasonable Impotence of a spoiled child
trying to grasp some expensive article
whose beauty or glitter has attracted it..
| Their whole attitude shows that they do
not know what they' are going to do with
it If they get it, nor whether they can
take proper care of it. They can not be
made to understand that there is an orderly
and proper way to test their fitness to
have the object and that by their very
pettishness and entire disregard of law
and justice they are now demonstrating
their unfitness All that they consider is
that they want it, and that, in their esti-
nation. is sufficient reason for it to be
given to them. Their reckless spirit bodies
i'll for the people Of the belt if they should
be so unfortunate as to become the play
things Of the annexation crowd.