The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-10-15
SLY CITY IS UNFAIR
COUNTY MEN INSIST REFER
ENDuM SHOULD BE GIVEN.
Claim People of Stats do Not All I'm
derstand That Baltimore County
Ia Not Fighting Annexation If
Presented In Just Bill.

Partisan Citizens Protective Com mittee.)
The Baltimore county people claim
that the people OF the other counties
would be with them solidly, without
regard to party, If they fully under
stood the attitude of Baltimore county
in the annexation fight They are not
opposing a fair bill, If 1t submits the
question to vote of the people pro-
posed to be taken into the city.
The point Of disagreement Is upon
the bill prepared by City Solicitor
Field, given the approval of a COM
mittee named by the city and now
called the Greater Baltimore Exten-
sion League bill. No representative
Of the section affected by the bill was
given any chance to make any changes
In this bill, which omits the command
of the Constitution of Maryland that
no part of any county may be taken
away without the consent, by vote,
of the people living in the territory
proposed to be taken away.
This bill, prepared entirely by rep
resentatiYes Of the city, contains
many other provisions which the Bal
timore county people term oppressive
and unfair, but the city men who are
pushing it insist that it must be
passed just as it is. They demanded
that both political parties, at their
recent State conventions, should de-
clare in favor of it. The Democratic
Convention declined to do this, but
declared it's approval Of a fair bill
which would submit the matter to
the people, as provided by the Consti-
tuition. The Republican Convention
declared in favor OF the bill as it Is,
without referendum.
This action of the Republican party,
it Is urged by the Baltimore county
men, has placed some of the Office
holders and candidates of that party
in a queer position. There are sew
eral hold-over Republican State Sen
ators who were elected on the Re-
publican platform Of 1915, which, upon
the advice of Republicans of undoubt-
ed legal ability, declared fatty in
favor of the referendum. These Sen
ators claim that, in all honor, they
are bound by the promise made to
the voters on their behalf when they
were elected. Notable among these
is Senator Newton D. R. Allen, of
Baltimore county, who was elected in
the face Of a normal Democratic ma
jority of about 1000 UnQuestion-
ably, as the political writers Of that
time asserted, much Of this great
change was due to the fact that the
Democratic platform of 1915 was
ambiguous and straddling upon the
question Of annexation.
Other Republicans, who were elect
ed to the House Of Delegates two
years ago, are candidates for re-elec-
ton. Since their denomination their
party has made for them a promise
directly the reverse of that Of 1915.
Still others, new men, are supposed
to be bound by the platform OF this
year, which declares fatty against
the referendum. Thus, 1t is asserted.
If the Republicans win a majority in
the Legislature they will be repre-
scented by members pledged on both
sides of the same question and some
who will not know where they are
at"
The advocates Of the city's bill
have adopted as their campaign cry,
"a referendum means no annexation"
This, of course, means that they as
sums that the people of the suburbs
will reject the proposed bill IL it Is
submitted to them. 1t is contended
by their opponents that this is not
fair assumption, because when. In
1888, a fair annexation bill was pro
posed it was passed by the Legisla-
ture with but little opposition and
the voters in the northern and west
ern suburbs approved it and their
territory was taken into the city. The
opponents Of the present plan Of an
nexation claim that the refusal OF its
sponsors to submit 1t to the people
Is an admission that 1t Is unfair, and
that the omission OF the referendum
makes 1t more so.
Mayor Preston, it Is asserted, has
endeayored to make it appear that
the residents Of the territory which
ne proposes to take in are persons
who have left the city to escape tax
alton and therefore, az he claims, not
entitled to any sympathy. This, the
county people insist, Is not at all cor
rect. Some of the residents, they say,
have always lived where they do now,
while many others have moved to
that section from other parts of Bal
timore county, from other counties
and from other states. These are
mostly people who have always lived
in the country and prefer the suburbs
to the more cramped quarters they
would have to occupy in the buflt-up
portions of the city.