Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1917-10-10
SAY CITY IS UHFAIR
COUNTY MEN INSIST REFER
ENDuM SHOULD Sc GIVEN.
Claim People Of State do Not All IN
dsrstand That Baltimore County
Is Not Fighting Annexation II
Presented In q just Bill.

prepared by the Baltimore County Non
Partisan Citizens Protective Committee,l
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 fair bill, If 1t submits the
question to a vote OF the people pro
posed 10 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.
resentatives of the city, contains
many other provisions which the Bal
timore county people term oppressive
and unfair. but the city men who are
pushing II insist that It must be
passed just as 1t is. They demanded
that both political parties, at their
recent State conventions, should de
clare In favor of 1t. The Democratic
Convention declined to do this, but
declared its approval of fair bill
which would submit the matter TO
the people, as provided by the Constl-
tuition. The Republican Convention
declared in favor of the bill as it is,
without a 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
erai 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
cd to the House of Delegates two
years ago. are candidates for re-elee-
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, it 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 baIl
have adopted as their campaign cry,
"A referendum means no annexation. {"
This, of course, means that they as
sumo that the people of the suburbs
will reject the proposed bill if It is
submitted TO them. 1t is contended
by their opponents that this Is not a
fair assumption because when. ia
1888, fair annexation bill was pro
posed ii was passed by the Legisla.
ture with but little opposition and
the voters in the northern and west
ern suburbs approved 1t 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 ii is unfair, and
that the omission of the referendum
makes 1t more so.
Mayor Preston, it is asserted, has
endeavored to make it appear that
the residents of the territory which
he proposes to take in are persons
who have left the city to escape tax.
alton and therefore, as 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 built-up
portions of the city.