The daily banner., 1919-08-23

damned at half a dozen points, but
dams have also been erected along
Deer Creek, the Octoraro and along
other streams tributory to the Sus-
quehanna, whose current from the
hills is rapid and, therefore, eminent
ly adapted for production of power.
BY the almost universal use of cleo
tricity as motive power tha worlds
industries have been revolutionized.
Automobiles and heavy trucks are
operated by stored electricity, whose
economical employment for this
purpose was made possible by Edison
after experiments covering 40 years.
Farmers have almost entirely sup
planted horse and gasoline power
with electricity in operating ploWs,
haFfows,s mowers, corn cutters, the
|cfeamery. and other machinery. TrolE
ley lines ramify the whole country,
all operated by electricity generate
by water power.
Maryland awoke Is years ago to
the value of the water powers on
her rivers and is charging a fran
Echise tax which yields over half a
million dollars annually. The State
was not SO liberal as it was in the
early years of the last century, when
|it gave Rumsey, the inventor OF! the
|steamboat, the exclusive right to ops
crate his boats ON the Chesapeake
Bay and its tributaries, and when the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad char
ter was granted.
Taking retrospective view over
the hills OF Hartford and soYer the
hills of northern Cecil 1 pause for a
minute to pay tribute to that spirit
of independence, which before the
colonists declared for separation in
|spired the patriots of Hartford to
meet, declare their independence of
England, pledge their lives and for
tunes to the carrying out of their
belief in freedom, and to write bold
ly their names as proof of their al
legiance to the principles which they
had 4espoused. This spirit is not yet
dead in Hartford. In this cradle of
liberty have been rocked men who
have written their names high on
the scrolls of Maryland, annals.
Am ong them have been Henry w. Ar
Cher Henry D. Fernandis, Otho
Scott, Murray Vandiver, Herman
Stump Nominal Rodgers, Edwin H.
Webster, Governor Bradford and
that Colonel Webster, who. while in
command of a handful of troops in
the rear of Fort McHenry, in the at
tack ON Baltimore by the British in
1914, repealed a superior force Of
the enemy who had landed on the
south shore of the Spring Gardens
and whose objective was Fort Gov
ington. By defeat of this force Col.
Webster saved Baltimore.
After crossing the Susquehanna /
got a glimpse of old West Noting
ham Academy, famous for a century
as a1secondary school, There lived
that defender of the Presbyterian
faith, the Rev. DR.. Samuel Gaily,
whose fame extended far beyond the
confines of Maryland. One of his
sons became a president of the
United States Steela Corporation An
other became a celebrated lawyer in
New York Among its hundreds of
graduates who have passed under
my notice were the late Austin L.
Crothers, governor of the State, and
the late C.. G. Crothers, of the Elk
ton bar; Peter z. Tome, Howard
Bryant mad Sidney Hall, Baltimore,
and former Senator James J.. Asher,
of Hartford.
Following the rushing Susquehan-
ma, with its waters tumbling over
dams, the building of the Tome
School, perched On the hill above
Port Deposit, attract and hold the
eye. Following the example of
Johns Hopkins, Jacob Tome, over SO
years, ago, provided in his will for
f1aaa-- h.
|tials maintenance of the school, from
whose doors there have gone boys,
now men, who have made their mark
in every activity that calls for high
lyi developed brain power. My friend
Eof years standing, Mr.. Kinlble, the
Etreasurer of the school, and who has
led farmers of the country into the
profitable paths of scientific training
in agricultural pursuits, was a meEa-
ber Of the State Senate during sew
|eral years. He closed the lid on
State extravagan and sat on It
while he was in the Senate. It is a
|pityshe did not go to Annapolis years
ago, when The was younger and his
ambition keener tits singular CO
incidence that on an island in the
Susquehanna, below Port Deposit,
and within sight of tn comparative
ly modern Tome School, was planned
the first university in America by a
Scotch settler, who provided an en-
dowment I'm his will. -Sv@s
looking down through the vista
Of years Elkton,S my next stopping
place, seems to me to have been a
victim of misfortune for the town
was selected century ago as the
northern terminus of a railroad to
extend entirely within Maryland to
the Vifginia. line at Newtown, now.
Pocomoke city. For this enterprise
the Maryland Legislature appfopEia-
ted 5000, zoo. And thereby hangs q
tale worth telling: So profigate was
the Legislature in appropriating & laA
lions upon millions of dollars for
the construction of the Baltimore
and ohio, the Northern Central and
Phi1ad delphia, Wilmin gton and Balti-
more Railroads, for the digging Of
the Chesapeake and Ohio Susaue-
hanna Tidewater and Chesapeake
and Delaware Canals that the East
ern Shore and Southern Maryland
counties rebelled. AS these tive Sec
tions, which together were = about
one-third of the State in population
and wealth, viewed the States out
lay for internal improvements they
were deriving no benefit, though pay
ing one-third Of the cost.
-A--G- .
ri NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.