The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1930-03-27

| Brooke Lee, chief lieutenant OF GoV-
ernor Richie in Western Maryland,
is displaying a signal of distress. This
is the meaning of the appeal made by
him and his Board of County Com
| missioners for protective coat of
whitewash at the hands of the Mont
gomery County Grand Jury.
For weeks and weeks the Rockville
Independent has been directing atten-
ton to the manner in which public
funds have been handled by the Lee
dominated county officials, but for
some reason the Lee paper, the Mary
land News, has not come to the front
with any reasonable defense or expla-
nation. Now when the fight for the
overthrow of the Lee control of the
county has become warm Lee goes to
the Grand Jury and asks that he and
his political partners in the county
government be exonerated or indict-
ed, and if exonerated, that the editors
OF the Montgomery Independent be in
dicted for libel.
It would seem that if Lee and his
political associates have been libeled
they would sue the Independent to
get damages or failing in that, put
the paper out of business. Lee has
a paper of his own made up of consol-
idations brought about to aid a Lee
political monopoly Of the county. The
. history of this effort to control the
sources of county news and get prac-
tically all the county money spent for
public advertising is we'll known.
1t may be that the Grand Jury as
now constituted is made up largely of
members of the Lee faction. Should
this be so it is easy to explain the
appeal of Lee to the Grand Jury, a
most remarkable proceeding and one
which must provoke smokers wher-
ever it is known.
At this distance it would appear
that the Lee paper might easily re-
flute the charges of the opposition
paper if those charges are, as alleged,
not based on fact. Of course Lee
wants the opposition paper put out of
business-for that is the Lee way Of
running things. Those who do not
agree should be crushed, of course.
But the very spectacle of the Dem
ocratic boss of Montgomery County
running to the Grand Jury in the
month of March asking for white
wash in preparation for the septem-
Der primary election is one of the nov
elites of the day. If the scheme works
in Montgomery County then it can
be transported to other bailiwicks.
Ex-Judge Walsh
Wins a Victory
1t was interesting to see former
Judge VIM. C. Walsh, of Allegany,
chief political adviser to His Majesty,
the Governor, come all the way from
his mountain home to take up the cud-
gels for the group seeking to estab-
lish a new bank at Reisterstown. The
question Of approving the charter was
up to the State Bank Commissioner
and he seemed to be hesitating when
Mr.. Walsh was brought in. Nothing
wrong about it, to be sure, but many
will wonder why it was that with so
many Baltimore lawyers ready and
willing to take such case the pro-
| jectors of the new bank saw fit to
send all the way to Cumberland to
get the former member of the Court
of Appeals. But it proved good in
vestment, anyway, for after many
days delay the Bank Commissioner
approved the charter, although in a
very similar case at Sykesville not so
far back he turned the charter of a
new bank down.
In the case of the Reisterstown
proposition some may think the rea-
son Mr.. Walsh was employed was his
closeness to the Governor. Anyway,
that's the way things are now work.
ing.
Honorary Bridge Builders
Named by the Governor
In anticipation of making his fourth
term announcement the Governor has
named his committee of honorary
bridge builders who are to consider
ways and means of bridging the Ches-
apeake Bay, an enterprise in which
the concern of His Majesty was great
ly increased by the hostility of East
ern Shore Democrats to his fourth
term project.
There is a long list of names but
no mention of any bridge builder. In
statement by The Governor he said
that ferries are to be taken into con-
sideration and former Governor Har-
rington is made a member. The for
mer Governor is Interested in the
Claiborne-Annapolis ferry and this
recognition was, of course, political
move. This was 10 smoothe down the
Harrington opposition to both fourth
term and bridge.
| B. Howell Griswold, Jr., is the
chairman of the committee and by the
time he gets through with the task