The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1936-03-05

governor NICE CeAL covering Tie
essential parts of his message follows:
d" action of the federal government
in disseminating its contributions to
the State of Maryland for direct relief
of the unemployed, the termination of
the emergency gross receipts tax law
as of March 31st, of this year, make
it necessary for the Governor to call
your honorable body into special and
extraordinary session, which action I
have taken under the authority vested
in me by the Constitution of Mary
land.
"Only the grave emergency now
confronting us and affecting, as it
does, the welfare Of so many of our
people, would justify me in taking
this step. 1t is my earnest hope, in
view of the unavoidable expense in
cident to any meeting of the General
Assembly, that you will make the ses-
sion as brief as possible, consistent
with the Importance of such matters
as shall be presented to you for your
consideration.
$4,000 Required Relief
when measures for relief were
considered by you at your last ses-
sion, there were estimated to be $4,000
cases requiring aid throughout the
State, representing approximately
100000 persons. Of this number, 3d.
900 cases (about 10000 persons)
were on relief in the City of Baltimore,
and the remainder were residents of
the various counties. XXX
"The state relief program has been
financed from the funds produced by
this tax (gross receipts) and from fed
eral contributions. Federal contribu-
lions for direct relief were abruptly
discontinued as of November 80, 1885,
since which time the complete burden
of direct relief has been upon the
State of Maryland. Prior, however,
to that time, the federal government
had inaugurated a new plan known
as the works progress administration,
and we were told that this plan by
December list, 1886, would absorb all
employables then on direct relief, thru
it's work project However, this OBJ
jective was not achieved and Deem
Der 1st found US with many able-bod-
led unemployed on the relief rolls.
II am advised that only 24,500 per-
sons have been taken over through the
works progress administration pro-
gram. However, regardless of the
type of employment which has alb
sorbed people from relief rolls, there
now remain throughout the State 49,
773 cases requiring direct relief, in
volving the relief of over $4,000 per-
sons, which indicates the present of
this problem. These figures were fur
nished me by the state relief admins
traitor on February 28th, 1886, and deal
with the month of January, the latest
information available.
State Must Shoulder Burden
"Thus we were forced to shoulder,
as of December LIST, 1885, and are still
under compulsion to sustain, this bur-
den of direct relief-far greater than
had been anticipated, and which we
were led to believe would not be ours.
Much suffering has been the result.
Furthermore, we are faced with con-
tinuation of this burden, without
funds to take care, in any manner, of
unemployment relief after March 31st
of this year, and there will be some
difficulty in dealing with the needs
of the situation even up to March 31st,
which may necessitate the local units
providing funds through their au-
thority to borrow. The situation is
now acute.
"Aside from any provision you may
make to take of direct relief the
source of revenue to support our old
age pension law must be determined
at this session. While the relief of the
unemployed is an emergency measure,
which, in time, should adjust itself to a
normal minimum, our system of old
age pensions, which was inaugurated,
is a permanent activity of the State
of Maryland and entirely in line with
the established policy of the state to
care for it's INDECENT aged and afflicted.
This, however, is dependent on the
emergency gross receipts tax law for
its support, and that law will expire
on March 31st.
Normal Income insufficient
"The income of the state from it's
normal sources of revenue is not suf-
ficient to provide for either of these
two activities, and both must be pro-
vided for in such special tax program
as you shall adopt at this extraordi-
nary session. x XXX
Recognizing the magnitude of the
problem its statewide implications, its
relationship to the federal social Sc
curity act in its various phases, our
responsibilities to the needy and the
tax payers, and hoping to be in po-
sition to have the results of an impair