The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1941-03-06
GROWING
PAINS
The Fireworks Bill
By MARIE O'DEA

delegates ana is now penang IN the
State Senate, prohibits the possession
sale or discharge of fireworks with
out a permit from the Insurance Com
missioner. Permits may be secured fol-
public displays provided certain safety
precautions are taken, surety bond is
furnished and local regulations do not
forbid such displays.
The bill does not interfere with the
manufacture of fireworks or their sale
to the Federal, State and municipal
governments nor to customers outside
the State. Nor does it prevent traffic
in pyrotechnics such as signal flares,
railroad track torpedoes and similar
commercial, marine and industrial
necessities.
In short, its sole function is to
check the appalling accident toll taken
every year from our own Maryland
boys and girls. The last time that
such bill came up, certain State
Senators closed their eyes to the
menace and heartlessly allowed the
manning and killing of Marylanders
to go on, even in their own districts.
For instance, the Senators from
Dorchester, Howard, Kent and Prince
Georges must face the fact that in
those counties the fireworks accidents
increased last year despite bans in
towns like Rock Hall in Kent, and
Hyattsville, Takoma Park and Green
belt in Prince Georges.
In Wicomico county one of the most
horrible accidents occurred in 1888.
A boy was literally blown to pieces,
a second boy lost part of his foot and
a man had his left leg and the fingers
of his left hand blown off. The citi-
zens Of Salisbury rose up against fire
works. Yet none of these events
stirred the gentleman from Wicomico.
In 1887, little Baltimore girl was
lighting that safest" of all fireworks,
a sparkler, when her dress caught fire
and she was fatally burned. More than
two hundred other persons are
manned and crippled by fireworks in
Baltimore every year, yet two city
Senators voted to allow this carnage
to go on unrestricted.
A Caroline county child had her
throat severely cut but that did not
make the gentleman from Caroline
vote to keep firecrackers out of other
children's hands. Nor was he influ-
enced by the fact that residents of
Denton and of the Senator's own home
town, fredericksburg, restrict the use
of fireworks. 'e 't.'#
4 l.LNor did it move the Somerset
county Senator to have one of his fell
low-countians lose the sight of an eye
while setting off a firecracker. The
gentleman's constituents in Crisfield
and Princess Anne have regulated
fireworks in their own towns but the
Senator voted to leave the rest of the
State unprotected.
The people of Talbot county have
indicated their apprehension of the
menace of fireworks by regulating
against them in Easton, St. Michaels
and Tilghman's Island, yet their rep
resentativc in the Senate voted his
Indifference to the safety of other
Marylanders.
The same is true of the Allegany
county Senator whose home town
Cumberland, as we'll as the town OF
Homecoming are against fireworks.
The gentleman from Worcester
county is equally short-sighted in
view of the disappearing attitude OF
the people of Ocean City and Snow
Hill.
There is something grimly amusing
in the fact that the Senator from
Garrett county who wants to keep
fireworks blasting away at our chill.
dren halls from town called Acct.
dent. Furthermore, the towns OF
Friendsville and Oakland have set ur
| lOCdl reg uldC lOllS regarding IlIeWOlhS
Most pathetic of all is the struggle
Of the people of Cecil county against
this menace that was imported into
their midst from another State. Ches
apeake City and Rising Sun and ever
the town of Elkton, itself, where the
major fireworks industry is situated
have set up fireworks regulations.
In fact, more than sixty Maryland
towns and parts of Baltimore, Calvert
Frederick, Montgomery and Talbo
counties as we'll as Baltimore city
have tried to regulate the use of fire
works. But all of it is to no avail be
cause fireworks can be procured il
the immediate neighborhoods of al
these localities.
Baltimore, despite two ordinances
has approximately 220 fireworks &C
cidents every Fourth of July simpl!
, because the city is completely en-
circled by fireworks stands tempting
ployed ait Aberdeen Proving Ground