Evening star., 1941-02-19
Bill Cuts Rate
From 3 10 3%
On Small Loans
Maryland Measure
Proposes Tightening
Of Regulations
BY BEN III. PEARSE,
Star staff

wide small loans bill, reducing legal
rates from 31a to 3 per cent a month
and making radical changes in reg
ulations, headed the list of meas
ures affecting nearby Washington
introduced in the Legislature yes
terday.
The small loans measure gives to
an administrator of loan laws all
the old powers of the commissioner
of small loans, Miss Mary E W.
Risleau, who is now under the juris-
diction of the State bank commits
sioner, and additional functions
Tightening up the small loans regu-
latiOnS.
While it did not actually separate
the small loans Office from the bank
commissioner department, it car
ried out many of the suggestions
understood to be contemplated by
the Legislative Council and was in
troduced by House Speaker Thomas
E. Conlon.
Among the other bills introduced
yesterday was one by Delegate Ruth
Shoemaker of Bethesda, eXempting
boilers used on Montgomery County
dairy farms not exceeding horse
power from the State boiler inSpec-
ton law. and another by Delegate
John S. White of Brentwood, allow
ing employees of the State Boys
School at Cheltenham credit on the
civil service retirement record for
service prior to October, 1887, when
the school was taken over by the
State.
Eliminates Dairy Boiler Inspections.
Miss Shoemaker's bill would elm
mate the inspection fees on dairy
boilers used for heating water to
sterilize milk containers.
Under a bill introduced by Sena-
tor Robert Peter of Rockville, real
and personal property of incorporat-
ed fire departments in the State
would be specifically exempted from
taxation. Such departments are not
taxed now. but enjoy no legal ex-
emption. Mr.. Peter explained.
The small loans measure, besides
reducing the interest rate for small
loans. legally defined as loans OF
less than 5000. prohibits payment or
deduction of interest in advance and
requires securing a license from an
administrator Of loan laws, instead
of the bank commissioner, as here
tofore.
Banned in the new measure is
the conduct of a small loans business
in the same Office where other
business is conducted and the ad-
vertisement or distribution Of false
or misleading statements. Rates
would be required to be stated and
books would not only be kept, but
used and annual reports under oath
would be made. All orders of the
administrator would be written, &C
cording to the bill, and would be-
come a public record.
The bill prohibits the taking of
liens on life insurance policies, as
well as real property or chattels, as
under the present law, and also
would outlaw wage assignments or
orders for payments of wages as
security.
Compromise Is Seen.
LEGISLATION to open the Potomac
River to oyster handscrapers, sub
ject Of sharp controversy among
the General Assembly's tidewater
county members, appeared headed
for a compromise today.
Sponsored by Senator ElWood
Die. Somerset County Republican,
the bill would permit handscrapers
to operate in the Potomac between
November l and January l, reopen
ing the river to such operations for
the first time in 10 years.
1t was reported opposing groups
had agreed tentatively to amend
ments which would break a dead
lock in the Senate Chesapeake Bay
and Tributaries Committee. One
amendment would open the river
for two yearS-until the next Leg
islature meets.
In those two years the Conser-
walton Commission would haYe the
authority to ban handScraplng in
the Potomac at any time and for
any period it deemed necessary.
Proponents of the Die bill, it
was said, demanded in return that
the Conservation Commission be
given similar open and shut"
powers over oyster areas in the
Chesapeake Bay.
Controversy of Long Standing.
The Potomac Rivers oysters have
long been an issue between Charles
and st. Marys County Watermen,
on the Western shore, and watermen
from counties on the lower Eastern
shore.
The General Assembly yesterday
received % new bills and passed 80,
IL of which went to the Governor
for his signature. The House
adopted favorable reports on 81
measures and ordered them printed
for third reading and final passage
Some of the new bills introduced
would:
Exempt real and personal property
of incorporated fire companies from
taxation.
Place a 1-cent tax on each quart
of ice cream and on each bottle of
soft drinks manufactured and sold.
The tax would be paid by the ice
cream manufacturer and the soft
drink bottlerS.