Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1954-10-07
The Letter Box

ment provides SUCH d cOHlpIeHeI-
sive law prescribing the require.
ments for municipal incorpora-
ton and the limits within which
the residents of a municipality
can govern themselves.
To date twenty states have
granted municipal home rule to
cities within their borders. Most
of the movement toward mum
cipal home rule has taken place
within the last fifty years al
though the first state to take
steps in this direction was Mis-
souri, in 1875.
Historically, this development
followed the prohibition of spe-
cial and local laws by individual
states. In colonial times, when
the populations of the states were
small and the concern of the
states not as diverse and numer-
Gus, the state legislature regu-
lated the affairs of individuals
and corporations as well as the
affairs. of local governments by
special and local acts.
Special legislation was enacted
granting a divorce, changing a
name, or Incorporating bust
ness. In the first part of the
nineteenth century, attempts
were made to expedite the
functioning of the legislatures by
drafting comprehensive laws
which set up general and auto
matte qualifications or proce-
dures for matters formerly taken
care of in numerous pieces of
special legislation. Thus the
Maryland Constitution of 1851
provided that corporations, ex-
cept for municipal, be formedN
under general laws and pro-
hibited legislatively-granted d.
vorces. The present Constitution,
adopted in 1867, contains most of
these prohibitions against special
legislation. The only significant
development since 1867 is the
county home rule amendment of
1915 which granted Baltimore
City and the county governments
the authority to adopt their own
charters.
While Maryland has made no
further efforts to eliminate local
legislation, three-fourths of the
states have progressed to the
point of prohibiting most special
and local legislation. Louisiana
was the first to enact a constitu-
tional provision restricting a
legislatures authority over NUM-
cipalities in 1912. In the next
forty years several other states
placed similar prohibitions in
their constitutions.
Many of the states which pro-
hibited local legislation 9dhave
followed up with the logical COP
sequence - the grant of NUM-
cipal home rule. On November 2,
the voters of Maryland will deter
mine whether Maryland cities
and towns are to be granted home
rule authority.
The Municipal Home Rule
Amendment has received the en-
dorsement in the platform of
both the Democratic and Repub-
lican parties of Maryland. This
bipartisan support has been rein
forced by the additional endorse
ment in numerous county plat
forms.
Maryland Municipal League.
Editor:
Congratulations on your news
papering sense in using the EN-
side the Government" column of
the well-known and reputable
Howard Lewis.
Mr.. Lewis column was the
thing I most missed when the
Times-Herald went out of bust
ness, and 1 haven't been able to
get good government "coverage"
from any columnist until now.
Although I live in Washington,
I make it a policy every Thursday
now to ride out to the District
line to pick up the weeks Senti-
mel, and many of my government
worker friends do the same.
Richard Holton.