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

Editor:
Are. you aware that we live
in a filthy County?
AS proof, 1 ask you to hop
in your car and drive either on
a State or County road. There
you will see on the roadsides
beer cans, whisky bottles, old
tires, icecream boxes, newspap.
ers, paper plates and tin cans.
An appalling mess in County
sometimes called the "Westches-
ter County" of Maryland.
Also, you will find that our
roadsides are not ieveled off and
grass planted to the edge of the
pavement to give a finished look.
One gets the idea that every
roadside in the county is to be
torn up tomorrow for widening.
If the weeds have been cut,
they are left to brown and with
er. You can follow the trail of
the garbage and trash trucks by
the litter they drop in the streets.
Along our most beautiful roads,
there are dumps of tincans.
Why can't we have Streetclean-
erS for our county roads? Why
can't we have laws prohibiting
motorists from dumping trash on
the roadsides? Why can't these
laws be on signs on every road
in the county?
South Carolina, Indiana, Ne
braska, Ohio and Vermont give
stiff fines to the motoriSt who
dumps litter on their highways.
Those states have pride.
Recently while travelling to the
West coast by car, we saw men
in northern Illinois on country
road cutting the grass on the
roadsides. They were followed by
another group who picked up the
trash. In Iowa there were warn
ings against dropping trash, but
the state provided trash barrels
on the roadsides.
Let's have some pride and see
that. our roadsides are cleaned
up. Surely, we pay enough taxes.
Let's have a caravan of civic
minded persons take our County
officials over the roads to see
the filth.
If that fails we might gather
up the beer cans and trash in
front of our own property and
dump it on the Court House
steps. That would be quite a
dump if everyone in the County
followed suit.
Mildred Stevenson
Editor:
All Maryland voters, those
living in rural areas as well as
those living in Incorporated
areas, will determine, the future
course of municipal government
in Maryland at the polls on No
vember 2. The voters will decide
whether the Maryland Constitu-
ton will be amended so as to give
home rule authority to the cities
and towns in this State. The pro-
posed amendment does not apply
to Baltimore City, which already
has home rule authority.
The proposed amendment pro-
hibits the Maryland General
Assembly from enacting laws
applicable to just one city or town
and grants the municipalities the
right to adopt and amend their
own charters. Under existing
laws every new municipal charter
and every amendment to an
existing charter must be passed
upon by the State Legislature.
The amendment provides that
charter changes of the municipali-
ties must in no way infringe upon
or contradict the general laws of
Maryland and debt and tax limits
of the municipalities will still be
determined by the State Legisla-
ture by local laws.
Today the comprehensive gen.
eral law is a common phenom-
enon. Companies are incor-
porated, licenses are issued and
divorces are granted under
general laws which prescribe the
limits and requirements under
which the law is effective. The
Municipal Home Rule Amend