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politically, by its system of city government. Baltimore, unlike any other city or
town in Maryland, was not a part of a county, and thereby combined the functions
of county and city in one governmental structure. In form, Baltimore's city
government on the eve of the Depression was a unicameral councilmanic
government, with a city council responsible for legislation, a city administration

^c

headed by an elected mayor, and a largely elected judiciary.'"

Baltimore's city government had undergone renovations during the late
Progressive era and the 1920s, the main thrust of which was to make city
government more responsive to the will of the business elites. This renovations
were of two types. The first type involved formal structural reforms, most notably
the Home Rule Amendment to the state constitution, which gave the city more
extensive rights of self-government than other municipalities in the state and freed
it from the interference of rural-based elites; the replacement of the bicameral city
council with a unicameral one and a reduction of election districts from seventeen
to six, thereby diluting the power of locally- and popularly-based forces (in
particv.lar, eliminating Black councilmanic representation by 1932); and the
establishment of a Board of Estimates to oversee city finances. The Board of
Estimates was particularly cherished by the business community: "the most
important executive body in the city," one influential business publication called it.
In addition, reforms were made to city programs that particularly affected the
business climate, most notably to the educational system.

The second set of renovations took place, strictly speaking, outside the
formal structures of city government. These included the establishment by the
business community, under the sponsorship of the city government, of a series of
boards and bureaus designed to oversee economic development in the private
sector. These bodies also lobbied both city and state governments for pro-business
policies like Baltimore's municipal tax breaks for corporations and against laws