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terstate Commerce Commission to force the
merger.
If that takes place under the language
we have before you and which exists pres-
ently in Article III, section 48 of the Con-
stitution, that will amount to taking ad-
vantage of one of the corporate preroga-
tives granted by the State of Maryland
and will be conclusively presumed to be a
surrender of the B&O exemption.
Under all these circumstances, there-
fore, we believe that we have to continue
the language just the way it exists, except
we have dropped one reference to municipal
corporations, because we do not feel that
we want to take the chance that in monkey-
ing with the language or in failing to put
it in the constitution the State of Mary-
land will jeopardize the opportunity to
eliminate the tax exemption which the B&O
Railroad has and which we feel it itself
must put in jeopardy soon in order to
comply with its merger agreement.
Consequently, therefore, with that rather
involved and convoluted background, which
is nothing more than a history of an at-
tempt to regularize the B&O Railroad and
to remove the exemption which it has,
which no one else has — and this has, by
the way, been reflected in putting only a
20 per cent gross receipts tax upon the
B&O as compared to the hundred per cent
that others pay, that is to say, a one-half
of one per cent as compared to two and a
half per cent which other railroads pay —
but this generally has been a history of
whittling down on that exemption and try-
ing to do something about it.
The State of Maryland regrets that it
ever did it, but the B&O Railroad has had
the advantage of it to this day, and so we
would urge keeping it in order to keep alive
the hope in the heart of the State of Mary-
land that it will kill the B&O exemption
and exemptions of like character some day.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions of the Committee Chairman?
Delegate Clagett.
DELEGATE CLAGETT: Mr. Chairman,
in the light of what you have told us up
to this point, will you tell us, please, what
that first sentence means?
\ DELEGATE GALLAGHER: That first
sentence means, when you read it in con-
junction with old Article III, section 33,
i about no special laws — which we carried
over into another section in LB-2 — it
means that you cannot pass special laws
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creating corporations where general laws
already exist for the creation of corpora-
tions. For example, the State Tax Com-
mission was created in 1910 to do the
chartering instead of the General Assem-
bly itself, so where the General Assembly
has set up a mode of incorporating, it must
force those who incorporate to follow that
particular procedure rather than to go to
the General Assembly itself and have the
General Assembly pass a charter.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher,
notwithstanding your admonition to the
Committee on Style, would not the first
clause be more readable and make more
sense if you made these changes — if in
line 30 you struck the comma and the word
"and", and deleted the comma in line 31
and the comma in line 33?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, I do believe that the comma in line
31 ought to come out, because it just does
not make any sense.
THE CHAIRMAN: And in line 33?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I would
think so, but in so doing may I point out
that this would be a change from the lan-
guage as it was passed in 1851.
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, I am just try-
ing for the moment to get the sense of it.
Would you agree that for purposes of
making sense out of the first clause you
would also delete the comma and the word
"and" on line 30?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: "Corpora-
tions may be formed under general laws,
but shall not be created by special act and
except in cases where no general law ex-
ists providing for the creation of corpora-
tions — "
THE CHAIRMAN: Should you not de-
lete the comma and the "and" — "shall
not be created by special act except"?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: "Corpora-
tions may be formed under general laws
but shall not be created by special act ex-
cept in cases where no special law exists
providing for" — yes, I think that would
more aptly clarify the meaning of that
part of the sentence.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett, a
further question?
DELEGATE CLAGETT: No, the Chair
took my words.
THE CHAIRMAN: I am sorry.
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