8

equal to a loss of time consumed by stage travel per 10 persons
of 100 hours—against 40 by railroad of 80 hours—or in
other words, a gain of eight hours per day for each passenger
who passes over the road—or in the aggregate, of the enor-
mous gain of 2,560,000 hours per annum by the use of steam
over horse power upon one short road of only forty miles in
length—which is equivalent at 10 hours per working day,
to 25,600 days labor.

Your committee have, in accordance with the views pre-
sented herein, reported a bill looking to the Bending abroad
a commissioner whose efforts shall be directed towards influen-
cing immigration to Baltimore by steamers and sailing ves-
sels. This bill also endeavors to provide a means to detain
and keep permanently within the limits of the State the flow
of immigration'which the establishment of the lines of steam-
ers heretofore spoken of in this report will do so much to at-
tract, but which the cupidity and interest of the great rail-
road company establishing those lines of steamers prompts
to transport out of the State over their long line of railroad,
and whose "runners" scarcely allow the immigrant to set foot
on our soil for one moment, or exercise any volition in select-
ing his future residence, but hurry him off to the depot to be
moved with railway velocity outside of our own State to the
great West, whose prosperity and population he has done so
much to increase. If the bill reported does not prevent this,
other legislation must be inaugurated to stop it.

Your committee has but one other suggestion to make.

Immigration will not go where facilities for ready access to
market are denied. Fortunately, our State is being check-
ered all over its beautiful surface with railroads, either pro-
jected or in project of construction. Let the "Maryland sys-
tem," of which we hear so much, be turned to the improve-
ment of our whole State, lather than to the aggrandizement
of an already overgrown and overweening corporation. Let
us encourage the construction of all works of internal im-
provement in the interest of Maryland, rather than confine
our legislation to the benefit of one road for which the State
has already done so much.

Let this be the "Maryland system" in future, and blessed
as we are with soil, climate, water facilities, mineral wealth,
water power, geographical location, public schools and places
of worship, and a resident population, a nobler than which
does not exist in any land, and our future prosperity and pre-
eminence will be as great as the most ardent lover of our
State could wish.

ODEN BOWIE, Chairman
Committee on Labor and Immigration.