THE DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES
Guilford Avenue and 21st Street, Baltimore 18, Maryland

Telephone: UNiversity 3900
(Term Expires May. 1949)

Name Postoffice
Commissioner:

W. Lee Elgin Hagerstown
Deputy Commissioner:

D. Marshall Schroeder Baltimore
Auditor:

Owen R. E. McGeeney .. Baltimore
Registrar of Titles:

Michael A. Noppinger Parkville
The Commissioner exercises, subject to review by the Courts, entire
jurisdiction over titling, registration and licensing of all motor
vehicles owned or operating continuously within the State. He has
jurisdiction and, subject to review by the Courts, sole authority in the
examination, qualifications and licensing of all persons operating
motor vehicles continuously within the State. Reciprocity with other
States gives to owners and drivers of cars coming into Maryland a
period of grace before they become subject to car registration, car
licensing and driver's permit regulations as provided in the Maryland
statutes.

All licensing fees, both for titling and registering cars, and regis-
tering drivers, as well as all fines for violations of the traffic regula-
tions and motor vehicle statutes, are collected and accounted for by
the Commissioner. The judges of the Baltimore City Traffic Court
and the police magistrates in the towns and rural sections make
returns to commissioner on all fines collected. No part of the costs
of arrests or prosecutions goes to State officers, where these officers
make the arrests.

The system of licensing all pleasure vehicles on a horse-power
basis, commercial vehicles and trucks on a tonnage basis, and public
service lines, both freight and passenger, on ton-mile or passenger-
mile basis, which had obtained for years in arriving at licensing
charges, was changed by the Legislature in 1922. Under this new
system, a gasoline tax became operative in Maryland on January 1st,
1924. This tax is in addition to a reduced horsepower fee and adjust-
ments under the other types of fees.

While trials, with either dismissals or convictions, carrying fines
or jail sentences before magistrates furnish a part of the machinery
of the enforcement of the motor vehicle statutes, control of all drivers'
permits to operate cars or motorcycles is vested solely in the Com-
missioner. He not only controls issuance of licenses and can refuse
to permit an unfit applicant to operate a car in the State, but in addi-
tion he holds the power of suspension for a stated period or the abso-
lute revocation of a driver's permit. This without regard to the action
of the Courts in cases tried before them.

Appeal to the Courts from the action of the Commissioner in sus-
pending, refusing or revoking licenses, is provided in the law, how-
ever.

By recent Acts of the Legislature, the following appear as safety
measures designed to enable the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles to
make the state highways safe and thereby reduce accidents to a
minimum, viz: (1) upon inability to satisfy a judgment arising from