1904.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES. 541

MEMORIAL.

To the Honorable,

The Senate and House of Delegates of Maryland :
The Baltimore Reform League, an association of
legal voters of this State, formed in the words of its
Constitution, "to secure fair elections, promote honest
and efficient government, and expose and bring to-
punishment official misconduct in the State of Mary-
land, and especially in the city of Baltimore," re-
spectfully but earnestly protests against the enact-
ment as laws of bills recently introduced in one or
other of your Honorable Bodies to abolish separate
municipal elections in Baltimore city, to make regis-
tration of voters therein qnadrenial, and to require
the confirmation of nominations for municipal offices
by both Branches of the City Council jointly ; the of
feet of such enactment would be to remove safeguards
provided by the New City Charter against partisan
influences in municipal affairs.

Some of the largest taxpayers of Baltimore city are
members of the League and suffered heavy losses in
the late disastrous fire; the League can not therefore
be suspected of indifference to the advantages of econ-
omy in municipal expenditure. It believes that such
economy may be readily effected through the abolition
of useless offices, the selection and retention of public
servants for merit only, without regard to partisan or
personal interests, the requirment that a fair return in
service be made for all salaries or wages paid by the
city, and the administration of all its departments on
strict business principles; the saving thus possible
would amount to many times the cost of registration
and a separate municipal election; but experience,
both in Baltimore and elsewhere, has shown that any
reasonable hope of salutary economy in municipal ex-
penditure is based on taking all the city's business
out of politics.

The provisions of the New City Charter, which it is
now proposed to repeal, 'were intended to take the
city's business out of politics; they have not fully ac-
complished their purpose, tut they have done much
to free the municipal government from merely partizan