942 LAWS OF MARYLAND. [CH. 456

adequate road or highway practically precludes the farmers in
that section from raising and marketing food crops on hun-
dreds of acres of valuable and productive land; therefore:

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That the State Roads Commission of Maryland is hereby
authorized and directed as soon after the passage of this Act
as practicable, to build, construct and thereafter maintain as
a part of the State Road System, an improved concrete or
gravel highway from Hughesville, in Charles County, Mary-
land, to Benedict, in said county and State, a distance of about
six miles.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take
effect from June 1, 1918.

Approved April 18th, 1918.

CHAPTER 456.

AN ACT to add a new Article to the Annotated Code of Mary-
land, to be known as Article 25A, and to be entitled "Char-
tered Counties of Maryland," said Article providing a grant
of express powers to such of the counties of Maryland as
shall adopt a charter or form of government under the pro-
visions of Article XT-A of the Constitution of the State,
adopted by the people at the November Election, 1915, and
entitled "Local Legislation."

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, That a new Article be and the same hereby is added to
the Annotated Code of Maryland, the same to be known as
Article 25A, to be entitled "Chartered Counties of Maryland,"
and to read as follows:

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

1. The inhabitants of any county adopting a charter or
form of government under the provisions of Article XI-A of
the Constitution of the State by virtue of such adoption shall
have perpetual succession; may sue and be sued; may pur-
chase or otherwise acquire and hold real, personal and mixed
property, either absolutely or in trust for any public purpose;
may dispose of the same subject to the limitations herein pro-
vided, if not contrary to the terms of any trust; may have.