ALBERT C. RITCHIE, GOVERNOR.               1433

free. Such bridge or tunnels would be maintained by the
State Roads Commission, and tolls and revenues collected by
that Commission. Such a plan for the financing of desired
revenue producing public improvements represents a new and
constructive idea in Maryland Government, and may prove of
vast importance in the working out of the future development
of the State.

Your Committee, however, believes that the only structure
of the magnitude, importance and cost which would bring it
within the purview of the Commission's plan and for which
there is a present demand is one across the Chesapeake Bay,
and that to create an entirely new State department for the
purpose of considering and perhaps undertaking not only this
project, but any other major toll bridge projects which might
be urged, is not justified at this time.             ,

Your Committee is not unmindful of the advantages sug-
gested in the construction and financial plan recommended by
the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Commission for any major toll
bridge or tunnel which the State should undertake. We are
advised that such a plan has been successfully used in a num-
ber of other States. We simply think that there is no need of
a new State department in Maryland to deal with the subject.
Rather do we think that the Commission's plan should be
considered in connection with the proposition of a structure
across the Chesapeake Bay alone.

Your Committee has held a number of meetings and hear-
ings, and has carefully considered the data, estimates and
general information presented to it. The hearings have been
attended by the chairman and members of the Chesapeake Bay
Bridge Committee of the Baltimore Association of Commerce,
officers of the Claiborne-Annapolis Ferry Company, members
of the General Assembly, representatives of the Chesapeake
Bay Bridge Company, which is the private enterprise now
holding the necessary Federal and State franchises to erect a
bridge across the Bay, and others interested.

When the proposition of a Bay bridge was before the 1929
General Assembly, the whole idea was that it should be and
was going to be built by private capital, and the General
Assembly provided such State-aid as the private capital inter-
ested considered necessary, namely, approach roads and a
subsidy.

It soon became obvious, however, that private capital, al-
though convinced that the enterprise was entirely practicable