when there was not time for that calm and deliberate consideration of measures which is the surest safeguard against hasty and improvident legislation.

I have ventured to make these suggestions in regard to legislative expenses and procedure in the hope that they may steer you into lines of legislative promptness and

economy.

I am not niggardly, nor am I opposed to the appointment of all the officers and employes necessary to expedite your business and to enable you to perform your work as lawmakers without inconvenience to yourselves, and without taxing either your patience or your energy; but I do urge you not to create sinecures, not to put men on the pay-rolls in the middle or at the end of the Session and pay them for the whole ninety days, not to vote the people's money away as gifts to favorites, and not to appoint men who will not perform the work of the positions to which they are assigned.

I simply submit these suggestions, facts and figures. The remedy is with you.

LOBBYING.

Lobbying is an evil and corrupting influence that has justly aroused the antagonism of all good citizens. You should take prompt and drastic steps to suppress this evil, and to compel those engaged in the nefarious occupation to keep out of the legislative halls.

A vigorous enforcement of the rules of your respective bodies will cause them and their associates to disappear from the Capitol, and thus relieve you from their obnoxious presence, which so hampers and interferes with the orderly and safe conduct of your business.

You are the agents of your constituents, and it is your duty to make yourselves acquainted with their views and

wishes. This can be accomplished by direct intercourse with them.

They should have the fullest and freest opportunity for discussion before committees of public and private measures, and before either or both of the branches of the General Assembly when the measures in which they are interested are of such moment as to justify a hearing. This privilege should not only be accorded to individuals, but to corporations whose interests are affected, or claimed to be affected, by any proposed legislation, and such corporations should have the right to be heard through their regular officers or attorneys.

What the public is opposed to, and what has brought discredit upon legislative bodies in this State in the past, are political lobbyists, who combine to sell and control legislation for their personal benefit and who trade upon their influence with legislators.

The trusted runners of such legislation-brokers have, in the past, been billeted upon the taxpayers, in sinecure positions, as employes of the Legislature, which positions yielded not only a per diem of five dollars, but gave them that which was far more valuable, the privileges of the legislative halls and uninterrupted access to the bill-files and legislative records, thus enabling them to tamper with bills on their passage and in the engrossing rooms, before they reached the Governor for his signature.

THE CORRUPT USE OF MONEY IN ELECTIONS.

In my inaugural address two years ago, I recommended the passage of a stringent Corrupt Practices Act. The developments since then regarding the enormous corruption funds contributed by insurance companies and corporations for carrying elections, have so aroused public indignation that the demand has become universal for drastic legislation to effectually prohibit the contribution and use of money for improper election purposes.

The cure demanded is complete publicity of the financial transactions of the national and State committees of political parties, with the names of all contributors and the amount of their contributions, to whom paid, and for what purpose. In order to cut off the main source of supply of such funds, corporations should be prohibited from making contributions to political parties or to individuals to be used to influence elections.

Whatever measure you may mature should include primary as well as general elections.

This is a question that should not be viewed from a party stand-point. Every man who favors purity in politics and clean and decent elections should rally to the support of a bill that will stop bribe-giving, vote-selling, and corrupt methods in both primary and general elections.

THE ELECTION LAW.

There is a universal desire for amendments to the election

law. In this I heartily concur. It should be so amended that the intent of the voter shall prevail in determining whether a vote shall be counted, unless there is affirmative and indisputable evidence that a mark has been placed upon the ballot for the purpose of identifying a bought vote.

It should also be provided that a mistake in marking too many candidates under one group, shall not invalidate the whole ticket, but that it apply only to the candidates in the group improperly marked. The ballot should be uniform in size and style of type, and freed from devices of any kind or character to enable any ignorant voter to locate any particular candidate or set of candidates. A voter should be given every opportunity to enable him to properly fold his ticket.

I do not favor a return to emblem voting. It is natural for those who seek to increase the power and influence of the ignorant and venal voter to advocate a return to the emblem, thus making it easy for such persons to cast

their votes. The sentiment of the times, however, is in favor of a ballot that will require some degree of intelligence upon the part of the voter in marking his ticket. The leading States which now have the emblem to guide the ignorant, or the square to enable the undiscriminating party man to vote for all the nominees of his party by simply making one cross-mark, are moving to do away with that form of ballot and to adopt the form used in this State.

Notably is this the case in New York and Pennsylvania. The laws of fourteen States of the Union, using official ballots, provide that all candidates shall be voted for by marking their names individually, or, as in two instances, by erasing the names of the opposing candidates.

I believe that the restoration of the emblem and the grouping of the candidates of each party under separate headings and emblems would be a step backward for Maryland, and accepted as an encouragement of the ignorant, thoughtless and partisan voter.

PRIMARY ELECTIONS.

Primary elections for the selection and nomination of party candidates should be honestly and fairly conducted, and the fullest and freest opportunity given to the rank and file of a party in the selection of their candidates.

The Convention system is unsatisfactory and unpopular. It is the medium through which party managers, the men who make a business of politics, control and manipulate party organizations, and often influence them in antagonism to the welfare of the public.

The experience in Baltimore city since the adoption of the Primary Election Law demonstrates that the citizen, when he knows that his vote will be fairly counted, will take part in the primary elections of the party with which he is affiliated.

The people are all powerful and can control primary and final elections when they determine to think for themselves politically do their civic duty. This was fully shown by the recent elections throughout the country.

A Primary Election Law should be passed for the whole State, and it should provide that aspirants for State offices should have the right to submit their candidacy to a direct vote of the people.

The system of nominations by a direct vote has worked well in Virginia and Wisconsin, and in the city of Baltimore. Why not give it a trial in Maryland?

As primary elections are now conducted in the counties of the State, it is no crime either to sell or buy votes at such elections, nor for members of other political parties or residents of other counties or States to vote at such primaries; it is no crime for a voter to cast more than one ballot, or for the judges to receive more than one ballot from the same person, or for the judges to make false returns of the vote cast.

This condition should not be tolerated longer.

THE FINANCES OF THE STATE.

The annual report of the Comptroller of the State Treasury is one of the most comprehensive and instructive ever submitted by that Department. It should receive your careful consideration. His comments upon the public debt and the receipts and disbursements are fully supported by detailed statements, so clear and definite that you can readily see the exact condition of every fund and every source of revenue. You will find therefrom that the finances of the State are in a most satisfactory condition.

Your attention is especially called to the receipts each year from all sources of revenue other than direct taxation. The Comptroller estimates that they will be $1,611,878 during 1906.