Excerpt from The New Charter of Baltimore City, Enacted by the Acts of 1898, Ch; 123: With All Amendments and Additions Thereto Down to and Including the Acts of 1914, and With an Appendix Containing the Acts Establishing the City's Boundaries, the General Condemnation Law and the Agreement Between Baltimore City and Baltimore County, as T The Commission appointed pursuant to the ordinance of the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, approved November 24, 1897, to draft a new Charter for the City of Baltimore, herewith, as directed by said ordinance, respectfully submit the result of their labors. After mature deliberation the Commission decided at the beginning of their work of preparing a new organic Act for the City of Baltimore, to be governed by certain well-defined and recognized principles relating to municipal government, which had been found in other cities to be beneficial and which it was thought were fundamental and necessary, if there were to be an improvement on the present law relating to the City of Baltimore. Some of these controlling principles were: 1. To locate responsibility upon public officials in such a manner that it could not be evaded. 2. To give representation to the minority party in all departments, when composed of more than one person, so that an opportunity might be given to the minority to scrutinize the actions of the party in power. 3. To hold municipal elections at a different time from the State and Federal elections, in order to separate municipal affairs from the influence of the political issues which are necessarily involved in State and Federal elections. 4. To require the appointment of experts in all departments where professional knowledge and skill are required. 5. To grant the use of the streets and other public property for limited terms, and to the highest bidder, subject to the control and regulation of the city during the period of the grant. 6. To check hasty legislation, especially in matters relating to expenditure of the public moneys, and to prohibit the creation of floating debts. 7. To remove the public school system from all possible political influence. 8. To plate the indigent sick and poor, when their treatment, care or support is paid for by the city, under the supervision of city officials. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.