5 2 TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL REPORT

ACTS OF ASSEMBLY

The Hall of Records was especially interested in a bill introduced at the
1958 Session of the General Assembly, Senate Bill No. 88. The purpose of this
bill was to transfer responsibility for the Maryland Manual from the office of
the Secretary of State to the Hall of Records Commission. Since 1947, the
Manual has been issued every two years following the long session of the
General Assembly. During that period the Hall of Records has compiled the
book and seen it through the press; the Secretary of State has paid the publi-
cation costs and has distributed the finished volume .This arrangement was
first made by Governor Lane and has been continued by Governor McKeldin.

There have been many difficulties. In the first place, we cannot know in
advance whether the Governor will want to change this arrangement and so
we cannot begin our work as early as we should like. Every four years follow-
ing the gubernatorial election we are in more serious difficulties because it
cannot be expected that a Governor-elect will have either the time or the
orientation to give us the immediate decision required. If we do not know
before his inauguration the Manual will appear so late that it becomes some-
thing of an anachronism rather than a useful guide to present government.

Finally, since the office of Secretary of State is not an elective one in
Maryland, there are many changes of personality and consequent variation in
understanding of the purposes of the ManuaL During Governor McKeldin*s
administration there were three Secretaries of State; during Governor Lane's
single term there were also three; during Governor O'Conor's administration
there were six. The task of editing the Manual is an extremely difficult one;
it seems especially unhappy, therefore, to add unnecessary administrative
problems.

Senate Bill No. 88 was supported by the Hall of Records Commission.
It was introduced in the Senate by the Majority and Minority Leaders among
others and passed in that house without difficulty. It also passed two readings
in the House of Delegates but failed of passage on third reading. On the in-
structions of the Hall of Records Commission the Archivist will attempt to
have similar legislation passed in the 1959 session.