The Commission also recommended to the Legislature that it not
wait for the next election provided for in the existing Constitution
to take the sense of the people on calling a Constitutional Convention,
which would not occur until 1970, but that the question be presented
to the people at the earliest possible opportunity.

The Commission worked very closely with my office and with the
leaders of the Legislature during the recent session with the result
that these two bills, both of which are in accord with the recommen-
dations of the Commission, passed both Houses of the Legislature al-
most unanimously. The Commission, in recommending that the Con-
stitutional Convention be composed of 142 delegates, recommended
also that these delegates be apportioned in the same manner as the
membership of the House of Delegates will be apportioned in the
next Legislature. This recommendation the Legislature has embodied
in Senate Bill 594.

For the first time in nearly one hundred years, therefore, the Legis-
lature of Maryland has acted to call a Constitutional Convention,
provided it is approved by the people. The great majority of those
voting in the elections held in 1930 and 1950 voted in favor of a Con-
stitutional Convention but the Legislature failed to call a Convention
in 1931 and again in 1951, and all efforts of previous administrations
in the past twenty years to persuade the Legislature to call a Con-
stitutional Convention have been unavailing.

I have strongly favored a Constitutional Convention for many years
and during my administration have worked very had to persuade the
Legislature to call a Convention. It is, therefore, with a real sense of
achievement that I have signed these two bills today, thereby assuring
the people of the State of Maryland that if they want a Constitutional
Convention and so indicate their desire at the election next September,
that Convention will convene in Annapolis at twelve noon on De-
fenders' Day in 1967, almost one hundred years to the day from the
time that the last Constitutional Convention in Maryland adjourned.

The Commission which I appointed, under the able leadership of
its Chairman, H. Vernon Eney, Esq., is continuing its inquiry into
the revision needed in the Constitution of Maryland. This Commis-
sion is studying the most modern examples of state governmental
machinery in an effort to solve problems which must be solved if the
American dual form of government is to survive and if the State of
Maryland and other states are to remain as viable and dynamic in-
stitutions of government.

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