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out to the members before the forces of
the administration can muster themselves
and defeat it.
I was shocked, Mr. President, when you
called me yesterday to the rostrum and
said, "Do you still want to propose this
amendment?"
Mr. President, if this is a democracy —
I am sorry my voice is so bad as it is; I
am not going to stay with you long today —
but I believe in fair play, and I believe
that in writing a constitution for a de-
mocracy we should use democratic poli-
cies, not gestapo policies, and that is ex-
actly what happened.
I do not know how you knew I had this
amendment. You were not supposed to
know. But you knew.
This does not happen in the General As-
sembly of Maryland, which everybody here
wants to upgrade. I do not think you have
a right to know amendments I am going to
introduce on this floor.
Now, that is how I feel about it. That is
how I feel about this Convention. The
theory of democracy is not among us. I be-
lieve in fair play. I blame your staff, or
some clerks in your staff, for giving you
the contents of that amendment. You were
not supposed to know what was in it, nor
was anybody else, so that you could not
build up your resistance against it.
But there is something here that I do
not like. Why, in a democracy, when we
write a constitution for a democratic State,
why can we not have fair play? If I do
not want these amendments known to this
honorable body, why should you know about
it, Mr. President? I feel very strongly on
this point.
Of course I know, sir, that you are going
to run this Convention the way you want
to. I know that. But for heaven sakes, run
it in a democratic fashion.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair feels that
a statement concerning the statement made
by Delegate Malkus is in order.
In the first place, the Chair had no knowl-
edge whatsoever that Delegate Malkus re-
quested any amendment be kept secret. The
purpose of this Convention is to act and
act intelligently on the amendments brought
to the floor for consideration, and I would
think that intelligent consideration could
best be given by the widest possible pub-
licity and opportunity for the amendments
to be considered. However, if any delegate
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desires to pursue the policy of keeping his
amendment secret, he may do so.
The policy pursued with respect to all
amendments is known to the entire Con-
vention and was publicly stated. When the
amendment is printed, a copy is given to
the clerk. He hands me the group of
amendments pertaining to each section as
that section is called for consideration.
This is necessary so that the Chair can
assemble the amendments in some sort of
coherent order. The amendment to which
Delegate Malkus referred was handed to
me about three minutes before amendments
to the section to which the amendment per-
tained was called for consideration.
When I saw the amendment, I saw that
it covered the same subject matter as had
been previously acted upon by the Com-
mittee of the Whole, and I had a question
in mind as to whether or not the amend-
ment was in order. The amendment was
considered and was voted down.
Delegate Malkus, do you have a further
statement?
DELEGATE MALKUS: Yes, sir, I do.
THE CHAIRMAN: Proceed.
DELEGATE MALKUS: It was at least
an hour and a half after you called me to
the rostrum that the amendment was voted
down.
THE CHAIRMAN: That is not what I
said. I said that the amendment was called
to my attention three minutes before the
section to which it pertained was called for
consideration. I do not desire to take up
the time of the Convention to engage in
any further personal altercation. If you
have a further statement to make as a
matter of personal privilege, please state it.
DELEGATE MALKUS: I will be brief,
Mr. President.
Of course, maybe I have been trained a
long time in law making, but this is the
first time that any amendment to a pro-
posal has been sent to the President of the
Maryland Senate or the Speaker of the
House of Delegates. We run legislation in
a democratic fashion and let the amend-
ment stand on its own. We do not have to
send our amendments to the General As-
sembly so that they can be censored.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Clerk will read
Amendment No. 34. Let me ask that you
mark Amendment No. 34 to indicate that
the sponsor is Delegate James Clark.
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