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trying to decide here what is a subject of
constitutional dimension, a word that I
have heard bandied about ever since I have
been here.
How do you determine what is the basis
for measuring this dimension? Do you de-
termine it upon the basis of the number of
people, the number of citizens involved?
If that be your criterion, then of course
consumer protection will yield to no other
problem. If you measure it upon the basis
of the effect it would have upon the under-
privileged, the disadvantaged, the credit
buyer, if you please, then of course it is of
constitutional dimension.
If you base it upon succinctness — I have
heard much talk about things to be succinct;
could anything be more succinct than this
provision? I think not. Would something of
this kind be enforceable if enacted by the
legislature? I certainly think it would.
Now, there are other precedents in this
constitution that we are drafting of a
similar nature. I call your attention, my
fellow delegates, to what we have already
done with regard to the structure of county
government, where we say in section 7.03,
within one year following the adoption of
this constitution the General Assembly
shall provide by public general law a choice
of procedures by which an instrument of
government of a county may be proposed.
That is a direction to the legislature and
whether the legislature acts or does not act
is perhaps open to some subsequent deci-
sions. The legislature may not be capable
of drafting a model county charter.
In our proposed article relating to suf-
frage, we state that the General Assembly
shall make certain laws with regard to
registration, with regard to residence, et
cetera. That is a mandate, just as clear as
anything can be and I predict to you be-
fore this Convention is over there are going
to be many other mandates to this legis-
lature, and I think, if I can repeat again,
without belaboring the arguments of those
who support this thing, that here we have
a problem of great proportions. It depends,
as Delegate Wheatley says, upon your
value concepts, as to whether you shall un-
dertake the provision of this kind in the
constitution, and certainly we must do that
if we are to carry out our responsibilities
to those who are most in need of consumer
protection.
Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition to the
recommendation ?
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Delegate Mentzer?
DELEGATE MENTZER: I am an em-
ployee of Kiplinger, Washington Editors,
with whose weekly business letters some of
you may be familiar. You may not know
they also publish a weekly magazine,
CHANGING TIMES, which stresses education
in many fields. I speak as a housewife who
realizes the need for and supports federal
aid to education in this field. I feel, how-
ever, our job here is to debate and devise
a structure of state government and not to
supply courage or spurs to the legislature
to do its job, and I intend to vote against
this provision.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Borom.
DELEGATE BOROM: Mr. Chairman,
fellow delegates, not too long ago this Con-
vention approved a section of the constitu-
tion which dealt with natural resources. I
think your action there represented your
recognition that not only the State of Mary-
land, but across the United States, our
natural resources have been exploited. To-
day we are talking about human beings. We
are talking about exploitation. Now if we
could give the kind of consideration to
natural resources, trees, hillsides, country-
sides, waterfronts and all, why can we not
take the time to recognize that we are talk-
ing about the citizens of the State of Mary-
land. They are resources, human resources.
They are as important, if not more impor-
tant than the green countryside that we
voted not too long ago to mandate the Gen-
eral Assembly to look out for and take care
of. We are talking about exploitation. We
are in a different time than we were in
1941. Madison Avenue, high-pressure tac-
tics are things that we all live with. I am
not talking about the poor people. I would
classify anybody with an income of $15,000
or less as vulnerable to sharp business prac-
tices, and if any of you who sit here today
think that this has no relevance to you, if
you have not had the experience, I suggest
you stop and give it a second thought. We
are talking about human beings in the
State of Maryland. We are not talking
about whether the federal government itself
ought to take the regulatory action. We
are talking about the State of Maryland.
We had some speeches earlier in the Con-
vention saying that as we write this con-
stitution, we want to strengthen state gov-
ernment in Maryland. We do not want to
lean back on the federal government. For
that reason I say we cannot wait for the
federal government to take charge of regu-
lating business practices. I think you have
to keep in mind we are talking about the
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