DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other
motions or resolutions?
(There was no response.)
THE PRESIDENT: If not, we will pro-
ceed to announcements. I have a very few
announcements.
We have run into a problem that can
cause us some embarrassment outside by
reason of requests to outside agencies be-
yond the State for materials being made
directly by committee personnel. In a par-
ticular instance, a request which required
agood bit of research and digging and ad-
ditional printing by the Government Print-
ing Office was addressed by personnel of
two separate committees to the two United
States Senators separately. Each spent a
great deal of time in obtaining exactly the
same material. They were a little discon-
certed to find they were duplicating the
efforts. May we, therefore, request that all
requests for materials from outside agen-
cies, either state agencies or agencies out-
side the State, not be submitted directly
by committee personnel, but be directed to
the librarian, Mrs. Keller, and in the event
of duplication, she would then know it. Any
request you want, please present it to Mrs.
Keller, the librarian, who is in the library
in the Jeffrey Building. In connection with
the library, let me also announce that it
will be substantially augmented very shortly
by delivery of a number of volumes being
loaned to the Convention by the Enoch
Pratt Library in Baltimore City. As soon
as those volumes are received and a few
other volumes that have been ordered, a
complete library list will be prepared and
circulated to all delegates so that you will
know what is available in the library.
If, in addition, there are publications
which you think would be very helpful and
of considerable use to delegates or the com-
mittees and they are not in the library or
not otherwise readily available in the State
Law Library, will you please give Mrs.
Keller a memorandum so that a decision
can be made whether to obtain the ma-
terial, and if so, how many copies?
You should have on your desks today
the first part of a memorandum which was
requested by the Convention some days ago,
which is a memorandum assigning for pur-
poses of study and consideration to the
various committees all the provisions of
the present Constitution. This is called the
President's Memorandum No. 13. It com- |
prises presently four pages. There are six
additional pages which have not been re-
produced but have nothing different. It is
merely a restatement of the same material
on these four pages by committees, so do
not bother to look through and pick out the
assignments of your particular committees.
This has already been done. As soon as it
can be duplicated, you will receive the ad-
ditional sheets, which we will make avail-
able for you.
Just one word about this. Inorder to not
diffuse responsibility, assignments have been
made to only one committee. In some in-
stances, this has required that an existing
section be assigned to committees, but not
the entire section so assigned, but parts of
a section assigned to a committee. In addi-
tion, there are some instances where pri-
mary responsibility for a section ought to
be in one committee, but one or more other
committees ought to take a look at it or
know about it so as to be familiar with
the fact that it is in the Constitution and
is being considered. Therefore, the sec-
ondary assignment is for your considera-
tion. The primary assignment fixes the
responsibility.
In connection with this memorandum, let
me urge you to use the two-column com-
parison of the present Constitution and the
draft constitution which is in the Commis-
sion's final report. You will find it helpful
as a means of getting on one page a pre-
cise language of the constitution that you
have. The present Constitution, as you
know, is in the left-hand column of that
comparison.
We have now got into a volume of pro-
posals and are approaching the point at
which committees may be making reports
with respect to various proposals. It is
contemplated that it will be more con-
venient for you to have the proposals in
your book in this room; that is, your book
which contains all the proposals, will be
regrouped, not by number, but by com-
mittee, and then within the committee, by
number. This will mean that you will have
within this book a number of tabs, with
the name of the committee, and your pro-
posals will be rearranged under those tabs
numerically. If you do not desire your book
rearranged in this manner, but prefer to
leave it as it is, please leave a note in your
book; fasten it to one of the rings. In that
event, the page will not tamper with your
book. If there is no such note, you will
find either Monday or Tuesday your book
rearranged so that all proposals referred
to one committee will be in one place. |
