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the electorate the clear lines of responsi-
bility.
THE CHAIRMAN: Your time has ex-
pired, Delegate Hanson.
DELEGATE HANSON: I urge you to
vote against the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: Mr. Chairman, I
speak in favor of the amendment.
One of the first meetings that I ever
went to in connection with this Convention
was a meeting near Towson, called in order
to see that voters came out to call the Con-
vention. A number of questions were asked,
and one question was, will all of the consti-
tution be wiped away and a new constitu-
tion written?
Judge Sherbow said that essentially what
was good would be retained. He particu-
larly said, "We have an old house. It
needs rebuilding. If we have good timbers
in it we will retain those timbers."
Now, is this elected comptroller a good
timber? I could talk on it for a half-hour,
but I will simply say that in the 115 years
that it has been an elective office, there has
never been, so far as the evidence that has
come before this Convention or before this
Committee is concerned, a bill in the legis-
lature to amend the constitution to change
the elective character of that office to ap-
pointive.
I think that is the highest thing we can
say, that it is a good timber, and should be
retained in this constitution.
They say that the governor needs more
power. The governor just asked the last
legislature for eight more aides to carry on
his work. In other words, he has got too
much work to do now. He has enough power
now. And it would seem to me that he
should be able to turn over something to
someone else who is elected by the people.
Take away the elected attorney general
and the elected comptroller, Mr. Chairman,
and you are not moving forward, but in my
opinion, humble as it is, you are moving
the government of the people of Maryland
back to the nearest point that they were
as colonies under King George III.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-
quarter minute, Delegate Child.
DELEGATE CHILD: That is enough. I
am for the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any other delegate
desire to speak in opposition to the amend-
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ment and for the committee recommenda-
tion?
(There was no response.)
Delegate Rybczynski, did you still desire
the floor?
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: Very hur-
riedly, sir. I will touch on just two points.
Delegate Hanson wanted to know who is
going to watch the comptroller. I say the
people watch the comptroller. That is what
we try to accomplish.
You have touched the sensitive button
and now we are presenting it to you. Num-
ber two, you want to know why it is in the
Constitution now, and Delegate Carson
tried to tell you that. He told you that in
1851 there was a scandal, which brought
on the office.
We do not need another scandal to put
it back in. Let us keep the scandals out.
Let us keep the office in the constitution as
an elective office now.
For those of you who are worried about
the Washington newspapers and what they
say, let us turn to just one building, one
piece of construction in the City of Wash-
ington, D. C., and decide whether or not
we need a Board of Public Works, and
whether or not we need a comptroller to
whom we can go.
Let us look at the latest House of Repre-
sentatives building, and see to whom we
can go, just as the national magazines
have for the last five or six years, to ask
the question, where did the authority come
from to spend those hundreds of millions
of dollars. Who spent the money? Where
did it go; who authorized all that huge
expenditure?
We do not need that kind of thing here in
the State of Maryland. Let us have a rep-
resentative board, a board we can go to
find out where the money is being spent,
how it is being spent — where we have no
secrets, where we have nothing to worry
about, other than the next election.
Vote for this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you ready for
the question?
So there will be no misunderstanding,
the question arises on the consideration of
Recommendation No. 2. Because you have
before you a motion for an amendment,
there will be two votes on this recommen-
dation. The first vote is a vote on amend-
ing the recommendation so as to delete the
word "not". If that motion is carried, then
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