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out the following: "present 'and voting, a
quorum being present/'
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Gilchrist to speak to Amend-
ment No. 14.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Mr. Chair-
man, I yield three minutes to Delegate
James Clark.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clark.
DELEGATE CLARK: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Convention, I
rise to support the minority report.
It seems to me that the more recent
leadership of the General Assembly of
Maryland and the membership also has
been making some progress in improving
the image of the General Assembly in the
eyes of the people of Maryland, and I think
that the proposal of the Committee would
set the stage for a situation that would
probably make it more difficult for us to
proceed along these lines. It seems to me
that this is almost an irresponsible pro-
posal with which the Committee has come
forward. We in Maryland have gotten
along very well under a constitutional ma-
jority. We are used to it. Any bill that
cannot receive 61 votes in the House, the
new House, and 21 votes in the Senate,
perhaps should not become a law of Mary-
land.
The people deserve to have confidence in
their laws, and if you set the stage where
laws can be passed without a majority,
then I think the people will lose confidence,
not only in the laws, but in people who
make them. I think it sets the stage where
some devious practices might take place
and I can see no advantage while I can see
a great many disadvantages to the proposal
which the Committee has put forth.
I back Delegate Gilchrist and his Mi-
nority Report and the amendments which
will set things straight. I certainly hope
that the members of this Convention will
support each of these amendments, which
are necessary to return us to the consti-
tutional majority that we are used to and
which I think necessary. I hope that you
will support all of these amendments.
Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, and ladies and gentlemen of the Com-
mittee of the Whole: In response to Dele-
gate Clark's observation that it would be
possible to perhaps play a few games with
this kind of a majority, may I point out
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to you that in 1961, when the House of
Delegates was debating a very significant
reapportionment bill, that it became neces-
sary for us to get the constitutional ma-
jority. That majority was one short of
that required, and despite the best in-
terests and efforts of the state police and
all the militia of Maryland to locate the
missing delegate who was supposed to be
planting tomato crops at a late hour after
the sun had gone down on his farm, and
was in fact hidden away quietly in his
house, a very significant bill failed of pas-
sage as a result of a stay-at-home vote,
which was in effect, of course, a no vote.
I submit to you the State of Maryland, the
people of Maryland would have been far
better off had we not had a constitutional
majority required, because the reappor-
tionment was a bloody battle to say the
least; some of the scars which the members
of this Convention bear will indicate this.
I would say simply this: that if we have
faith in a General Assembly, we will have
faith in a quorum of the General Assembly.
If we are going to have controversial bills,
people are going to turn out to vote for
them. Certainly everyone knows when you
have a routine matter and a non-routine
matter, I submit to you that the leader-
ship or the chairman of any committee
will only fail in this respect once, because
if he had indicated to his committee and to
the membership that a bill would be
brought up at a certain hour or would not
be brought up and that word were broken,
then certainly there would be due efforts
made to remedy the situation.
Just for the record, I should like to say
that in addition to Florida, Idaho, Mon-
tana, New Jersey and New Mexico, which
follow the practice in the Constitution
urged by the majority that there are in
addition to that, eleven states which use
the majority vote of those present and
voting, a quorum being present; those
states are not insignificant. They do so by
rule. They are Connecticut, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, North Carolina, Rhode Island,
South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, West Vir-
ginia and Wisconsin.
I submit to you that what we are sug-
gesting here may be a departure from the
Maryland practice, but it is by no means a
practice which differs significantly from
many of the other states of the union, and
the Congress of the United States itself.
Our federal government finds the majority
proposal quite acceptable and operates
quite successfully under it, so with that I
should like to yield four minutes to Dele-
gate Gleason, if I may, Mr. Chairman.
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