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THE CHAIRMAN: You have a half
minute.
DELEGATE PRICE: Thank you, sir.
Delegate Dukes mentioned he was a farm
boy, that he did not have any vices. I am
from up in the mountains, originally moun-
taineers up there, coal miners, things like
that, up there where men are men and
women are glad of it.
I just have to beg for another thirty
seconds, sir, because Delegate Dukes and
some others have, if the folks will excuse
me, this reference, we talk about writing
a Constitution —
THE CHAIRMAN : Delegate Price, your
time has expired, unless you are granted
additional time.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I will grant
the additional time.
THE CHAIRMAN: How much?
DELEGATE SHERBOW: One minute.
THE CHAIRMAN: Proceed.
DELEGATE PRICE: I have to tell the
story because it helps me explain some-
thing. Delegate Dukes said he came to
write a constitution that will really serve
the people, the public. I often wondered
what this meant. Not being a farm boy, I
do not know.
But one day last week Delegate Dukes
invited me to his farm, took my son down.
He has fine cattle. He showed us the farm,
and they were breeding the cattle. My son
walked around the corner, said, Mr. Dukes,
what's happening here? Mr. Dukes, very
embarrassed, said, well, he is a bull serving
the cow. Then I knew, sir, what we are in
danger of doing sometimes when we talk
about serving the public.
(Laughter.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The unexpected
sometimes happens in this Committee.
(Laughter.)
Delegate Dukes.
DELEGATE DUKES: Mr. Chairman,
before I yield further time, I would like to
say to Delegate Price I wish to be firmly
on record as being in favor of sex. Al-
though my capacity is extremely limited,
my enthusiasm is enormous.
(Laughter.)
At this date, I know little about girls
and know very little about cows either.
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At this point, Mr. Chairman, I would
like to yield four minutes to Delegate
Finch, who represents the CPAs in this
Convention. You all remember what great
weight they have from the vote for the
change of name of the comptroller.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Finch.
DELEGATE FINCH: Mr. Chairman,
and fellow delegates, I rise to support the
Minority Report to the effect that there
should be no provision in the constitution
concerning state-operated lotteries. As I
understand our role at this Constitutional
Convention, we are to propose to the people
of Maryland a constitution, which is not a
prohibitive or restrictive one but which is
flexible. This flexibility is absolutely essen-
tial if we are not to bind the hands of the
legislature with trying to comply with the
future demands of our citizens. One such
future demand may be for more sensible
control of what is already flourishing in
Maryland. Within the past few months, the
front pages of our daily newspapers
through their broad headlines have in-
formed us that gambling rackets grossing
one hundred million dollars a year are now
operating in this State. There is general
agreement that the most difficult problem
confronting law enforcement agencies to-
day is the suppression of organized illegal
gambling which far outweighs legal gam-
bling. The national illegal gambling figure
has been established at approximately fifty
billion dollars a year and it is estimated
that two out of every seven Americans are
gambling regularly. During the period of
the Volstead Act, bootleggers were the
treasurers of the underworld. Today their
successors are the backers and pay-off men
in the illegal gambling industries. Gen-
erally speaking-, the fight against this type
of organized crime has been a losing one
because the average bettor is an otherwise
law-abiding citizen who does not feel that
he is doing anything criminal.
One answer to the problem is to regulate
and control gambling much more sensibly
than we currently are doing. Our present
attitude is akin to that of elephant hunting
with a squirrel gun. Racketeers are not
changing at all. With only one chance in a
hundred of being caught in any given year,
their job security and income is excellent.
In the 1920's we had the Volstead Act. It
was an unenforceable statute which pro-
vided bootleggers with funds to finance a
criminal empire. That mistake was cor-
rected through legislation.
Quickly the underworld took advantage
of another society weakness, the urge to
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