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circulated among you as a memorandum,
and it seems to me that the attorney gen-
eral under a law passed by the General
Assembly last year is doing exactly what
the debate indicated we all wanted, the pro-
tection and education of the citizens of the
State against harmful and unfair practices.
You will note in the memorandum that
was circulated that the functions of the
new division can be grouped in four major
categories: mediation, education, legislation,
and investigation.
The agency or division of the attorney
general's office has already received 1500
citizen complaints and has been successful
in obtaining refunds totalling some $40,000.
It seems to me in the short time that this
division of the attorney general's office has
been in existence it has accomplished quite
a bit of what we all want; therefore, I feel
to use words that have been used so fre-
quently here and so often, this is surplus
language. It is true that it may appear to
the public that we are favoring consumer
protection in that we are putting this in to
sweeten the constitution. I do not think a
constitution needs to be sweetened. I think
it should be a broad and flexible document
written so that it accomplishes what we
all want.
We have consumer protection on a fed-
eral level without any provisions within
the federal Constitution. Therefore, I would
urge you to vote against including this pro-
vision in the constitution of 19G8.
THE PRESIDENT,: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the com-
mittee recommendation ?
Delegate Bard.
DELEGATE BARD: Mr. President, I
should like to speak in favor of the com-
mittee recommendation.
I will not make a long presentation, be-
cause I thought that we had debated this
issue. We have talked about the pros and
cons; we have dealt with it fairly; we have
had a vote on the basis of a good deal of
deliberation, and if we are going to open
up each issue that has been discussed on
the floor in the fair way that we have set
forth in the Committee of the Whole, we
are absolutely lost.
There is no point in elaborating on all of
the issues as we discussed them. It was
made perfectly clear that this went beyond
the whole point of legislation.
The mere fact that we are proceeding in
this area, not only in recapitulating, because
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this is not the time to do it. I hope this will
not be a reversal so we will have to go
back to recapitulate and redebate the issues
as they come before the Convention as a
whole. We have not done this, and if we
start this, there is something like ten other
areas, and then we will certainly be here
beyond March.
THE PRESIDENT: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak against the recom-
mendation ?
Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, I have the pleasure of moving the pre-
vious question.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there a second?
(The motion was duly seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: All those in favor,
signify by saying Aye; contrary, No. The
Ayes have it. It is so ordered.
The question arises on the —
DELEGATE ROGER: I wanted to ask a
question, but I understand from the gallery
I cannot ask you a question.
THE PRESIDENT: Is it a parliamentary
inquiry?
DELEGATE KOGER: Is the passage of
this or acceptance —
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Koger, hold
your microphone close to your mouth, be-
cause I am having trouble hearing you.
DELEGATE KOGER: All right.
What I wanted to find out, is whether if
we pass the motion of Delegate Gallagher,
that means we cannot speak for this bill ?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Delegate Gallagher's motion has already
been adopted. That cuts off debate.
The question arises on approval of the
committee recommendation.
DELEGATE KOGER: Do we get another
opportunity ?
THE PRESIDENT: On third reading, if
it survives that long.
DELEGATE KOGER: All right.
THE PRESIDENT: The question arises
on the adoption of Committee Recommenda-
tion GP-4.
A vote Aye is a vote in favor of the rec-
ommendation. A vote No is a vote against.
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