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DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Do
you wish to speak for?
DELEGATE WHITE: Mr. Chairman, I
rise to speak against this amendment. It
would do the same thing which the amend-
ment proposed to do which we defeated
sometime ago. I plead with you, let us not
permit Alfred Scanlan to "Scanlanize" this
Constitution.
Mr. Chairman, members of this Conven-
tion, when I left the fourth district of
Baltimore City, I promised that I would not
forget from whence I had come, and I have
not. But if I were to listen a few minutes
it would appear that one of my cohorts
has the hand of Jacob but has the voice
of Aesop. When he gets back home he will
wonder what happened to him.
Fellow delegates, a lot of things have
happened in this Convention. It seems that
a lot of people in Maryland do not trust
our judgment. We voted for the single
member districts, but it would appear that
those who hope to save the destiny of this
Convention are going to great lengths to
convince us that we must move backward,
and retreat from this position.
Mr. Chairman, maybe this gets into the
area of personal privilege, but at this time
some of the delegates of this Convention
are being pressured. They are being told
that if you do not switch your vote from
the single member district to the multi-
member district then we shall withdraw our
vote for economic opportunity.
Mr. Chairman, it is getting pretty rough
and we have used a lot of time. I have
listened for the past six weeks to lawyers,
but my voice now is as strong as theirs.
But I think that a certain amount of re-
straint is necessary. We have spoken again
and again on the same subject and we have
lost motion for reconsideration after mo-
tion for reconsideration and when we get
into an area like this we sit quietly and
suppinely by and watch a proposal like
this go down the drain.
I have learned one thing since I have
been down here, Mr. Chairman, and that
is when you do not appear to have the
votes, you keep on talking. So I ask for
some help. All of those who stand with
me, let's keep on talking.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : The
Chair recognizes Delegate Borom to speak
in favor.
DELEGATE BOROM: I want to speak
against.
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DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Speak
against. The Chair recognizes Delegate
Borom.
DELEGATE BOROM: Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
I am like Delegate Harry Taylor in the
back row. When they gather the sense of
the Committee, and at this time I think
they do gather it, it is hard, I think, to
speak. I think the unfortunate thing is
that the Committee is ready to move, and
I think it is most unfortunate that the
issue about which we are speaking now is
one that most of your really cannot ap-
preciate.
It is unfortunate. I have watched this
Committee operate. I have listened to the
attorneys, and the arguments they have
made for their particular case, and for the
things that they think are important, and
I think they are important too. For as long
as you hold this in your hand that you
understand and you think it is important,
you work for what you think is right. I
think in this case this particular policy
statement is a weak one, but I think it is
right.
Apparently the policy statement is as
far as you can go. Even if you go no fur-
ther than that, I ask that you go that far.
Within the past week I happened to be
watching it very carefully, and I listened
to one of our leading senators in the
United States. He says our whole country
is in trouble. We have problems. He com-
mented that our country has a wealth of
economic and natural resources and yet
we have problems. He continued by saying
that our biggest problem is that our coun-
try does not have the will to do what it
knows it has to do. I think this is what we
are confronted with today, the will to do
what we know is right.
I would agree with Delegate Adkins to a
certain extent, that if we put this policy
statement in, it may not have any real
effect. But if we are going to deal with it,
as we have done with other parts of the
Constitution, I would say let's put a
policy statement in and build an article
around it. When we get through we not
only have the policy statement, an innocu-
ous policy statement, but we also have the
machinery by which this State moves.
We can petition for roads. If this State
can find the funds to build roads and do all
the other things that it thinks are im-
portant and forget people then I think
that the State is remiss.
I do not think we have to wait for the
federal government. One of the earliest
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