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to maintain the status quo. That has not
been your way throughout this convention.
I ask you now to depart somewhat radically
in Amendment No. 5.
In case all other methods of calling a
constitutional convention fail, I suggest
that we mandate in the constitution that a
specified period of time be indicated at
which a constitutional convention shall
meet. Although I know any such period
will necessarily be arbitrary. I think fifty
years under all the circumstances is
reasonable.
It is obvious that we are going to ex-
perience a very rapid growth in the com-
plexity of our society and the concomitant
increasing involvement and changing pat-
tern of the relationship of government to
society and it is ever more obvious that
there needs to be a revision of our basic
structure of government to keep pace with
that increasingly complex society which will
grow by geometric proportions, surely dis-
proportionately with the past.
Therefore, our constitution probably will
not and should not last anything near a
hundred years. As I said, it is and should
be a living document reflecting current
feelings and attitudes. It will not neces-
sarily reflect those attitudes fifty years
from now.
The calling of a convention at that period
in our history will not require an overhaul-
ing of our constitution but will permit an
outstanding deliberative body such as this
to consider the basic structure of our gov-
ernment in toto with the ability to do
something about it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Boyer.
DELEGATE BOYER: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Committee, I
sincerely hope this Convention will not
adopt any amendment merely to increase
the batting average of an individual. I do
not know who said it, I am sure it was not
Thomas Jefferson or Justice Holmes or
anybody, but over home we have a saying,
even a blind hog can root out an acorn
once in a while. I hope that acorn was
Amendment No. 4.
Seriously I think this amendment is de-
feating the wishes of the people. We just
passed an amendment saying that if by
any other method the convention is not
called every twenty years — not twenty-
five, but every twenty years — it will be
submitted to the wishes of the people at
the next general election. To now say nev-
ertheless notwithstanding whatever the
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people may do at this next general election
approving or rejecting constitutional con-
vention, that there shall be automatically
a new convention in fifty years, seems to
me is putting a term ceiling on the life of
what we are doing here today.
Delegate Needle in his presentation of
the Minority Report did say the conditions
and times fifty years from now will not be
what they are today. Perhaps he is right.
Perhaps his crystal ball is a little better
than mine. You do not know what the con-
ditions are going to be fifty years from
now. It seems a shame for us to go to all
this trouble and make a constitution that
we hope will be equally as durable with
all good luck and results as the one you
are now enjoying; to say it will auto-
matically die in fifty years seems like a
waste of time and effort here now.
I seriously urge that the convention re-
ject this amendment and say the constitu-
tion we are working on will live until it
is changed by the wishes of the people and
not make a ceiling, a lifetime term of
merely fifty years. I vote against the
amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN : Is there any further
discussion? Delegate Chabot.
DELEGATE CHABOT: Parliamentary
inquiry, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: State the inquiry.
DELEGATE CHABOT: In view of our
votes on Amendment Nos. 1 and 3, should
we merely ignore excess language in lines
5 and 6?
THE CHAIRMAN: I think it would be
better that the amendment be corrected.
Delegate Needle. Do you have any objec-
tion to striking the words "unless" or
rather, the words "the governor" in line 5
and strike also the words "or the voters
of the state" in line 6?
DELEGATE NEEDLE: I was going to
suggest that, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any objec-
tion to the modification? The Chair hears
none. The amendment will be modified by
striking from line 5 the words "the gov-
ernor comma", striking from line 6 the
words "or the voters of the state".
"S" to be added to call at the end of
line 6.
The Chair was in error. In line 5 strike
only the word "governor" and not the word
"the" so that it would read now in lines
5, G, 7 and 8 "unless the General Assembly
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