(There was no response.)
All those in favor, signify by saying
Aye; contrary, No. The Ayes have it. It is
so ordered. The calendar is adopted.
Are there any reports of standing com-
mittees?
(There was no response.)
If not, the first item on the calendar is
the introduction and first reading of pro-
posals.
Before doing that, I want to call to your
attention a memorandum accompanying
Delegate Proposal No. 222, by Delegate
Finch, and a summary memorandum ac-
companying Delegate Proposal No. 255,
also by Delegate Finch.
At my request, the Committee on State
Finance has returned to me Delegate Pro-
posal No. 387, which was inadvertently re-
ferred to that committee. I refer that to
the Committee on Local Government. Will
you please mark your copy, Delegate Pro-
posal 387, now referred to the Committee
on Local Government.
Delegate Proposal No. 400. The Clerk
will read the proposal.
READING CLERK: Delegate Proposal
No. 400, by Delegate Grumbacher. Title,
A PROPOSAL that each house of the
General Assembly shall elect its own offi-
cers by secret ballot; that each house shall
determine its rules of procedure; that each
house may permit its committees to meet
between sessions of the General Assembly;
and that each standing committee shall
elect its chairman by secret ballot.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Proposal
No. 400 is referred to the Committee on
the Legislative Branch.
That is the only delegate proposal today.
(Applause.)
I have only one announcement, this in
effect is a request from my secretary. Be-
fore the end of each pay period she sends
a written memorandum to delegates who
have been absent from any of the sessions,
requesting them to indicate on the memo-
randum whether there is a reason for the
absence. In absences where the delegate
has no reason he desires to give as an ex-
cuse, they have not been returning the
memorandum. I would appreciate it if you
do so, because otherwise my secretary is
uncertain as to whether she perhaps has
not received an excuse which you have
sent or mislaid the excuse. |
Are there any announcements by com-
mittee chairmen? Delegate Kiefer?
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman,
the Committee on Personal Rights and the
Preamble yesterday heard testimony from
a number of people concerning rights of
labor. We did not hear fully from the
three or four delegates who have submitted
proposals, including Proposal No. 34, which
was submitted by Delegates Murphy,
Vecera and Harris. They were promised
an opportunity to appear before our Com-
mittee to discuss it further if they want
to do so, and also Delegate Miller, in con-
nection with her Proposal 121.
Monday at 2:00 P.M. the committee will
consider any further remarks, arguments
or statements that any of these four dele-
gates would like to make on behalf of their
proposals. Thereafter, the committee pro-
poses to debate this issue and to make a
decision concerning these bills, and it will
consider whether the rights of labor should
be included in the Constitution, that is, in
the Bill of Rights.
Also on Monday, when we conclude the
labor question, either after the Convention
adjourns for the day or that evening, we
hope to get to the subject of freedom of
religion, which is covered in Section 1.03
of the draft. Hopefully, we will have some
action on that.
In addition to this, there are a number
of proposals which have been referred to
the Committee on Personal Rights and the
Preamble which the committee may find
belong in the legislature rather than the
Constitutional Convention. Hopefully, we
will be able to weed out some of these and
recommend to the President that they be
referred to the legislature for whatever ac-
tion the legislature might want to take. I
believe there is a resolution to that effect
somewhere in the works. We believe we
will have some that we can at least say
are not matters for this Convention.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Mudd?
DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. President, the
Committee on the Judicial Branch has now
concluded all hearings, including the op-
portunity for delegates to appear before
our committee on all proposals referred to
this committee.
We are now considering and debating
the last phase of the four-tier court sys-
tem, presently considering conformation
and jurisdiction of that four-tier system.
We will convene fifteen minutes after ad- |
