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This is one item in the constitution in the
bill of rights that does not deal with the
rights that are related to the State and its
people. You will look at the other rights
and you will see that it is the State and
the people who are protected one against
the other. Protection for the people.
But now you are writing into the bill of
rights and into the constitution rights as
between private citizens, individuals, and
you only go part of the way. You talk of
their right s to organize. You do not talk
of the rights of the public. You do not talk
of the rights not to join or to organize.
Now, what will this do? Maryland is a
State which in large measure must attract
people and industries because of its cli-
mate, and by climate I do not mean the
air, the rain, or the sunshine, but I mean
the kind of life that is in our law with
respect to the attitude of the State toward
business, industry, workers, and all of the
people.
When you pick out one segment and say
that the rights vested in them are superior
to the rights vested in all the others, you
then get a disjointed picture. Industry will
not come to a state which puts into its
fundamental charter this kind of a public
policy which is distorted in its framework.
This is wrong. All that has been said can
be said, or may hereafter be said with re-
gard to this subject, by the legislature.
In Congress they adopted, and very prop-
erly and undoubtedly belatedly, the Na-
tional Labor Relations Act. All of this was
statutory. When it was necessary to bring
it closer to center because it was going too
far, other statutes were passed. All of this
in order that all groups may be properly
protected, but bear in mind that what you
are doing here relates to your state police,
relates to every group who is involved in
the operation of government as well as in
the livelihood to which they are entitled.
THE PRESIDENT: You have one-quar-
ter of a minute.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: All I am say-
ing to you is that this should be left to the
legislature. I hope you will adopt the
amendment. I hope that this will not be a
part of the bill of rights in this constitution.
THE PRESIDENT: Any other delegate
desire to speak in opposition?
Delegate Sickles.
DELEGATE SICKLES: Mr. President,
fellow delegates, I rise in opposition to the
amendment which has been offered. As was
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indicated, we went up the hill and down for
many hours not too many days ago, and
I am sure that there are not going to be
any new facts brought to light, but I think
we ought to keep this provision, which was
adopted by the Committee of the Whole, in
proper perspective.
I had the rather interesting experience
of attending a meeting of the Chamber of
Commerce in Prince George's County where
I am a member, and of listening to a repre-
sentative from the Baltimore Association
of Commerce who came and explained to
our group just exactly what we have done
here. He did not understand it. Certainly
what he said was far from what we have
done here because all we have done, and I
think we have to remember this all through
the discussion, is establish a basic rate.
We have not concerned ourselves with
joining or not joining labor organizations.
We have not changed the law with respect
to the power of the State to regulate who
may strike and who may not. We have not
gone into that area at all. We have recog-
nized what I would imagine in the year
1967 would be awfully hard not to recog-
nize, in the industrial State of Maryland,
the basic right of employees to assemble
together to bargain through representatives
of their own choosing and not being sub-
ject to threats by their employer or to be
fired by so doing. That is just about what
we have done.
This does not take from the legislature
its power to set up what we call a Little
Wagner Act, to deal in detail with the exer-
cise of this basic right that the employees
have.
I strongly urge you not to be panicked,
and I am reminded of the old Chinese
proverb that a dog barks at his shadow
and one hundred dogs bark at the sound.
Dire predictions are unwarranted in this
case. It is a basic right that ought to be
established.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Winslow.
DELEGATE WINSLOW: Mr. President,
I rise to speak in favor of this proposal,
and I do it on what I believe is a consistent
ground with respect to my vote heretofore
in this Convention. I see no place in a bill
of rights to select one group of people and
write a section for that group unless we
are willing to select other groups and do
exactly the same thing. This is why I think
this is not of constitutional status. I am
toying with the idea of introducing an
amendment which will set forth the right
of retired persons. We are an ever increas-
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