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want to exercise their right of religion to
have free worship.
Now, I would suspect that the real reason
for the laughter and for the change is the
kind of a letter I got today, and of all
things from a man from whom I bought my
last car — Anderson Chevrolet, Mr. H. L.
Hosford, President. He had the nerve to
threaten this Constitutional Convention say-
ing, "I do hope you will reconsider and
change your vote to 'no' before final ap-
proval of the constitution. I find it so dis-
turbing I will have to do everything pos-
sible to campaign for the nonpassage of the
new constitution when it comes to a vote by
the citizens of Maryland."
The employers are few; the working
people are the masses. I would say, in the
words of Judge Bazelon of the Court of
Appeals of the District of Columbia Cir-
cuit Court, who is quoted in LIFE magazine
on October 21, 1966, on rights, "Some
people because they have money and in-
telligence are tall enough to reach them,
others, because they are poor or too short.
Do you say that is just too damned bad,
or do you give the short guys a box to
stand on?"
I would urge that you reconsider this
motion to give the short guys, the working
people who are the majority of the adult
citizens of this State, the right to sit at the
bargaining table rather than take to the
streets to get fair wages for their labor,
which is all they have to offer in the
marketplace.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Scanlan.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: It is always
very difficult to follow such eloquent ladies,
ladies so devoted to their cause and so fa-
miliar with the cause that they espouse,
but again I suggest their arguments are
better directed to the General Assembly of
this State, and not to the constitution.
Delegate Bothe, who led the fight for
the original provision which you have
stricken and is now before you on recon-
sideration, admitted the fact that this mat-
ter was better handled by statute, but the
time had come, she said, in view of the
development of this nation, to put the right
into the constitution.
If that was the end of the matter, I
would be with them, but that is not the end
of the matter. Unlike the rights of free
speech, free assembly and free exercise of
religion, the right to bargain collectively
must of its nature be regulated and im-
plemented by the General Assembly.
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I will give you a simple example. You
have a plant, a business. Some of the em-
ployees are laborers, some are machinists,
some are electricians, some are painters.
Query: is there going to be one collective
bargaining group for the whole plant, or
are there going to be four or five?
Second query: is it going to be by plu-
rality of the voters or by a majority of the
voters, or can each individual unit have its
collective bargaining representative?
Third query: how long does the effect of
the collective bargaining representation
election last? Can they have one next
month, or must they wait a year, or two
years?
In point of fact, this is a right that can
only have meaning if implemented by statu-
tory implementation and regulation. It can-
not be set in a vacuum; to do so is a snare
and a delusion. Unlike some of the exhor-
tations of the majority some of you have
seen fit to put in the constitution, this one
means something. This is a substantive
right, "employees shall have the right to
organize and bargain collectively." It means
that the General Assembly, if that language
stands, might be prohibited from imple-
menting and regulating that right in a
meaningful way, not only to protect the
employees but to protect the public of this
State.
THE PRESIDENT: Your time has
expired.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: I suggest it is
to the General Assembly of Maryland these
eloquent arguments should be addressed,
not to the Constitutional Convention.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Pullen.
DELEGATE PULLEN: Mr. Chairman,
I should like to speak as calmly and as dis-
passionately as possible. I believe that this
is a fundamental right. I think it is merely
an extension of that statement we have ap-
proved, "The people shall have the right
peaceably to assemble and to petition the
government for redress of grievances, each
person remaining responsible for the abuse
of those rights." I believe this honestly and
sincerely and, sir, I take my stand; God
helping me I can do no other.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. President,
I had hoped not to speak on this, but Dele-
gate Pullen being a neighbor and a long-
standing friend, I must answer him to this
extent.
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