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we are on sound grounds to require public
scrutiny.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any further
discussion?
Delegate Grumbacher.
DELEGATE GRUMBACHER: Mr. Presi-
dent, I believe that we should face the
problem on reconsideration rather than
going through it and face it later on the
vote on the item itself.
I would like to recap it late in the argu-
ments which I have given because some of
the people who are here now were not here
on Saturday night.
From 1787 to 1838 the leadership of Con-
gress was elected by secret ballot. Even
now in case of a tie vote in the electoral
college the House of Representatives would
vote by secret ballot.
The issue of courage has been raised.
The answer to that is that no sensible man
allows his boss to know how he voted on
him. I have great faith in human nature.
Most people reward their friends and give
their opponents the crumbs.
It happens that in the Congress in the
House of Representatives the former
Speaker of the House, Joe Martin was dis-
placed by Charlie Halleck on a secret bal-
lot in caucus. Gerry Ford again replaced
Charlie Halleck on the same basis. I do not
believe that at .their peaks any one of these
men was better than any other but the man
who came along later, the man who was
elected by secret ballot was more the repre-
sentative of the times and of his party than
the man whom he displaced and he would
not have displaced him on open ballot. I do
not believe the origin'al elections of people
will be better because the ballot was secret
but I do believe that those who no longer
have the pulse of the house will be dis-
placed.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any further
discussion?
Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Mr. Chairman,
fellow delegates, I cannot conceive of any
case that can be made for electing the offi-
cers of an elective body by secret ballot.
The instances to which Delegate Grum-
bacher has referred are inter-party cau-
cuses which is a far different cry in a party
that has to maintain some kind of unity
and unison to carry out political battles in
an elective forum. I do not think there is
any substitute for political courage. Cer-
tainly no secret ballot is ever going to be a
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panacea or substitute for such courage.
There is no doubt in my mind that in-
dividuals may be elected and may take
vindictive action against individuals who
opposed them after they have been elected
to political leadership, but I think by and
large the history of human relations shows
when such vindictive action is taken, those
people do not stay in positions of political
leadership very long.
I implore you and I am for and have
consistently stood for letting actions of the
legislative branch stand out to public scru-
tiny and disclosure. We are dealing with
leadership under this new constitution that
is going to have a great deal of power,
different and vastly superior to the power
they have had in the past, the power, for
example, to call into session the entire
legislature of Maryland; those individuals
when elected to office ought to be elected
with the full public scrutiny of all the
people, the voters of Maryland. I would
hope this motion for reconsideration is
successful.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Burdette.
DELEGATE BURDETTE: Mr. Presi-,
dent, I am troubled about this matter. I
rise in support of reconsideration. It seems
to me the real problem faced by Delegate
Grumbacher is in the nomination process
which is in the caucus. I am informed that
often, not generally in this chamber, the
caucus nominations are made in secret but
we are not talking, as I understand it,
about how the nomination process proceeds.
We are talking about how the election pro-
cess proceeds.
I should call the attention of my fellow
delegates that for us to put into the consti-
tution an arrangement whereby the majori-
ty party, which happens now to be the
Democratic Party, could split its member-
ship among several Democrats or among a
Republican nominee, is a most impractical
procedure indeed, and if we simply talked
about how we could reach the caucus, we
need to leave that to the caucus. I support
indeed the reconsideration motion.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any further
discussion ?
Delegate Weidemeyer.
DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: Mr. Presi-
dent, members of the Convention, there are
some practical aspects to this thing that
have not been brought out.
These are days of changing times and yet
in the state legislature there is the voice of
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