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PLENARY SESSION
JANUARY 3, 1968—10:10 A.M.
PRESIDENT H. VERNON ENEY,
PRESIDING
THE PRESIDENT: The Convention
will please come to order.
The invocation this morning will be
offered by the Reverend John N. Crock of
the Christian Community Presbyterian
Church at Bowie. Reverend Crock is Dele-
gate Mentzer's pastor.
Reverend Crock.
REVEREND CROCK: Shall we pray:
Eternal Father, we know that Your
presence encompasses the earth but we
acknowledge you here in this place. We
know that You are without form, but we
see you best in the majesty of the world
we know, and in the strength and com-
passion of our fellow men.
We know, too, that You need no praise,
yet we would praise you now.
We rejoice, O Lord, in the capacities of
mind and will which enable us to meet the
challenges of life. Help us to realize our
own potentials and to pave the way for
all men to find fullness of life through our
work today.
Amen.
THE PRESIDENT: Roll call.
Has every delegate answered the roll
call?
The Clerk will record the roll call.
There being a quorum present, the Con-
vention is in session.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Powers.
DELEGATE POWERS: Mr. President,
I move that today's calendar and agenda
be amended so that under Item 9, unfin-
ished business, would be added the special
orders that were not completed yesterday,
namely, Committee Recommendation LB-1
as amended by Style Committee Report
S&D-16 and Committee Recommendation
GP-6, as amended by Style Committee Re-
port S&D-12, and as amended, that the
calendar and agenda be adopted.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there a second?
(The motion was duly seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: All in favor sig-
nify by saying Aye; contrary, No. The
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Ayes have it. The calendar is amended as
moved, and as amended is adopted.
There are several announcements. I
made one earlier. A grey Thunderbird au-
tomobile is in the parking lot with lights
on. If any of you recognize it, you had
better take care of it.
Are there any reports of other commit-
tees, Mr. Clerk?
READING CLERK: No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: No reports.
Are there any motions or resolutions?
READING CLERK: No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: The Chair hears
none.
There are several announcements that
I would like to make in order to remove
any misunderstanding as a result of an
announcement I made yesterday. This has
to do with amendments on third reading,
but I think I had better defer it until
some of the absentees are here. I will
interrupt the proceedings later on to make
the announcement. We will resume con-
sideration of the special orders. We still
have under consideration section 3.23 of
Committee Recommendations LB-1, LH-2
and LB-3.
I cannot help saying that while any his-
torian reading the newspaper stories con-
cerning this Convention would conclude
that the issues which had provoked the
most debate and division were those having
to do with single-member districts, and the
collective bargaining provision, I think he
would be quite wrong, because I am com-
pletely convinced now that the one section
that has provoked more stress, strain, con-
sultation, discussion, revision, change, cor-
rection, third revision, fifth revision and
endless revisions, is section 3.23. I was
more than a little dismayed at midnight
last night, after we had adjourned, to have
several delegates come into my office and
say that the one thing that was abundantly
clear about the discussion that had oc-
curred just before adjournment was that
it was not clear, and that the meaning of
the two amendments before the Convention
was not thoroughly understood by the dele-
gates.
This poses a real problem, because this
is a vital issue. It is one that is highly
technical. It is one that is very difficult to
explain to a layman and, unfortunately,
it is one that the lawyers seem to love to
debate endlessly.
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