|
you will have all of tomorrow morning to
have carefully read over the draft consti-
tution which you have adopted in the past
weeks, and see if it all hangs together.
There are a few loose ends to pick up in
connection with the constitution, the enact-
ing clause, which I hope to have here for
you tomorrow. There are some resolutions
to act upon, post-Convention operations.
There are several resolutions expressing
appreciation. There are a number and
similar such matters.
I think we could easily conclude every-
thing that needs be concluded, including
the sections of the schedule of transitional
provisions and legislation which we passed
over this evening in several hours, but we
are anxious to conclude in any event by
4 o'clock. I have suggested to Delegate
Powers that we convene tomorrow at 1,
which gives us a little leeway. I think we
should finish certainly by 3, but in any
event by 4.
I think we will be in a position to take
the final votes on Saturday. This means the
mechanical problems of having everything
which you have before you now checked,
double - checked, and triple - checked again,
and this is one reason I ask each of you
to go over it carefully and if you note any
correction at all that needs be made, I
think it would be helpful to centralize it;
if you let Lanny Harchenhorn who has
been working here with me on this know,
he will see that it gets to the proper
persons.
If we are able to do this and get the
corrected copies reproduced, and I would
hope to have before you not only this copy
showing changes, but a clean copy, that is,
one that does not show the strikeouts and
the inserts, so that you can read it for
sense very simply, ready for you by early
Saturday morning, I would hope we could
start a session on final votes at 10 o'clock
Saturday morning.
If we have difficulty in accomplishing
this, we should know by the time we are in
session tomorrow afternoon and can let you
know at that time.
Assuming that we are able to conclude
final voting on Saturday, it would probably
be Wednesday rather than Tuesday that we
we would have the signing ceremony. The
reasons for this, of course, are mechanical,
not merely the final check, but also having
the copy to be signed properly printed. It
will be printed in proper form on parch-
ment, bound, and several copies ready for
execution. While there is no requirement
|
in the enabling act that the constitution be
signed by all delegates, the officers felt, as
announced some weeks ago, that all the
delegates would certainly want to have
their signatures appended to the constitu-
tion and arrangements have been made ac-
cordingly to do this.
There has been considerable discussion
as to where the signing should take place.
Some feel that since all of our endeavors
have been in this chamber, we should have
it in this chamber. Considerable feeling is
also expressed for having the signing in
the old Senate Chamber, which is replete
with so much in the way of tradition and
history.
We are trying to ascertain whether it is
possible to have the ceremony in the old
Senate chamber. When I say possible, I
mean to arrange for the filming, that is,
the official filming for the Convention it-
self, for the archives, but in addition to
that, coverage by all five T.V. stations.
This has meant some investigation of the
gallery in the old Senate chamber to see
that it is strong enough to support the
cameras, equipment, etc.
These decisions have not yet been made.
In all probability, if we can use the old
Senate chamber, we may do so, but there
can be no assurance that this is likely.
There are disadvantages to having the
entire Convention in there to sign. There
would be practically no room for sight-
seers, except of course, through the eyes of
the television cameras.
On the other hand, if the signing takes
place in this chamber the two galleries are
available. If the signing takes place in this
chamber we would propose to have a desk
for delegates to sign placed up here in the
front aisle so that the delegates would be
able to sit down and sign in their hand-
somest style, preserved for posterity in all
of its charm, if it is charming, and in ad-
dition we would hope to be able to so ar-
range the table that for those delegates
who wanted it, we could have individual
photographs of them signing the con-
stitution.
This poses a problem. Some delegates
would want members of their family or
others to come up and take the photograph.
Obviously, this cannot be arranged for all
delegates. We are exploring the possibility
of having a photographer here who would
be behind the desk, and for any who want
it, for a fee, could snap their picture as
they sign.
|
