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am afraid that the delegates in this Con-
vention have thought otherwise.
I have mixed emotions about this ques-
tion because I am a member of a teachers'
union, but I am also at the same time a
member of a teacher's professional asso-
ciation. This auditing of my membership
grows out of the peculiar circumstances
that we have in the teaching profession in
Baltimore City. I think the collective bar-
gaining phrase in the constitution would
have been of great assistance to teachers
throughout the State for when I started
teaching as a teacher in Baltimore City,
my salary was so low that in that first
year of my teaching experience I had to
stay with my parents because I could not
afford otherwise.
Collective bargaining would perhaps have
improved the teaching situation in Balti-
more City much sooner than it has been.
So I have mixed emotions about this situ-
ation we now face in the Convention, but
I hope you understand the strong feelings
that the proponents of the collective bar-
gaining measure have and the great step
they are taking today to help save this
Constitution.
I am not sure at this time that what
we have gained is not a Pyrrhic victory,
but that will only be brought to bear come
May 14.
As a history teacher I find some self
satisfaction and some answers by search-
ing in history and I am sure that Benjamin
Franklin on the last day of the Federal
Convention of 1787 must have had to do
a lot of soul searching on that occasion. I
find some assistance in his words and so I
would like to close with a portion of the
address Benjamin Franklin had written
but was too old and feeble to deliver on
the last day of the Federal Convention of
1787 in September.
"Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution
because I expect no better and because I
am not sure it is not the best. The opinions
I have had of its errors I have sacrificed
to the public good. I have never whispered
a syllable of them abroad. Within these
walls they were born and here they shall
stay. If every one of us in returning to our
constituents were to report the objections
he has had to it and endeavor to gain par-
tisans in support of them, we might pre-
vent its being generally received and there-
by lose all the salutary effects and great
advantages resulting naturally in our favor
among foreign nations as well as among
ourselves from a real or apparent unani-
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mity. Much of the strength and efficiency
of any government in procuring and secur-
ing happiness to the people depends upon
opinion, upon the general opinion of the
goodness of government as well as the wis-
dom and integrity of its governors. I hope,
therefore, that for our own sakes as a part
of the people and for the sake of pros-
perity we shall act heartily and unani-
mously in recommending this Constitution,
wherever our influence may extend and
turn our future thoughts and endeavors to.
the means of having it well administered."
On the whole, sir, I cannot help express-
ing the wish at this time that every mem-
ber of the Convention that may still have
objections to it would with me on this
occasion doubt a little of our own infalli-
bility and to make manifest our unanimity
and when the time comes put his name on
this instrument. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: Mr. President
and fellow delegates, I rise briefly now as
I did just a few weeks ago at great length
to join with other proponents of what could
have been and should be the most funda-
mental new provision in the new Maryland
Constitution which we could have added
but which divisiveness from outside of this
body has taken from the Constitution.
My personal concern with the inclusion
of this provision arises out of my deep
concern for the Constitution itself. I have
been a member of the Constitutional Con-
vention Committee and for the past three
years I have been deeply devoted to the
idea of constitutional revision in the State
which is very badly needed and which we
have provided through the work of this
Convention. With one other exception I
wholeheartedly support all that we have
done and I feel that we are going to give
the people of Maryland a vast improve-
ment in their fundamental document and
in the workings of the government.
For that reason, I concur in the feelings
of others that we cannot carry this matter
any further and I hope that all of us can
go out and support this Constitution and
support this concept which has, I think,
persuasively carried this Convention even
though the document will not contain the
words.
Perhaps when the next constitutional
convention is held, it will no longer be
necessary to think in terms of providing
people the right to bargain and organize.
Perhaps it will be an antiquated concept
as the abolition of slavery is to us today
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