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the intent, to avoid any constitutional au-
thority to regulate billboards and other
man-made effects upon the scenic beauty of
the State, and I should like to query
whether this substantive change is implicit
in the language proposed.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Mentzer.
DELEGATE MENTZER: I am sorry. I
do not understand.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Mentzer, I
think what Delegate Burdette is saying is
that, does the amendment have the effect
or is it intended to have the effect to re-
strict the General Assembly to regulating
natural beauty of the State as distinguished
from scenic beauty affected by man-made
objects, as for instance, billboards. Does
this amendment deprive the legislature of
the right to prevent or regulate billboards?
DELEGATE MENTZER: No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: I take it, so that the
intent would be clear, the Chair would un-
derstand the purpose of this section to be
a mandate to the General Assembly to leg-
islate in the field referred to, but is not
intended in any way as a restriction on the
plenary power of the General Assembly to
legislate.
Does any delegate controvert the state-
ment just made by the Chair?
Are you ready for the question?
The question arises on Amendment No. 6.
A vote Aye is a vote in favor of the
amendment; a vote No is a vote against.
Cast your votes.
Has every delegate voted?
Does any delegate desire to change his
vote?
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 59 votes in the affirmative
and 57 in the negative, the motion is car-
ried. The amendment is adopted.
Delegate Gallagher, do you desire to offer
your Amendment C?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes, Mr.
President, I do.
THE PRESIDENT: Pages please dis-
tribute Amendment C, C for Charlie.
Delegate Sybert.
DELEGATE SYBERT: Mr. Chairman,
the Chair announced Amendment No. 6
passed. I was under the impression sev-
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enty-two votes were required on third
reading.
THE PRESIDENT: This is amendments
and as indicated by the Chair at the begin-
ning of this session, amendments are
adopted or rejected by a majority of those
present and voting. Final vote on the ar-
ticle requires seventy-two votes. It is only
the final vote on the articles that requires
the absolute majority.
Amendment No. 7. The Clerk will read
the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 7
to Report S&D-18 by Delegate Gallagher.
On page 49, section 9.10, Corporation Char-
ters, in line 30 strike out the words: "that
are now or may hereafter be";
And on line 35 after the word "charter"
add the following: "except to the extent
that application of this section may be pro-
hibited by Article 1, section 10 of the Con-
stitution of the United States".
THE PRESIDENT: The amendment is
submitted by Delegate Gallagher. Is there
a second?
DELEGATE BENNETT: Second.
THE PRESIDENT: The amendment is
seconded by Delegate Bennett.
Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I hope you
will agree with me this is the last ride on
the B&O Railroad amendment. The other
evening when we amended this section,
question was raised about the possibility
concerning some pre-1892 special or gen-
eral laws that would put us in a position
with this language to contravene the pro-
hibition against the right of contract inter-
ference with the first article of the Consti-
tution of the United States.
At that particular time I could see no
known statute. However, I have had a dis-
cussion with Mr. Walker Lewis, the ad-
visor to the Committee on State Finance
and Taxation and with other knowledgeable
parties who are aware of the history of
the B&O Railroad amendment, and we feel
that even though there may be no problems
with the language as it now exists, that we
can insure ourselves by not getting into
questions of when a statute was passed, to
simply say that we intend to keep this sec-
tion exactly as it was in the prior Consti-
tution, and that we pick up all the possi-
bilities, so to speak, except to the extent
that the federal Constitution will not allow
us to do so, particularly in view of the fact
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