THE CHAIRMAN: Just a second, Dele-
gate Fox. The Clerk will change the num-
ber to Amendment No. 6 and will read
the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 6
to Committee Recommendation GP-I, by
Delegates Cardin, Case, Grumbacher, Fox,
Carson, Gullett, Hanson and Hardwicke:
in line 10 on page 1 of Committee Recom-
mendation GP-I, after the word "Chief,"
insert a period and strike out the re-
mainder of the section.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there a second?
(The motion was duly seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Fox to speak to the amend-
ment.
DELEGATE FOX: Mr. Chairman, I
think the debate we have had is indicative
of the fact that we are getting bogged
down in unnecessary detail. I invite the
attention of the Committee of the whole to
the language of the federal Constitution,
which takes far fewer words to deal with
the establishment of an Army and Navy
and the authority of the commander-in-
chief, the President of the United States as
commander-in-chief over them, than does
this committee recommendation. I suggest
that if the Constitution merely said that
the General Assembly may provide by law
for a militia and the governor shall be its
commander-in-chief, that that adequately
covers the situation and leaves the officers
and all that sort of thing up to the Gen-
eral Assembly.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any further
discussion?
DELEGATE GLEASON: Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Gleason.
DELEGATE GLEASON: I wonder if
the delegate would yield for a question?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Fox, do you
yield for a question?
DELEGATE FOX: Certainly.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Is the delegate
under any apprehension that perhaps the
General Assembly would not provide for a
militia since the word is "may" rather
than "shall"?
DELEGATE FOX: Quite frankly, I am
not concerned whether they do or do not.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Frankly, I will
vote against it. |
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any further
discussion? The Chair recognizes Delegate
White.
DELEGATE WHITE: Mr. Chairman,
members of this Convention, it does ap-
pear that we are bogged down some but 1
wonder, and I do not mean this to be in-
sulting, if we are not sitting somewhat in
an ivory tower attempting to anticipate
certain things. We debated whether or not
the governor should not have certain spe-
cific guidelines on things that are probably
on the verge of happening.
We are already in a time of revolution.
The revolution is here while we are sitting
here talking. If we do empower a gover-
nor to have unlimited powers of discretion,
perhaps he should call somebody out now
because I do not know where it is going
to fall next. I hope we will take seriously
what happened in America today, and deal
with the actual issues because the revolu-
tion is here. I do not know where it is
going to break out next.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Carson.
DELEGATE CARSON: Mr. Chairman,
I voted for the inclusion of the word
"shall" originally but that amendment lost.
I feel very strongly that there ought to be
a militia and national guard in this State.
However, regardless of whether the word
"shall" or "may" is used, and the Conven-
tion has now decided, sitting as Committee
of the Whole, that the word "may" shall
prevail, I think it is necessary to examine
what other provisions should be included.
I suggest that anything further than
the first two sentences as now suggested
are surplusage, legislative in nature, and
really a restriction upon the establishment
and the various functions of the national
guard or militia I, therefore, support
strongly the amendment which has been
proposed by several delegates here.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Schneider.
DELEGATE SCHNEIDER: Mr. Chair-
man, generally there is no good reason for
putting a provision in the Constitution
which says the General Assembly may do
something unless by its omission there
would be an inference that they might not
do it. That I do not think would be the
case here.
However, we do have certain restrictions
on the power of the General Assembly and
on the militia once it is established. I think |
