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various organizations which have been of
assistance to the Convention.
These will be read across the desk by
the Clerk, and will be adopted by voice vote
unless a roll call is requested.
In addition, immediately following that,
I would like to bring in, in groups, and
present to you personally, every member of
the staff of this Convention. As I call them
by groups I will have them come in the
rear door and come to the well of the
chamber so you may see them and greet
them personally.
Following that, it will be necessary for
us to consider a number of amendments to
the constitution and two schedules.
As I indicated previously, the staff, al-
most the entire staff has worked very
strenuously since adjournment Saturday in
order to check in every possible way the
accuracy of the third reading copy which
was finally acted upon.
I am very pleased to advise you that we
have not found even one error of substance.
I say that with a little trepidation, be-
cause it is almost certain that there will
be some errors discovered later on. It is
almost impossible to draft a document as
complicated as a constitution without hav-
ing some inaccuracies or inconsistencies.
However, about thirty-five members of the
staff worked yesterday from about 8:00
A.M. in the morning until 1:00 A.M. this
morning checking the draft from the time
the Committee of the Whole reports began
against the journal, against the President's
personal copies used at the desk, against
the copies maintained by the administra-
tive assistant, by the President, against the
parliamentarian's copy, and against the
edited copy of the journal.
In doing this and also in an exhaustive
proof reading we have picked up a number
of relatively minor errors, none of which
would be serious, and none of which would
be absolutely imperative for action by this
assembly.
In a few instances, a clarification of lan-
guage is desirable to express more clearly
the intent of the Committee. This has come
about because in a few instances where
changes were made by the Committee on
Style and then amendments offered from
the floor, amendments which when read
against the marked up copy, the blue copy,
seemed perfectly all right, now pop out at
you when you see the clean copy without
any disturbing interference by strikeouts
or italicized language.
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These will be offered to you. None needs
more than half a minute of explanation,
and we can offer them. Nonetheless, we
have to go through a certain procedure in
order to do this and, at the proper time,
after the amendments are all completed and
printed, Delegate Powers will move to sus-
pend interfering rules to reconsider the
vote by which the entire constitution was
passed, in order to reconsider the vote by
which certain articles were passed, in order
to consider specific amendments.
After the amendments have been acted
upon, we re-adopt the articles that have
been opened up, and re-adopt the entire
constitution. This will afford the oppor-
tunity to some of the delegates who were
unable to be here Saturday and who have
asked the Chair if there is not some way
in which they can express their approba-
tion of the constitution by participating in
the final vote.
As soon as the amendments are printed,
they are all now prepared, we will do this;
but, in the mean time, I would like to move
ahead with the more pleasant parts of the
proceeding.
Before I come to that, I have a few other
announcements to make. This will be the
last session but one. At the moment, the
formal copy of the constitution that you
will actually sign is in print. As a matter
of fact, the galleys were revised last night
at a late hour. Corrections are being made.
We expect to have a final galley here this
afternoon, and after action on these amend-
ments, make the correction in the proof
page tonight.
Nevertheless, I am a little apprehensive
at scheduling the formal signing for earlier
than noon on Wednesday. As you can un-
derstand, this formal printed copy will be
signed, and must be done not only per-
fectly from the standpoint of printing, but
also appearance. We have to take precau-
tions as to paper. It is a heavy parchment
paper, and with the printing, to use an ink
that will last for decades, and allowing
time for drying, and all of these things,
we are just a little apprehensive at shav-
ing the time at all. So the signing ceremony
will begin at 12:00 noon on Wednesday.
I do not anticipate that the entire cere-
mony — and we will have a little ceremony
in connection with the signing — will take
more than two hours, probably considerably
less.
I do not want to hurry any delegates in
signing, and I would say even then two
hours would be more than ample.
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