undue hardship to those City delegates who
not only need to vote, but also to gather
voters to the polls, and things of this na-
ture, which a citizen ought to do. My rela-
tives, for example, gather at the polls.
THE PRESIDENT: I would suggest
that your proper course is to move an
amendment that the Convention adjourn
until whatever hour you designate on what-
ever date you designate instead of 10:00
A.M. tomorrow.
DELEGATE VECERA: I therefore
move that the Convention adjourn until
after the election, if you want to meet
tomorrow, or until the following day.
THE PRESIDENT: We cannot do it on
an "or". Will you make your motion one
way or another?
DELEGATE VECERA: I would move
that the Convention not convene tomorrow,
rather it convene on Wednesday, the fol-
lowing day.
THE PRESIDENT: At what time?
DELEGATE VECERA: 10:00 A.M.
THE PRESIDENT: The motion is that
the motion to adjourn until tomorrow
morning at 10:00 A.M. be amended, to mean
a motion to adjourn until 10:00 A.M.
Wednesday morning. Is there a second?
(Whereupon, the motion was seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: The motion is sec-
onded. Delegate Armor?
DELEGATE ARMOR: Mr. President, I
oppose this amendment. A hundred years
ago when the present Constitution was
written, travel between Baltimore and An-
napolis involved a physical problem as
well as an actual problem. I plan to vote
in Baltimore in the morning, and I will be
here for all the sessions, and I think that
each of us should try to arrange our
schedule accordingly.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Gleason?
DELEGATE GLEASON: Mr. President,
I do not have any brief for elections in
Baltimore, coming from Montgomery
County, but I am concerned about another
development that catches up with us here
today. You will recall about a month ago
we had a discussion on the floor with re-
spect to a proposed change in the Rules to
allow adequate time for minority reports
to come before this body before a majority
report would be considered. Tomorrow, as
the Chairman of the Committee on Calen-
dar and Agenda has announced, we will be |
taking up a very substantive part of the
legislative article of this new constitution,
which deals with such things as the bi-
cameral-unicameral issue, the size of the
legislature, the qualifications of people run-
ning for the legislature, salary compensa-
tion and other matters, and yet here we are
tonight without the minority reports dealing
with those subjects. I do not know how we
can reconcile this, but I remember the
Chairman of the Rules Committee at that
time — unfortunately he is not here today
— I remember his saying that if such
printing difficulties did occur at the time,
that it would be up to the President to
postpone or we could take such other action
to make sure that all the delegates had the
minority reports in front of them before
we took up these weighty questions. I do
think, it is about time we start to temper
our urgency to meet a schedule with con-
sideration to what kind of product we are
going to produce, and I think we can act
too hastily, and at least the delegates ought
to have the minority reports in front of
them, at least a day in advance, before we
take up these substantive matters.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there any further
discussion?
(There was no response.)
Before we vote on the adjournment, the
Chair would ask the Chairman of Calendar
and Agenda — I am sorry.
DELEGATE GRANT: Mr. President, I
was on the Rules Committee at the time
this was discussed, and if you recall, Mo-
tion No. 2 was for a five to six day delay
in the submission of reports. At that time,
the Motion No. 2 was recommended un-
favorably by the Committee, and the Com-
mittee recommendation specifically said, if
for any reason a minority report had been
unduly delayed because of printing difficul-
ties, the minority spokesman could move,
as permitted by Rule 28 [29]* of the Con-
vention, that consideration of the majority
report be postponed, and made a special
order of business on the day after the
minority report had been made available
to all the delegates.
I do not think it would be fair to the
delegates here, after having recommended
to them that we defeat Motion No. 2, to
turn around and do the exact thing which
we promised would not be done. There are
*The number in brackets refers to the
final number assigned to the rule in the
Rules of the Constitutional Convention of
Maryland. |
