ences brought to bear on the General As-
sembly, the inefficiencies and the last-
minute rush for legislation. A great deal
has been said about what has happened in
years gone by.
If I may let us bring the record up to
date.
Shortly after the last General Assembly
adjourned the last session, and if I am not
correct, I stand to be corrected, the Wash-
ington Post, the Evening Star, the Balti-
more Sun, the New York Times, Life
Magazine, radio and TV commentary all
wrote, or described editorially, the General
Assembly of Maryland. In effect, they all
agreed on one thing, that the last session
of this General Assembly of Maryland,
which was composed of many, many fresh-
men, was outstanding in its efforts and in
its accomplishments.
We worked hard. Certainly we had the
pressure of last-minute bills going back and
forth. This is not uncommon in any legis-
lative body. For example, this is common
practice in the Congress of the United
States when many conference committees
are appointed.
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen of
this Convention, I am not ashamed of the
actions of this new General Assembly. As
a matter of fact, I am proud of them.
Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any delegate
desire to speak in favor of the amendment?
DELEGATE JETT: Mr. President, fel-
low members of the Convention, I feel that
I must speak in favor of unicameralism
because I think it is the vehicle that we
must use to go forward into the future. It
seems to me that we have to deal with the
situation that exists today whether we like
it or not. We have the one-man, one-vote
concept with us.
I do not think there is a man or woman
in this group who does not realize that the
one branch of this government that needs
strengthening, upholding and upbuilding is
the Legislative Branch. The image of the
legislator in the minds of the average man
and woman can stand nothing but enhance-
ment and improvement. I mean no reflec-
tion on the great men of the past who have
come and served this State at great sacri-
fice, but the legislature, I think in the
terms of this bicameral amendment, is
being given a gratuitous disservice. It is
being told that it cannot betrusted to act
independently as men elected to represent
us but that two shots at it are needed. |
I think we need to know and we need to
let the men that we elect know, we trust
them, that we want them to come down
here and adequately represent us without
fear or favor.
I want to go further. I think as Mary-
landers we stand here today with the sense
that we may have a lot of history. Mary-
land has never been afraid to step forward
in the front ranks of any forward move-
ment, regardless of what her sister states
have done or not done. If the unicameral
system is the vehicle that should take us
into the future, we should not hesitate and
stand back because our sister states have
not acted.
1 sincerely believe that visibility, re-
sponsibility is the keynote of this very im-
portant amendment, that men and women
will be attracted to this body, will repre-
sent this State adequately and admirably
if they realize that they have been elected
and given one vote and one responsibility
to represent their constituents and no other.
For that reason, I am for the amend-
ment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any delegate
desire to speak in opposition to the amend-
ment?
Delegate Sickles?
DELEGATE SICKLES: Mr. Chairman,
as I had hoped, most of the delegates here,
even though we thought about it and talked
about the problem of bicameral versus uni-
cameral for many years, came down with
an open mind. I must admit as one who is
very emotionally attached to the bicameral
system because I am a product of it, I tried
to be unemotional about it in listening to
the arguments. I must admit also that most
of the arguments I had in favor of the bi-
cameral system have been answered rea-
sonably satisfactorily. But I have been
listening to the arguments in favor of the
unicameral system, and as one who has
never cast a vote he could not defend, I
cannot bring myself to support the uni-
cameral system for the State of Maryland
because whether we have one house or two
houses, the one house can encumber itself
just as two houses can encumber them-
selves by rules. I was in the General As-
sembly in the House of Delegates for eight
years and I can tell you that the General
Assembly expressed its will. It may not
have been the will of the people because of
the improper apportionment of both houses,
but it expressed its will. It passed what it
wanted to and it did not pass what it did
not want to. |
