size. As a matter of fact, if Bill No. 8
had been constitutional, the size of the
Senate would not be forty-three but would
be fifty-three. The size of the General
Assembly has been increased to one hun-
dred forty-two, and if the population pro-
jections of this State are correct for 1970,
we can expect that the size of the House
will be nearly two hundred, if we allow
each unit to have one vote in the House.
Now, I submit to you that we have to
draw the line somewhere. Mr. Gleason
asked, who is to decide? I say to you that
we are to decide; that you and I have
been elected to come down here and not
to pass the buck. It will be the easiest
thing in the world to say, "let them fight
it out for themselves," but Harry Truman
had a very pleasant sign on his desk when
he was President of the United States, and
it said, "the buck stops here."
I am suggesting to you that the buck
stops in this Constitutional Convention,
and I further suggest to you that we have
not for all time and for eternity cut off
the escape valve because there is the de-
vice of the constitutional amendment. There
is an avenue to provide relief if it should
be decided that this figure, whatever it
may be, is adopted.
I say to you this: disregard the 35-105
figure, which the Committee has recom-
mended in its aggregate cumulative wis-
dom, and go to some other figure—for the
sake of efficiency in government, minimum
efficiency, pick a number out of the air,
but do not, I ask you, allow the General
Assembly to set its own limits, when man
after man came before our Committee and
said, "please do it in the Constitution."
I submit to you that we have a heavy
responsibility, and I think we ought to
discharge it here, and be able to go home
and tell the people who elected us that
we did the job, that we did not pass the
buck.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gleason,
you have two and a half minutes you can
allocate.
DELEGATE GLEASON: Thank you,
Mr. Chairman. I am afraid we may have
to ask for more time at the appropriate
moment.
I will allocate two and a half minutes
to Delegate Smith.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marvin
Smith.
DELEGATE M. SMITH: Mr. Chairman, |
what the distinguished brother from Balti-
more City has said in effect is that the
representatives of the urban areas of the
state do not trust this reapportioned Gen-
eral Assembly.
Now, I come before you, sir, not to sug-
gest that each county in this present day
and age should have a representative. I
do suggest to you, however, that geography
and not the trees to which reference was
made earlier but geography is entitled to
some consideration.
I suggest to you, sir, that there is a point
of difficulty when one's elected representa-
tive is too far removed from him.
Delegate Ted Miller commented to me
more than once in the days when he ran
for Congress that he would love to have
had the opportunity of running in a district
like Congressman Garmatz', where he could
walk around to see all of his people in
short order.
Some of our brethren do not understand
the geography of the state. I am reminded
of the young lady in the office where 1
once worked in Baltimore, who said to me,
"The Eastern Shore, that is just down
there below Annapolis, isn't it?"
Now, Mr. Chairman, from one end of
our present senatorial district to the other
is a driving time of two hours; from one
side of that district to the other is better
than one hour. I suggest to you, sir, that
the proposals here with reference to dele-
gate districts will well set up areas of
substantially in excess of one hours' driving
time, and that this has the effect, not only
of removing delegates from contact with
their constituents, and vice versa.—
THE CHAIRMAN: You have a half a
minute, Delegate Smith.
DELEGATE M. SMITH: —but also has
the great adverse effect of making it diffi-
cult to find proper people to run for office
because of the areas that have to be
traversed.
I suggest to you, sir, that we should not
have the General Assembly boxed in as
they were under the previous constitution.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher,
you have two and a half minutes you can
allocate.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I will yield
to Mr. Scanlan.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Scanlan.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: I believe Dele- |
