legislature some people might expect me to
be in favor of this amendment, but I am
very much opposed to it, because, to me, by
voting for this amendment today we are
abandoning one of our primary and abvi-
ous reasons for being here. We must
shoulder up to the responsibility that is so
obviously ours, and that is to set the size of
our General Assembly in the future. I
would certainly urge each of you to vote
against this amendment and let us face up
to the problem which we must do.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Boyer, do
you desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
DELEGATE BOYER: Yes, sir, I do,
Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: You may proceed.
DELEGATE BOYER: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of this Committee of
the Whole:
We have been down here in Annapolis
since September 12. Four days,, and we
will have completed two months of solid
and very important deliberations.
I think that this Convention is a pivot
in Maryland history. I think that we are
standing on the threshhold of history, and
I think that each one of us is extremely
proud of our State of Maryland, that it
can be truly said that we are America in
miniature.
We have some divergent and diverse in-
terests from the coal mines in Western
Maryland to the tobacco farms in Southern
Maryland, the apple orchards in Western
Maryland to the seafood on the Eastern
Shore. This, according to the law, goes for
naught, that the representation of our Gen-
eral Assembly shall be based not on sea-
food or tobacco or apples or mining coal
in Western Maryland, but on the people.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Boyer,
there is left just one minute of uncontrolled
time, and half of that should go to the
opposition. Please limit your remarks now
to a half-minute, please.
DELEGATE BOYER: I guess I will
have to, Mr. Chairman.
I have so much to say, but let me say
this, quoting one of our distinguished col-
leagues who quotes continuously one of his
heroes, Justice Holmes, yesterday saying
that the life of law is not logic, it is ex-
perience.
We have heard in this body less than
two months of deliberations on the need of |
the composition and size of the General
Assembly. I earnestly urge you to let the
experience of the legislature guide you.
Conscientious legislators will not shirk
their duties, and I have more faith in the
elected representatives of the people than
evidently those who say that the legislature
will grow so large the halls will not hold
them.
I do not agree with this. We who are
about to be obliterated support your amend-
ment.
Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Chabot,
you have one-half minute to speak against
the amendment.
DELEGATE CHABOT: One-half min-
ute is not very much time. I am one of
the overflow that Delegate Malkus spoke
about.
The one-man/one-vote question has been
brought up here. I understand that there
will be another part of the Constitution
dealing with that matter.
The question is whether or not we should
have a General Assembly of 140 members
to be decided by voting on that number or
voting on another number, without having
to eliminate all limitations. The question of
flexibility, which was argued so much by
Mr. Gleason, sounds nice, but the amend-
ment would leave within section 3.04 two
very substantial restrictions on what the
General Assembly may do: single member
districts and the three-to-one ratio.
All in all I think the only question is
whether or not we are willing to let the
legislature go through the agony that it
has gone through, the same sort of agony
that the United States Congress goes
through every ten years, as it did this past
ten years, and which was so great that
when Congress first faced up to the ques-
tion of a limit on the size of the House of
Representatives after the 1910 reapportion-
ment, it threw up its hands in 1920 and
simply did not reapportion at all.
THE CHAIRMAN: The time allowed by
the debate schedule for debate having ex-
pired, the question before the Committee of
the Whole is the adoption of Amendment
No. 4.
For what purpose does Delegate Gleason
rise?
DELEGATE GLEASON: Mr. Chairman,
in line with our discussions of yesterday or
the day before that, I wonder if it would |
