Secretary and the Chief Clerk and the Par-
liamentarian and such other officers as the
Convention may decide to have. I gather
that the President has appointed as Acting
Secretary Mr. Martineau, and also has ap-
pointed other officers, and I wondered
whether it was the Chair's pleasure that
the Convention should deal with these mat-
ters today and offer an appropriate au-
thorizing or confirming resolution.
THE PRESIDENT: I thought, Delegate
Scanlan, that the resolution had been pre-
pared for you to offer. It obviously has
not. I would therefore merely announce at
this time the action which I have taken and
have a resolution in appropriate language
in writing presented to the Convention at
another session.
I have already announced to you in a
memorandum that there was some apparent
confusion in the amendment of one of the
rules adopted at the session on July 1 so
that although the discussion of the amend-
ment indicates that the intent of the Con-
vention was that the President should ap-
point and fix the compensation of certain
officers during the interval from last July
until now, the amendment actually only
went to the sentence providing that the
President should fix the compensation.
There is another rule that might be con-
strued as authorizing the President to ap-
point the officers. Rather than have any
question about it, I wish to announce to
the Convention at this time that I have
designated as Acting Secretary Mr. Robert
J. Martineau.
I have designated as Acting Sergeant-at-
Arms, Mr. Richard Rothenburg. I have
designated as Acting Parliamentarian, Mr.
David Hattrick. The other employees, the
desk officers who have been named, can un-
questionably be named by me under the
rule. The three that I have mentioned will
serve as acting officers in those respective
capacities awaiting further pleasure of the
Convention.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: Mr. President,
I apologize if there was a failure of com-
munication between the officers of the Con-
vention and my Committee. My Committee
considered the problem you presented to us
and were unanimous that you were intended
to have the authority to engage officers,
and if there was any doubt about it that
your choice of the officers should be ratified.
We thought we were correctly aware that
the resolution was being prepared in other
quarters, but I think it would be very un-
fortunate to put these men to work at this |
arduous task as Secretary and Chief Clerk,
et cetera, while they are still under the
cloud of acting. I think unless there was
serious reason why the matter should lay
over, I think I can speak for the unani-
mous Rules Committee when I offer a reso-
lution now that the Convention confirm or
ratify the choices for Secretary, Chief
Clerk, and is it Parliamentarian?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Delegate Scan-
lan, if you will permit me to interrupt you,
the same provision exists as to other offi-
cers whom I have not yet named. I think
it would be preferable, and do not think
it would cause any hardship to have one
resolution embracing all of them. We can
offer it tomorrow. I do not think the named
officers are going to be unhappy for an-
other twenty-four hours.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: As long as
they rest easy in their beds tonight, I will
wait until tomorrow.
THE PRESIDENT: Are there any other
motions or resolutions? Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I know it
is customary when the House and Senate
meet, in session, that at the end of the
plenary session of both of those sessions
that the committee chairmen are required
to announce the time of those meetings and
inquire of the Chair whether or not it is
the intention to have the committee chair-
men at this particular time give notice to
the members of their various committees
as to the time of the full committee
meetings.
THE PRESIDENT: I will do so as soon
as I have concluded a few announcements,
which is the next item on the agenda.
I wish to announce to the Convention
that in accordance with the resolution
adopted at the meeting on July 11, 1967, I
addressed to the President of the United
States a cordial invitation to address this
Convention, either today or at some later
date which would be convenient to him. I
also forwarded to him a copy of the reso-
lution adopted by this Convention.
In addition, our two United States sena-
tors, Senators Brewster and Tydings, con-
ferred with the President and informed him
personally of the invitation of this Conven-
tion. The President is unable to address the
Convention today. He delayed his response
until the very last moment because he
hoped to be here. Yesterday, about noon, I
received a letter, and an hour later a tele-
phone call from an assistant to the Presi-
dent in the White House, expressing his |
