This is a Constitutional matter. This has
to do with the future success of the Gen-
eral Assemblies of the State of Maryland.
This has to do, ladies and gentlemen, with
whether or not the people who come down
here will attend to matters which they
ought to attend to, and not to matters of
internal concern.
I submit to you that this is not a ques-
tion of whether a small county will have
a voice or not. The small counties may be
few in number, but I notice they have very
effective voices, as is evidenced by some of
the people in this General Assembly.
I say to you further that our Committee
had before it a proposal that each county
which did not receive a delegate under any
reapportionment scheme or plan would
have a non-voting delegate, and I am sad
to say that the representatives from the
small counties, with an opportunity to vote
for a voice if they did not have one, voted
against that proposal. I regret to tell you.
So I am not carried away by the idea
that we are deciding here and now whether
or not there shall be a voice. Everyone
shall be represented.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher,
you have just a little over a quarter of a
minute.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Com-
mittee: we will rue the day that we de-
cided that we could not face up to this
problem if we do not set the number. I
urge you to vote against the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: The time of debate
having expired, the question arises on the
adoption of Amendment No. 4 to Commit-
tee Recommendation LB-I. A vote Aye is
a vote in favor of the adoption of the
amendment. That is, to leave—
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: Mr. Chair-
man.
THE CHAIRMAN: Let me state the
question.
A vote No is a vote against the adopting
of the amendment.
For what purpose does Delegate Wheat-
ley rise?
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: A parlia-
mentary inquiry, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: State the inquiry.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: So we are
abundantly clear on the vote, if we pass |
this particular amendment, would it then,
(a) preclude putting any further limita-
tion as to number; or (b) would it preclude
an amendment that would specify exact
numbers without provision under law?
THE CHAIRMAN: As the Chair an-
nounced at the beginning of the considera-
tion of this Committee Recommendation
yesterday, we will proceed to a considera-
tion of all the amendments submitted by
the various Committee reports. There are
amendments substituting other numbers.
That is the procedure that we will follow.
The answer to your question is yes.
A vote Aye is a vote in favor of Amend-
ment No. 4. A vote No is a vote against.
Are you ready for the question?
(Call for the question.)
Roll call vote. Cast your vote.
Has every delegate cast his vote? Does
any delegate desire to change his vote?
(There was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 46 votes in the affirmative
and 92 in the negative, the motion is lost.
The amendment is rejected.
The next item on the debate schedule is
a consideration of the Minority Report
LB-I(C). The Chair recognizes Delegate
Gilchrist for the purpose of presenting the
Minority Report LB-I(C).
Delegate Gilchrist.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Mr. Presi-
dent, ladies and gentlemen of the Conven-
tion :
I think I might almost start this with,
"Blessed be the peace makers, for they
shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven."
Minority Report LB-I(C) is the result
in part I think of having 11 lawyers and
3 Ph.D.'s on a single Committee. It is an
attempt to resolve a series of very diver-
gent points of view with respect to the
size of the General Assembly.
Boiling those points of view down, the
questions which are raised are these: shall
we discard our traditional county repre-
sentation completely and move into a
totally new system, or shall we cling to
what we have had and let the legislature
grow without hindrance, and let the future
take care of itself?
There is a middle ground which this Mi-
nority Report proposes. |
