THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment? Delegate Clarke.
DELEGATE E. CLARKE: Mr. Chair-
man, ladies and gentlemen of the Commit-
tee, I rise in favor of this amendment. It
increases from 105 which is the Committee
Report to 123, the membership in the
House. This is a mere increase of eighteen.
I do not agree with Delegate Gallagher
that if you are not a member of the Ways
and Means or the Judiciary Committee of
the House of Delegates, that you are a
minor member. There are several members
in this body today who were members of
minor committees or who are chairmen of
minor committees, and I am sure they will
testify that they do not sit around twiddling
their thumbs all day thinking. They work
hard and work very hard.
We have nine committees in the House,
two major committees are the Ways and
Means and Judiciary. We also have Motor
Vehicles, Alcoholic Beverages, Labor and
Management, Metropolitan Affairs, Bank-
ing and Insurance, and two or three others
I cannot recall at the time. But everyone
else who works on these so-called minor
committees does a very good job and works
very hard.
1 sometimes wondered during today's de-
bate where 1 spent January and February
and March, whether in Annapolis or on
some sort of trip where I really was not
here.
Nevertheless, I think this is reasonable.
It reduces the Senate only by two members,
gives them 41, and it gives the House 123.
I think, and I know that this is workable
in both bodies. I will not continue this de-
bate, in the interest of time, but urge the
passage of this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition to the
amendment?
Delegate Beatrice Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Mr. Presi-
dent, I would give you that we are getting
closer to the goal, the numbers are coming
down, and we are proceeding to do here
on the floor precisely what we did in Com-
mittee. Those of us who came up to 105-35
and those of us who came down to 105-35
knew we were arriving at a figure where
there had been some reason and some ques-
tion, there had been round reason and testi-
mony in its favor. If 123 was satisfactory
merely because it was a compromise. 1 |
would suggest you compromise all the way
down to where the Committee came after
several weeks of study and after, serious
consideration of the problem. The testi-
mony of most of the legislators who spoke
before our Committee, the testimony of
most of the witnesses was that 100 was a
good number for the size of the House.
As I said, before the testimony of ex-
perts in our Committee, I might add this
was not a nice word to use because some
people objected, the testimony of the studies
made by any number of good government
people, all came to the fact that 100 was
about the largest you could have a house
if it was to work efficiently.
I do not think this is a numbers game
we should be playing, and I do not think
this is a matter on which we should com-
promise merely for the sake of expediency.
I repeat once again that I think the prob-
lems that will face Maryland in the future
are too great for us to play a numbers
game in terms of someone keeping their
house seat or not keeping their house seat.
If there is any kind of a numbers game we
should be playing, it is in terms of the
most efficient number we can arrive at for
producing the kind of government Mary-
land needs. I beg you to stay, those of you
who have already concluded that 105 and
35 is a workable number, to stay with that
amount, and let us wear down the opposi-
tion to the point where we know what we
are doing has merit.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Delegate Clarke.
DELEGATE E. CLARKE: I want to
correct my last statement. I said 141 and
41. I meant to say 123 in the house and 41
in the Senate.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
Does any other delegate desire to speak
in opposition to the amendment?
Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: Mr. Presi-
dent and delegates, I have been very much
concerned with the principle of which Dele-
gate Pullen spoke, that is, keeping govern-
ment close to the people.
I have always felt that this is a govern-
ment of the people, by the people, and for
the people, and in our zeal for efficiency |
