554 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS [Mar. 8,

The 31st section of the same Article, in relation to
the Supreme Bench of Baltimore city, provides that
the Judges thereof "shall each receive an annual sum
of $3, 500, payable quarterly, which shall not be
diminished during their term of office, but
authority is hereby given to the Mayor and
City Council of Baltimore to pay to each of said
Judges an annual addition of $500 to their
respective salaries; provided, that the same being
once granted, shall not be diminished nor increased,
during the continuance of said Judges in office. "

It seems quite clear to a majority of the Commit-
tee, that construing!; these sections by themselves,
their language by necessary and irresistible implica-
tion permits the Legislative to increase the salary of
the Judges. The plain rule of interpretation is that
effect must be given to all the words used. If the sec-
tions referred to had specified that the salary should
be $3, 500, 82, 800 and $3, 000 respectively "without
words added, such language might have fixed the
salaries of these figures so that the Legislature could
not add to or diminish them. But when we consider
that these words are added, viz: "Which shall not be
diminished during their term of office, " the whole
taken together must be construed as an implied grant
to the Legislature to deal with the subject of salaries
subject to the limitation that the same "shall not be
diminished. " In no other way can force be given to
the concluding words of section 24. When, there-
fore, after naming the salaries, words are added pro-
hibiting a decrease, it necessarily follows that the
Constitution contemplated action by the Legislature
on this subject, but saw fit only to prohibit a decrease
of the salaries, and hence impliedly authorizes action
in the opposite direction.

In both of the sections above quoted it is expressly
provided that the salaries shall not be diminished;
and in section 31, of Article 4, in which this language
is used, it is expressly declared in regard to the sum
which th^ Mayor and City Council of Baltimore
are authorized to pay to the Judges of the Supreme
Bench of Baltimore city, that when once granted, the
same shall not be increased or diminished.

The whole significance of this careful distinction is
lost if the plain prohibition against the diminishing