1949] OF THE SENATE. 9

Because it also relates to education, I will deal first with the
proposed re-enactment of the measure passed by the 1949 General
Assembly creating an issue of $350,000 in bonds for construction at
the Maryland School for the Blind.

This bill is technically deficient in that it fails to provide for the
retirement of the debt created within the fifteen-year limit estab-
lished by the Constitution, but as it stands, would have this retire-
ment extend over a period of fifteen years and three months. The
only change necessary in the measure proposed for re-enactment is a
rearrangement of dates to bring it within the allotted constitutional
period of fifteen years.

The third proposal which I recommend for consideration during
this extraordinary session of the General Assembly is the appropria-
tion, from surplus in the Treasury, of the sum of $300,000 to supple-
ment the funds of the Department of Public Welfare.

This $300,000 which is to be matched by local sub-divisions, is for
the purpose of extending emergency aid to unemployed employables
hitherto denied assistance by the regulations of the Department of
Public Welfare.

The amount of this emergency appropriation is calculated on data
compiled by the Department of Public Welfare and the Department
of Employment Security, and is based on the experience of other
States which have adopted the policy of extending aid to employa-
bles who have exhausted their unemployment compensation benefits,
and are in need.

In these States, the experience has been that not more than 10 per
cent of the total welfare expenditure has been needed to meet the
demands in this category. In Maryland, the gross welfare expendi-
ture is approximately $15,000,000. On the base of experience else-
where, this would indicate a need of approximately $1,500,000 for
a full year for this purpose.

I am assured by the Director of the Department of Public Welfare
that the $300,000 which I recommend be appropriated, when supple-
mented by local funds, will be ample to meet the situation as it
exists in Maryland.

It may be well that the problem for which this emergency appro-
priation is made will require extended study by the regular session
of the General Assembly which will meet in these halls six weeks
hence.

The fourth matter which I commend to your favorable considera-
tion is the re-enactment of the State's search-and-seizure statute.

I do this on the advice of the Attorney General, who assures me
that if the present statute is held invalid in legal proceedings now
pending, a chaotic situation will result in the courts of the State.

This statute is under the same sort of cloud as the $50,000,000
school loan measure, which was invalidated.