1962] OF THE SENATE 57

MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE

The Secretary" of State appeared and delivered a message from the
Executive.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT

Annapolis, Md., May 31, 1962.
Mr. President and Members of the Senate:

I wish, first of all, to thank all of you for the service you rendered
your State at this special session of the General Assembly. I know that
many of you came here at considerable personal inconvenience, and the
people of the State are grateful to you for the time and the energy you
spent while here.

As you know, you were asked to come here to take corrective measures
to fill a constitutional void created when the court invalidated that clause
in our State Constitution which apportions members of the lower House
of the General Assembly.

The issue with which you have been struggling during these past
few days is a complicated and difficult one. It is also of the greatest
significance to the people of the State. To paraphrase the language of
our Court of Appeals, in the opinion written in the recent reapportion-
ment case, seldom, if ever, has this body been called upon to make a
decision of greater and more far-reaching importance.

The bill you passed to reapportion the House of Delegates is sub-
stantially the measure I laid before you at the beginning of the session
and asked you to support. I believe it meets the test the courts have laid
down for reasonable and fair representation.

You are to be commended for passing it.

This General Assembly did not see fit to pass another portion of my
program which would have amended our Constitution to provide a
permanent system of apportionment. To me, this is regrettable, but in
some respects the position you took is understandable.

For one thing, you were laboring under a severe handicap in time.
I know it is difficult to find a solution to a problem as complex as this in a
short period of five days.

It is still my wish that the Constitution, which up to now always
has contained a provision for the apportionment of the House, be amended
in such a way as to establish a permanent, long-range plan of reappor-
tionment.

And so, I was gratified that the conference committee of the Senate
and the House, in a report which you adopted, recommended the appoint-
ment of a special commission to restudy the problem and recommend a
plan for permanent apportionment.

I shall, of course, abide by the wishes you have expressed in this
report, and will make it my business to find persons of the very highest
qualifications to serve on that commission.

I am confident that it will offer us a program to provide a system of
equitable apportionment to serve our needs for many years to come.