will not be represented, I think he is mis-
interpreting the objective in the original
recommendation of the Committee. I would
like to speak for the amendment to the
amendment, which is a substitute for
having three-to-one representation, three
members from the House and one from the
Senate, even though the number is 36 as
against 35 and now 108 as against 105.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition to the
amendment to the amendment?
Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: Mr. Presi-
dent, a point of personal privilege.
We are happy to see in the front gallery
80 students from the Douglass Senior High
School in Baltimore, with their teachers.
1 see one of them, Mrs. Lola Howard. We
are happy to welcome their presence and
their interest in this Convention.
THE CHAIRMAN: We are delighted to
have them.
(Applause,)
Does any other delegate desire to speak
in opposition?
Delegate Linton.
DELEGATE LINTON: Mr. Chairman,
it is obvious that the figures that we are
discussing here today did not come out of
the air. I think the Clean Air Committee
probably would have had that straightened
out. The 105-35, I am afraid, was just a
figure, and it came out of the air.
I would like to point out that our vote
on this particular amendment is not con-
tingent upon a fractional vote being as-
sured in the next amendment. If it were I
would perhaps support it myself.
We are living in a State that is geared
to representation, and that even though
120 gives each county a delegate, or one
more delegate, it will also result in cre-
ating districts for delegates to represent in
those counties that are now districts within
themselves. It becomes a little smaller and
the actual proportion of representation is
greater. It is a compromise, and is not
much of a compromise. Delegate Hanson's
arguments today pointed out the desir-
ability of leaving the size of this legislature
to be set by the legislature, or at least
taking a realistic approach, one that had
been studied and worked out thoroughly,
as proposed by Delegate Gilchrist yester-
day. |
I could give you unlimited examples of
the reaction of our State's bureaucratic
form of government to the representatives
of those various political subdivisions of
this State, and the gentleman from Balti-
more City who pointed out that they had
not been treated fairly should go over this
list of inequities that have existed and have
them pointed out.
I would like to point out two of them.
One of them is in aid to education, where
for twenty years one of the largest and
richest counties of this State received a
windfall in aid to education because it had
the votes there to keep it from being
changed, and the first realistic approach to
a tax based on the ability of a person to
pay was passed in this legislature, after it
had been increased in size.
I think if we are going to do anything for
representation and a representative form
of government, it should be in the area of
increasing the size of the legislature from
this 105-35. 1, therefore, support Judge
Sherbow's amendment, and I am opposed
to the amendment of Delegate Bamberger.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment to the amendment?
Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: One last
word, Mr. Chairman.
Ladies and gentlemen, 1 intend to vote on
Mr. Clark's amendment when it is offered
for 36 and 108, and I should tell this com-
mittee that our own Committee of the
Legislative Branch did consider the idea
after our report had come upstairs and
was favorably disposed toward it.
I should also like to say that we have
before us the single member district ques-
tion. I wish I could call it non-controversial,
but I can not.
However, certainly the single member
district theory has a great deal more to
attract it to a larger—pardon me, to a
smaller House and Senate, rather than to
a larger. With those two things on the
horizon, I have the feeling that we have
about said everything that can be said.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sherbow.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: I offer these
last words on the subject before you. I hope
you will defeat the amendment to the
amendment. However, I say this to you,
that if you do defeat that amendment, and
pass the amendment that I have offered, |
