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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Clagett, I
think it is the privilege of any member to
answer a question to whatever extent he
chooses. Apparently Delegate Clagett does
not desire to answer further at this time.
Delegate Malkus.
DELEGATE MALKUS: Mr. President,
may I talk now?
THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.
DELEGATE MALKUS: I knew as I
walked out of this body that I could be
City Hailed. I knew that those who are
high and mighty, when they get their
heads together that the little victory, 69
to 60, would be short-lived, but really and
truly Mr. President, this is not a demo-
cratic Convention. This Convention is run.
Whether I win it or whether I lose it is
not going to shorten my life but I want to
say this to everyone of you here. You have
the courage to spend $30,000 on a superior
court judge in a little county. One of my
opponents may sometime hope to be one of
those judges.
If you are going to give each county a
superior court judge, this is a Convention
basically for the judges and we are going
to find this out, why in heavens name can't
we give the people a right to be judged on
by a judge that knows them well, rather
than a circuit court rider, something that
we gave up in the 1880's, and that is ex-
actly what you are going to try here and
now to establish.
There is no court in the State of Mary-
land more important than a people's court.
Maybe to you lawyers, they get fat out of
court cases, and I am a lawyer and I don't
handle this kind of work, but to the people
that know what justice is, it is by the local
court, with the little judges.
You want to go ahead and make them
ride over 110 miles. As far as I am con-
cerned you can do it, Mr. President, but if
you are interested in passing this Consti-
tution, and now I am talking about a little
politics, you are going to find out that if
you prevent each county from having a
magistrate's court or a people's court or
under your new phraseology a district
court, you are going to throw that out the
window and it will be one more reason Mr.
President, why this Convention will not
pass it. Maybe we should not take that into
consideration.
THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-half
minute, Delegate Malkus.
DELEGATE MALKUS: That will be
enough. I am going to live with the people
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as long as I live in politics and I am a
politician. You may consider yourselves
statesmen, you are taking away from us
the right to have a local judge on the most
important subject matter, that a husband
and wife cannot get along together, and
put it somewhere in Wicomico County, and
let them come over there two or three days
a week and decide these matters. This is not
going to cost a lot of money, Mr. Presi-
dent, and I want the records to show, if it
is important enough to have a superior
court judge in every county it is also im-
portant enough to have a people's court
judge in every county. That is what the
district court is.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any delegate
desire to speak in favor of the motion to
reconsider? Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Convention, I
was not going to speak to this because I
had spoken before, and I am trying to
impose upon myself the rule limiting de-
bate on each issue to one time, but when
Delegate Malkus says that I must vote for
his amendment because if I do not this
Constitution may go down the drain, that
annoys me.
DELEGATE MALKUS: Will the gentle-
man yield?
DELEGATE CASE: When he says that
this is another thing that may weigh the
scales —
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case, Dele-
gate Malkus asks if you will yield to a
question.
DELEGATE CASE: No, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: Proceed, Delegate
Case.
DELEGATE CASE: When he says that
this is one thing which will weigh the
scales against the passage of the document,
I think we should re-examine our collective
consciences.
I have no ability to appeal to emotions
like Senator Malkus, but from time to time
I can marshall the facts, and it is the facts
I wish each of you would consider when
you think about your vote on the motion to
reconsider.
The facts are these: first, there has been
an apparent analogy drawn between the
superior courts and the district courts, and
it is said that because we are going to
have a superior court in each county we
should have a district court in each county.
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