The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-19

N~s~~-~T 7 me to be sufficient.
 Mir. Browne-I think 1t Is right as written. standing Committee Of each House. acted upon by such Committee in session.
 only desire to state that in the Shelby County case, the bill was re- ferred. as the journal will snow. to one Committee, and that 1t was reported back by another and different commit tee, and that question Is before the Supreme Court, not yet having been decided. Certainly 1t will ohvfate the attempt to do such thinx in the future.
 The amendment was again read: sert such committee in each House.
 Mir. Oates-That is a change of lan- guage. and if the gentlemen think It is more expressive. all right, have no objection to 1t. think 1t is clear like It is.
 MT, Cobb-I move to strike out the word each In the amendment.
 A reading being called for the section as amended was read: Sec. 10, No bill shall become law until it shall have been referred to a standing conn mittee of each House. acted upon by such committee in session. and return ed therefrom. which fact shall affirma- lively appear upon the journal of each House.
 Upon a vote being taken the amendment to the amendment, and the amendment were adopted, and there upon the section. as amended. was adopted.
 Section 20 was read as follows:
 Sec, 20. Every bill shall be read on three different days in each House, and no bill shall become a law unless on it's final passage 1t be read ht length and the vote taken by yeas and nays. the names of the members voting for end against the same be entered on the journal, and a majority or each House be recorded thereon as voting in its favor. except aa otherwise provided ,n tnis Cons :ttutior.
 MT. Harr,son-I have an amendment
 The amendment was read as follows: / Amend Section 20 by inserting be- tween the words of and each where they occur on the fourth line of said Section, the words "those elected to-
 Mir. Harrison-The effect of this amendment Is to require majority ol the members elected to each House tc vote in favor of a bill before It become. law. Under the Section as reported hy the Committee, and as has been the case in Alabama under the present Constitution, with a Senate composed of thirty-thre men, seventeen consti- tuting a quorum, nine Senators car pass law, and 1t has often been done With the House of Representatives oi 105, hfty-one being g majority. twenty six members of the House could pass a law. I submit that th!s will be one of the safeguards in the direction which the convention has undertaken to put into operation. do think, es- pecially when we have confined the Legislature to the consideration oi general laws, and when they are re- quired as by articles already adopted to provide by system of general laws all relief heretofore given by specia and local laws. that they should bt carefully considered. and insist thai this provision will see that they ars more carefully considered, because il will require a greater number of mem. bers or Senators to vote for such meas ures. Further. Mr. President. I insist
 1t will give that care and attention that ought to be given to the legisla, tion. and 1t will give more stability te the laws enacted. l do not think 1t il right that any law should be passed
 upon the vote of merely nine Senators or twenty-six members of the House Of Representatives. Tennessee and ( l number of other States have adopted l this rule and my information is that ir every one of them 1t has worked well offered an ordinance to this effect
 which was referred to the Committee | Not being a member of the Committee ! do not know what the position of tn, | Committee was with reference to 1t, bu
 in my judgment it is one of the mos important safeguards that we can plac,
 In this Constitution. and desire tt ! bring 1t to the consideration of dele gates of this Conventson.
 | Mr. Macdonald-Would not thu | amendment you suggest require {
 unanimous vote if there was only . quorum of members present.
 MT. Harrison-It' would require fifty
 one Representatives to vote fer tn, | passage of alaw, and require seventeen Senators if they were only there, ant ] the rest absent, think. MT. President
 1t ought to be unanimous. A majorit, of a legislative body should be re Quired to vote for the passage of an, law and think 1t will prevent hast. legislation, and that 1t Is not asking
 too much that a majority of thos' l elected by the people for the purpos'
 of iegislating should at least attent
 before bills are enacted into law. MT. Fitts-would not 1t have the ef
 fect of making Senators and Represent
 atives more diligent in attending, il order that they might be there? 1 M;. harrison-I think 1t would, ant that is the reason propose 1t. Tn result of it would be that we would have a better attendance upon the ses
 sions of the Legislature.
 l Canf0rd--I offer an amendment | Mir. Beddow-l desire to ask the gen tleman from Lee a question. 1 The Presldent-The Chair will sug 1 gest to the gentleman from Montgom cry that there is an amendment pend ing. and to be in order it should b 1 offered as an amendment to the amend ment.
 Mr. SanforG-It is hardly an amend ment to the amendment. It Is on
 different subject. and I will walt. 1 M-. Beddow--In cage an importan l measure is pending before the Senate
 and House. could not few filibuster
 CTS prevent the passage Of the laV
 sometimes?
 MT. Harrison-We have alread!
 adopted a provision that gives th'
 House the power to enforce the attend | ance of members.
 Mir. sanford-It Is sometimes yer.
 difficult to do that. Is 1t not?
 MT. Harrison-I think not.
 Mir. Oates-The delegate from Le
 stated he introduced an ordinance up
 on this subject, and was before tn
 Committee and discussed it, but
 majority of the Committee thought
 best to report this system as 1t stood The gentleman will sec that this l nrecisely the language of Section 2l