The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-07-03
OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF ALABAMA

merit, and the proposition of the gen.
 tlemsn from Dale would be an amend
 ment to the amendment.
 MT. O'Neal (Lauderdale)-Would a
 substitute De1n order?
 The President--An additional amerid-
 tnent In the opinion of the Chair would
 hot be i1 order at this time.
 Mt. o'Neal tLaudefdale)-I think the gentleman will accept my amendment.
 NIT. Sollie-Let me hear it.
 Mir. O'Neal erdale)-Reso!ved,
 that the rule shall not apply to debate Oh the report of the Committee on Suf- frage, or to the chairman of commit tees.
 Mr. soIiie--Yes. accept that as q substitutA.
 The Presidsnt--The gentleman from Dale asks unanimous consent to accept the amendment proposed by the gentle man from Lauderdale. Is there ob1ec@ toni
 Mr. Hobinson-I object.
 Mr. S0llie-Among my immediate col-
 leagues, coming up from the wire grass. sf brought to the Convention with me 1 something of reputation for being l long Winded in speech making, and the | sinendmeft extending the time from | five to ten minutes coming frcm me
 will at least. be consistent l believe. | however, that 1 might say. by way of
 parenthesis, that I have been out-Her-
 oded in the matter of speech making and that whatever of pride l might have felt in my previous reputation l along that line, the time has come | when l must surrender both the repti- I tation and the proud feeling following 1t. Yet. it occurs to me, MT. President. | that a debate to be limited to five l minutes, Is too great limitation for the questions that are constantly com | inx before this Convention. Many vf 1 these questions have so many bearings. and such varied aspects; the dangers | In their passage, Or the reasons for | their passage, are so numerous, and touch upon so many points, that in my | judgment, gentlemen who are capable
 of speaking to resolutions and to ordi-
 nances. cannot in five minutes present l the arguments which they would like to | present, and which, if it is we'll to ar l que them at all, this Convention ought to hear. But there will rarely come before the Convention any question | which a man of moderately swift l speaking capacity and ordinary powers ! of condensation, may net speak ctwn within the ten minutes; and it occurs
 to me that the ten minute limit would | be a more reasonable limitation upon l the right to speak than the five minute | limitation There are two extremes in | all matters. and 1t does appear that we 1 have been heading strongly towards 1 the extreme of great length in speech making in this Convention. l think it 1 Is fault which none of the orators who have spoken here can say belongs to the balance and not to himself. It seems to be general Inasmueh as 1t Is general, we all may stop and take A lA aoA NEfa sach one including himself in the nunns be.. are not taking too much time in debate. Yet. MT. President, for oHe
 will not consent. that the right to speak. the right to throw light upon the various questions which will be Drought before the Convention, shall be cut ok and limited to five minutes. We have already. from the ordinances
 which have been introduced. seen what a disposition there is among members of the Convention to introduce and brips in through committees. reports making radical changes in the funda' mental law of Alabama; and when that is shown to be the case-when it seems that we are so anxious to make grave and radical departures from the Con. s.itution as it now stands, although the matter in which we depart from it is not one where the old Constitution has proven insufficient-I say when that disposition shows up in the Con- vention that 1t is not well that we should cut of the right to debate and show the wrong in these proposed deS partures. Ten minutes is not more than sufficient time for any gentleman Of moderate ability to, present an argu- Snent upon these great questions. which are being brought before Us. I hope that the five minute limit will not be put upon the Conventions. insist re- spectfully that no gentleman who is able to speak. not even those who are not able to speak. can make an arEu- faefit upon q grave constitutional ques- ton inside of five minutes. We have a way in debate of laying ceratni Lreol- cates and proceedings to a conclusion, and there are sufficient predicates in many propositions that come before us, if they are stated categorically. to re- quire five minutes to state them. Therefore insist that the five minutes rule is too short, and I hope that the Convention will join in the amendment and permit the limit to be put at ten inmates ana not five.
 Mfr. lmore~-Judging from the quail ity of the speeches this Convention has been forced to listen to, 1t seems to me that one minute Is quite sufficient. Yes terday morning while the speech mak- ing was going op, I was compelled to wonder what sins we had committed l on Sunday that we should be cursed in | listening to the speeches that we were | forced to listen to on yesterday, and | for one. Mir. President, shall insist oE | the five minutes.
 MT. Kjrkland-I move to lay the | amendment of the gentleman from | Dale on the table.
 Upon a vote being taken a division l was called iJr and by vote of 4S ayes | and 63 noes the motion to table was lost.
 Mir. solile--t move the adoption of the amendment.
 Mir. Smith (Mobile)--I desire to call | attention to the fact that the resolu- ton. introduced by the Committee is confined entirely to discussion upon to reports and not to the | reports themselves. It Is to be pre- stunned that where more lengthy con sideration of the purposes of the report | are desired by the Chairman, that 1t | will follow the course that was taken | by the Chairman of the Committee on | Executive Department. moving in the | first place the adoption of the report, | and giving the members ample time to discuss the purposes of the report as a whole. In the discussion here, there have been some amendments of very importance offered before the House, and on which possibly 1t was reasonable to permit a longer debate than that prescribed by the