Evening star., 1943-03-27
Legislators Rest
For '43 Term S
Last Full Week
Maryland Assembly
Passes Measure for
Court Revision
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
ANNAPOLIS, March 27.-Mem-
bers of the Maryland General As
sembly rested up today for the
grueling grind of the last full week
of the 1943 session after entertain
ing Anthony Eden, Britain's Foreign
Secretary.
Members hoped to adjourn sine
die next Saturday night, but polit-
ical observers, noting the large
amount of unfinished business, saw
only a $3.50 chance of final ad-
journment by next week end.
The Legislature yesterday dis
posed of its most controversial mat
ter-the bill to reorganize the Court
of Appeals. Previously passed by
the Senate after much debate and
amendment, the bill was rushed
through the House of Delegates after
much administre ion maneuvering
and passed without vote to spare
The measure, which proposes a
constitutional amendment and thus
needed a three -fifths majority in
both Houses, mustered "a ayes in
the House-the exact number
needed. Thirty-flve delegates voted
in opposition to the measure, which
was passed by the Senate, 1910, a
week ago.
Would Cut Roll of Judges.
The electorate will vote on it next
year.
The constitutional amendment, If
approved by the voters, will reduce
the membership of the Court of
Appeals from eight to five, with
two members from Baltimore City,
and three from geographical dis
tricts in the counties. Members OF
the Appellate Court would be re-
lieved of trial court duties.
After the court bill passed the
members heard Mr.. Eden speak at
a special joint session of the As
sembly in the State House which
was dedicated by his great-great-
grandfather, Sir Robert Eden, last
proprietary Governor of Maryland.
The State Senate passed and sent
to the House a bill to insure more
exact budget estimates in coming
years, but delayed scheduled action
on the bonus bill for teachers and
State employees, when and error in
Endorsement of the measure is dis
covered. 1t was returned to the
House.
Budget Method Hit.
The Senate was to have acted on
House amendments to the war bonus
proposal, which passed the upper
chamber February "a.
The budget bill, which was intro
duced by Senate Finance Sub
committee on the Budget. would re-
quire the budget director to work in
close cooperation with the State
controller in estimating revenues for
each biennium.
Some criticism has been directed
at the present system of preparing
the budget on the grounds that the
controller frequently does not see
the estimates until they have been
presented to the General Assembly.
The Senate Finance Committee
received Gov. O'Conor's supple
mental budget requests totaling So
766,693 yesterday and planned to
start consideration of them on
Monday.
Al Measures Considered.
The upper chamber acted finally
on al bills, most of them local, and
received 38 new proposals.
A Senate bill permitting Maryland
penal institutions to send out prison.
ers to help harvest crops and do
other farm work during the war was
one of almost tWoscore bills passed
by the uower chamber.
Some opposition came from House
members before the measure was
adopted, but there was little disposi-
ton to oppose it after it was ex-
planned that the prisoners would be
paid at the average wage prevailing
in the communities, in which they
were emplQYed