Evening star., 1947-02-24
All Work and No Play Daily Routine Of Legislators at Annapolis
By J. B. Zotmon
ssar ssaff Correspondent

ANNAPOLIS, Feb. 24.-Perry O.
Wilkinson closed his eyes and rubbed
his hand over his forehead. Then he
glanced down at the pile of papers
on the desk in front Of him.
'It's been hard day." he sighed.
The slim, brown haired chairman
of the Prince Georges County dele
cation to the Maryland General
Assembly leaned back in his chair.
Tt was 5 pm. and he had just fin
ished presiding over a meeting of the
delegation in a committee room at
the State House. The other dele
gates had left a few minutes before
Mr.. Wilkinson pulled out cigar
cite and lit it.
After few puffs, he looked at
The Star reporter who had covered
the meeting.
Much Work After Hours.
"Want to trade jobs?" he grinned.
The reporter grinned back and
shook his head.
"You know" said Mr.. Wilkinson,
Some people have an idea that a
delegate to the Legislature doesn't
have much to do. They think all
he does is attend two or three
hour session of the House or Senate,
introduce a few bills and then go to
a show or play poker.
Actually, much of a delegates
work begins after the Assembly ad-
journs for the day. Look at all these
bills, for example. There are eight
of them. 7 I have to go through each
one, iron out the defects, make any
changes that are necessary, index
them and then go over them again
with the other members of the dele
cation before they are introduced in
the House. And don't forget, our
delegation usually introduces about
100 bills q session."
The reporter nodded sympathetic
cally.
Has to Study Other Bills.
"And then, each day." Mr.. Wilk-
inson continued, II have to find
time to look over bills introduced by
other delegations so I'll know what
they're all about when 1t comes
time to vote on them"
Cant you do that in the morn
ing?" he was asked.
Not very well" he replied. That's
when I explain pending bills to
members of our delegation, offer any
assistance they might need in legis-
lative problems and attend commit
tee meetings"
MASKING his cigarette In the ash
tray, Mr.. Wilkinson stuffed the bills
into his briefcase and stood up.
"Wel, see you tomorrow" he said
as he left for his room in Carvel
Hall.
123 in House of Delegates.
Mr.. Wilkinson is one of 1913 men,
bers of the House of Delegates who
represent the % counties and Balti-
more City. The size of each delega-
ton depends on the population of
the area represented.
Baltimore City, for example, is di-
vided into six legislative districts
with delegation of six members
from each district.
The larger counties, including
Montgomery, Prince Georges, Anne
Arundel and Frederick also have
six-member delegations In the
House. The smaller ones, such as
Calvert and st. Marys, have only
two members.
The State Senate has 20 members,
one from each county and one from
each of the six Baltimore City dis
tricts. The Legislature meets in reg
ular session for 80 days every two
years, although a bill is pending to
have the Assembly Hold annual ses-
sions.
1,5O0 Bills introduced in 1945.
An indication of the tremendous
amount of work compressed into
each session is seen in the fact that
approximately $500 bills were in
troduced during the 1945 session.
Virtually all of the Baltimore City