Mr. Lonergan: You will have it in three months.
Mr. Crimmins: It seems to me, after listening to the suggestions made, that the proposed constitution, in a few concise words, states our annual dues and also fixes the number of members constituting a quorum for the transaction of business. It makes another provision which I think very important, that in relation to state chapters. I don’t like to differ with Mr. Lenehan because there is no other member who has any more interest in the Society than he has, and no more effective work has been done by anyone than by him. Still I see no reason why we should not take action on this matter today.
The salient points in the constitution are very well put, and it seems to me we would get along a little faster if we adopted it in general. There might be a few corrections to be made, and they could be referred to the Executive Council, which could complete the work and then send out printed copies to the members of the Society. You know yourself, Mr. President, how difficult it is to get any great number together, and we probably would not, within a year, get as large a number of members at a meeting as today. That is my idea; I am not at all alarmed with the haste to be made by action today.
Mr. T. Vincent Butler: I heartily endorse the statement of the last speaker. I think this entire constitution could be read and passed on intelligently inside of a space of three-quarters of an hour. It is eminently proper that it should be brought up before this meeting. The committee who brings this constitution, or simply an amendment in a few features of something already existing, has done so with care and deliberation. It will be absolutely impossible to have the excellent results come from the same unless it is immediately adopted, and there should be no delay in passing promptly upon the various changes suggested. I therefore move, Mr. Chairman, as the sense of this meeting, that we proceed to pass upon the constitution with the various amendments outlined immediately.
Dr. Quinlan: You have heard the motion before the house. Was Mr. Lonergan’s amendment previously made seconded?
Mr. Rooney: Yes.
Mr. Delany: Mr. Chairman, I think Mr. Lonergan is more or less reconciled by the suggestion of Mr. Crimmins that the constitution be referred to the Executive Council with power to act.
Mr. Lenehan: Mr. Chairman, if this committee had prepared a copy of the constitution and sent it to the members asking for suggestions, if the committee had discharged its duty in an orderly manner as I consider, it would have prepared and sent this document around to the members, and we would thereby have been prepared today to act intelligently upon the subject.
Take, for example, the chopping off of the first paragraph of our present constitution, and restating the purpose of this Society in two or three lines. The purposes of this Society as expressed in the constitution as it now stands are most beautifully expressed. It is such an eloquent exposition of our ideas that under no circumstances should it be erased from the constitution. I have a copy of it here, and I ask it to be read so that we may contrast it with this proposed amendment which puts in two or three lines the purpose of this Society. It is splendidly, eloquently, magnificently expressed in our present constitution by a master of the English language, and I ask any man to read it, put it side by side with this proposed amendment, and note the eloquence with which the purpose of our Society is expressed.
Mr. T. V. Butler: I claim the gentleman is not in order. There is a motion before the house.