[B.] STATEMENT-Continued. CLAIMS OF BENJAMIN SINGERLY. Packing and directing 13 packages S. Boyd Martin's bill of boxes for P. & R. R. R. Express Co.'s bill 41 per cent. discount from first column.... Claimed to be not subject to deduction ... Not yet finally audited, (marked above as passed over for the present,) items to amount to.. $473 00 Mr. HAY. Mr. President: I ask leave to make a statement at this time. The PRESIDENT. The resolution reported by the committee is not yet before the Convention. After the resolution is before the Convention the gentlemen will be in order. Mr. HAY. I move, then, to proceed with the second reading of the resolution. The motion was agreed to and the resolution was read the second time, as follows: Resolved, That there is due to Benjamin Singerly, Printer for the Convention, in full of all claims to the 15th day of July, 1873, (exclusive of the items in the above mentioned accounts yet to be fully audited, together amounting to the sum of $714 50, and also exclusive of the items excepted from the audit of the first account, together amounting to the sum of $2,060 45) the sum of 11,288 35; and that a copy of the above report, and of the action of the Convention thereon, be forthwith certified by the Chief Clerk to the Auditor General of the Commonwealth. M. HAY. I do not propose, unless it is the will of the Convention, to ask for the passage of this resolution at this time, for the reason that it may be possible that in consequence of the necessary length of this report, the members of the Convention have not fully heard and understood its purport. It may, therefore, be desirable that the report should be printed for their information. I have no wish, however, to express on that subject, and have therefore made the motion to proceed to the second reading, and if no member desires that the report shall be printed. I shall press that motion, and ask that the resolution reported be adopted. M. J. W. F. WHITE. I tried to listen to the report as it was read by the Clerk. I found it impossible to hear the whole of it, and I know that many members of the Convention could not hear what was before the body. I, however, gathered enough from the report to see that there was a large difference between the Committee on Accounts and Expenditures and the Printer. It is only just and fair to him and to all the members of the Convention that the matter should lie over until the report be printed, and we have an opportunity of reading it and understanding it. I, therefore, move that the further consideration of this resolution be postponed for the present, and that the report be printed. Mr. LILLY. I move to amend by strik ing out "for the present," and inserting "until next Monday at ten o'clock." ["Oh, no!"] My idea is that this question ought to be settled as soon as possible, and therefore I wish a definite time fixed for its consideration, so that we can get through with it. The amendment was rejected. Mr. HAY. I would ask the mover of the motion to postpone and print, to indicate the number of copies he desires to have printed. Mr. J. W. F. WHITE. One hundred and fifty copies. Mr. EWING. Will not the report go into the Journal? The PRESIDENT. It will. Mr. EWING. What then is the necessity of printing in bill form what will be included in the Journal? Mr. J. W. F. WHITE. That was my own judgment upon the subject; if this report goes into the Jourual, it ought not to be printed separately. I added that one hundred and fifty copies should be printed, at the instance of a friend before me, and several others, but I think that printing in the Journal is enough, and therefore I withdraw the motion to print one hundred and fifty copies. Just a Mr. J. PRICE WETHERILL. word here. There is a very important difference, as I understand, between the Printer and the Committee on Accounts and Expenditures — a difference of some $18,000. My impression is that if we have printed slips laid on the desks of the members, the attention of every delegate will be attracted to the report, and he will look into the cause of this difference, and justice will be done to the Printer as well as to the Committee on Accounts and Expenditures. Therefore I hope that a report of so much importance as this will not be put into the Journal where it will be overlooked, but that we shall have at least one hundred and fifty slip copies printed, and each member of the Convention furnished with one. I renew the motion to print one hundred and fifty slip copies. The motion was agreed to. The PRESIDENT. The question recurs on the motion to postpone. The motion was agreed to. THE LEGISLATURE. Mr. ANDREW REED. I now renew the motion to proceed with the consideration of the article on the Legislature. Mr. HARRY WHITE. I move to amend that the Convention resolve itself into committee of the whole on the nineteenth and twentieth sections of the report of the Committee on the Legislature. We have not agreed upon those sections; and that, I suppose, would be the regular order of proceeding. The PRESIDENT. The article itself is now on second reading. Mr. HARRY WHITE. There were several amendments offered and ordered to be printed and laid on the desks of members. I move therefore that the Convention resolve itself into committee of the whole on the amendments printed to the nineteenth and twentieth sections of the report of the Committee on the Legisla ture. Mr. MACVEAGH. I trust that the motion of the gentleman from Mifflin (Mr. Andrew Reed) will prevail, and not the motion of the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Harry White.) Do not let us throw this whole article back again into committee of the whole. 80. Mr. HARRY WHITE. I made a motion to go into committee of the whole for the purpose of general amendments. It seems that the status of the case is this, and I state it so that we may understand where we are: The proposition offered by the gentleman from Allegheny (Mr. D. N. White) fixing a certain manner of apportionment was adopted in committee of the whole; that proposition came out of the committee of the whole, and was voted down in Convention upon second reading, and Mr. Meredith, the then honored President of the Convention, decided that although the motion prevailed to vote down the report, yet it brought the whole article up on second reading. I presume that is the status of the case before the Convention now, and recognizing that decision, I propose to meet the question in this way: I withdraw my motion to go into committee of the whole for the purpose of general amendments, and I move to amend the motion of the delegate from Mifflin as follows: That the Convention resolve itself into Mr. HARRY WHITE. It would not do committee of the whole for special amend Mr. MACVEAGH. Yes, sir. The article on Legislature was reported to the Convention by the committee of the whole, and upon second reading these amendments were offered and voted upon without completing the second reading. The article was continued and postponed, and now the gentleman asks us to further continue it by moving to go into committoe of the whole again. The PRESIDENT. The order of procceding with the subject as it now stands, is upon second reading. Mr. MACVEAGH. Certainly, sir. The motion of the gentleman from Indiana is out of order; but without referring to that, I trust that the motion of the gentleman from Mifflin will prevail, and that we shall at once go on with the second reading of the article and complete it. The PRESIDENT. The Chair understood that the motion of the delegate from Indiana was to amend the motion of the dolegate from Mifflin. The gentleman from Mifflin moved to proceed with the second reading of the article on the Legislature. The delegate from Indiana then moved to amend, by proceeding in committee of the whole to consider the same article. Therefore the Chair recognized the motion to amend as in order. It is in order thus to amend. ments, and I indicate the following as the amendment I wish to offer: "The House of Representatives shall consist of not less than one hundred and fifty-two members, to be apportioned and distributed to the counties of the State severally in proportion to the population on a ratio of twenty-five thousand inhabitants to each member, except that each county shall be entitled to at least one member; and no county shall be attached to another in the formation of a district. And the city of Philadelphia, and any county having an excess of three-fifths of said ratio over one or more ratios, shall be entitled to an additional member. In case the number of one hundred and fiftytwo members is not reached by the above apportionment, counties having the largest surplus over one or more ratios shall be entitled to one' additional member until the number of one hundred and fifty-two members is made up. The city of Philadelphia and counties entitled to more than three members shall be divided into single districts of compact and contiguous territory as nearly equal in population as possible; but no township or election precinct shall be divided in the formation of a district: Provided, That in making said apportionment in the year 1881, and every ten years thereafter, there shall be added to the ratio five hun the files on the desks of the members should be furnished the day after its approval, and the Debates the day after their delivery; and that he is therefore entitled to be paid the special rates charged by him regardless of the schedule of fates fixed by the act of March 27, 1871. His claim is based upon the provisions of the sixth division of the first section of this act, which is in these words: "Any work done by said Printer for the Commonwealth, and any supplies or publications furnished by him to any department or public officer, the price or value of which may not be fixed by or be otherwise ascertainable under the printing act of 1856 or this act, shall be paid for at rates of compensation to be fixed in the manner provided for in the fourth division of this section, subject, however, to the control and authority of the Auditor General, over the accounts therefor." That part of the fourth division of the same section here referred to, is as follows: "And whenever it shall happen that the price or cost of the same shall not be fixed by or be ascertainable under the laws relating to the public printing and binding, then the price or cost of the same shall be fixed and determined between the said Superintendent (of Public Printing) and tho Public Printer, before the same shall be furnished or supplied, and shall not exceed the lowest rate at which such articles or supplies of like quantity and quality can be obtained elsewhere." There does not appear to be any force or morit in this claim. The price, both of composition and presswork, is "fixed by and clearly ascertainable under the printing acts," as was shown in the committec's first report upon this subject, on the 14th day of July last; and as to composition, the law further and most emphatically provides that upon no pretense whatever should any composition be fixed at rates other than those therein prescribed. There can therefore be no doubt, it would seem, that the prices to be allowed to the State Printer under his contract with the Convention are those which are provided in the schedule, and no other. Indeed, in the printed memorial which was addressed by Mr. Singerly to the members of the Convention, shortly after their assembling in Philadelphia, and just before the contract for the printing was made, he repsesented that during the session of the Legislature of 1871, while a revision of the printing laws of the State (which resulted in the passage of the act of March 27, 1871) was under consideration in that body, some of its members conversed with him about the Convention printing, leaving the idea on his mind that the printing of every description for the State was embraced in that act; that a majority of the printers who bid for the public printing on the 4th of April, 1871, would testify that they understood that the Convention printing was included in the public printing at that time; and that the public printing, under the revised law, was awarded to him after the bill to call the Convention had passed both houses; and, therefore, finally claimed that he had a right to do the printing of the Convention, and was prepared to do it, in whatever form the Convention might designate, according to the revised printing laws, passed March 27, 1871. Apart, therefore, from the mere legal construction of the contract entered into by him with the Convention, this representation and claim of the Printer, made at the time and under the circumstances it was, shows what impression was conveyed to the minds of the members before the vote upon the printing contract was taken, as to the law (which was that embracing the schedule of rates) under which the prices for the printing and binding of the Convention were to be ascertained. The committee has reported with such degree of fulness upon this matter, not only because it was one of some importance to the Convention and the people of the Commonwealth generally, but also that the grounds of its action upon these accounts and of the State Printer's claims might be thoroughly understood. For the reasons given in the previous report, the charges made for "extra lettering" or labeling the backs of the remainder of Volume 1 of the Debates, and of Volumes 2, 3 and 4, together amounting to the sum of $877 50; and the charge for correcting a member's speech, $9 28, have not been allowed. For trimming and packing Debates and Journals for files there is a charge made of $280, which has not been allowed, for the reason that the "packing" is simply putting into a bundle the copies sent each day to the Convention, and is merely an incident in the convenient transmission by the Printer of that which it is necessary for him to deliver in good condition; and the "trimming" charged for it is believed is fully covered by the allowances otherwise made, and for which no separate charge |