of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 95

that the quality of a people is also demonstrated by the degree of fealty that
people pay from time to time to the memory of its leadership.

This occasion then may be more than ordinarily significant, serving as it
does to revive and emphasize civic interest in the life and career of the great
Governor, of whom we were all so proud.

At any rate, the citizens of this portion of our State, in my judgment, have
done honor to themselves by providing this occasion. I, for my part, both as
a citizen and as your Chief Executive, am glad to be able by my presence to
lend support to its success.

DEFENDERS' DAY AND ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

Radio Station WFBR, State House, September 11, 1939
Annapolis

MARYLAND, as a State, advances to the forefront of the Commonwealths
of the Country this week in public attention. By reason of the glorious
event, the anniversary of which we are about to celebrate, the attention of
the country will be focused upon our State and, as always, because of the
outstanding achievements of our sons and daughters, Maryland is rated higher
whenever the Nation's attention is centered upon it.

On Thursday of this week we celebrate the 126th anniversary of the writing
of the Star Spangled Banner. As befitting the occasion the President of the
United States and Congress have taken unusual steps to join with the State
of Maryland in glorifying the occasion which gave birth to our national anthem.
National representatives and dignitaries from foreign lands will join with the
people of our State in paying homage to Francis Scott Key and the stirring
stanzas which for a century and a quarter have expressed the spirit which is
America.

Defenders' Day—is a holiday peculiar to Maryland, it might well be said
to merit rank among the holidays of our Country. The bravery and heroism
displayed by the defenders of Fort McHenry not only inspired) their compatriots
of 1814, but they have remained inspirations to the defenders of American
interests throughout the intervening 125 years.

There was a great poet and patriot once, who said:

"Let me make the songs of a country, and I care not who makes its laws. "

Perhaps we ought to allow some poetic license to that statement by Robert
Burns of Scotland. As one whose life and work have been" largely concerned with
the making and the enforcement of laws, I am constrained to believe that they
have a large importance in the social scheme of things.

Still going back to Burns, we must admit that his observation was well
founded. It is a happy thought to link those two things—a country's songs
and a country's laws—in the same sentence. For isn't it true that they spring
from a common source—that is to say, from the very heart and soul of a
people, from their personality and character?

The song which was written in Baltimore 125 years ago—our national
anthem—was born of the same elements as our national Constitution. Both
came into being at a time of—and because of—a crisis in our Country's history.