largest and best in the country and has been the chief influence in the
growth and development of the city. The port has been a factor in
the creation of the valuable economic asset mentioned by Mr. Cole—
the diversification of industry that has done so much to stabilize the
community socially and economically. As the commercial and business
hub of this region, Baltimore manufactures ships, airplanes, iron, steel,
transportation equipment, textiles, clothing, spices and processed goods.
Here are to be found plants producing tin cans, bottle caps, electric
tools, high-tension insulators, gas equipment, copper sulphate, straw
hats, Venetian blinds, paint brushes, weather instruments, superphos-
phates, and so on, in products too numerous to mention.

It is true, as has been stated, that Baltimore has gained no great
reputation as a center of automobile manufacturing. It is, therefore,
gratifying to learn, as we have learned here today, that Chevrolet-
Fisher Body intends to make our chief city the second largest in its
national network of car and truck assembly plants. We believe we
have here in Maryland the kind of geographic, economic and social
conditions that are conducive to industrial expansion. With a good
seaport and splendid rail and air connections with the rest of the
country, transportation facilities are very nearly ideal. And Maryland
is a pleasant place in which to live—a highly civilized community
with excellent schools, hospitals, art museums, libraries and the other
cultural facilities that a cultivated society demands. With its majestic
mountains at one end and the beautiful Chesapeake Bay and the
Atlantic seashore at the other, it is, we think, second to none in the
quality and extent of its recreational opportunities. We hope that
these endowments may serve as a continuing inducement for others
to follow the example of the Chevrolet Motor Division to locate and
expand so that our full economic potential may be realized. Mr. Cole
paid us the highest compliment when he spoke of the cordial and
attentive cooperation he had received from governmental agencies in
the modernization of his company's plant. It is a pleasure for me
to be able to assure him that he and his company may expect the
same cooperation in the future.

Maryland has never tolerated, and must never tolerate, a hostility
toward commerce and industry. Responsible industrial organizations
always have willingly borne their fair share of the costs of operating
our State and local governments. These governments, in turn, must
reward industry by providing the kind of economic climate in which
it can flourish. I believe we have such an economic climate in Mary-
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