I would begin with the observation that the next ten years promise
to be the most eventful decade in the three-and-a-quarter century
history of our State. We are living in an era of explosive population
growth and a swiftly changing and expanding economy. Maryland is
seventh in the nation in population growth, and among the East Coast
states its growth is exceeded only by Florida and Delaware. The rapid
population growth and economic development which we have witnes-
sed over the past twenty years continues unabated, and the prospects
for the next ten years are truly staggering. If present trends con-
tinue, the State, by 1970, will have made large gains in virtually all
phases of economic activity. There will be a corresponding increase
in the need for State and local public services and for a tremendous
expansion of private investment to provide more jobs and a broader
tax base. It is estimated that the civilian labor force, which totaled
1, 096, 000 last year, will reach 1, 395, 000 by 1970, an increase of 27. 3
per cent. Assuming prosperous conditions, with substantially full em-
ployment, the number of employed persons would rise from the 1, 015, -
300 of 1959 to 1, 346, 000 by 1970, a gain of 32. 5 per cent.

Our school population may be expected to rise at an even more
rapid rate because of the high birth rate since World War II. By 1970,
the prospect is for a school enrollment of more than 1, 000, 000, as
compared with the 680, 000 children in school last year. The import-
ance of jobs under conditions such as these is obvious to all of us.
This is true because the number of employed persons is the basis of
the economy, private and public. If public policies are framed with
the view to maximizing the number of jobs in the State, many of
the problems now vexing us will be much simpler to resolve.

What, then, is your State doing to meet the demands of the future?
Early this year, Maryland embarked on a new program of economic
development. Ours was one of the last two or three states to set up
an official State Economic Development Program. The reason for the
delay in setting up such a State agency, I think, is the fact that we
had been doing so well in this field on our own natural momentum.
Maryland industry has been expanding during the past several years
at almost twice the national rate. In this great Baltimore metropolitan
area alone, more than $1 billion has been spent for industrial expan-
sion during the past ten years. But competition has become keen among
the states of the Union to locate new plants and new business within
their borders, and one of the first proposals I made to the General
Assembly after I was inaugurated as Governor was to establish a
Department of Economic Development.... Although the Department

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