quarter of next year, business outlays for new plant and equipment could
exceed the rate of $41 billion per year. " By a considerable margin, this
would be an all-time high in business expansion.

What does all of this mean to us here in Maryland? Well, for one
thing I think that it shows unmistakably that Maryland faces vigorous
competition from other areas of the country for the new plants to be
constructed and the new equipment to be installed. And from my point
of view, it is a challenge to us here in this State to step up our program
of calling to the attention of American businessmen advantages we have
here and to prepare ourselves to offer them any information and services
they may require with regard to location or expansion within our
borders. We are safe in assuming, I think, that the new national defense
program, with its greatly increased appropriations, will add further
impetus to the expansion plans of industry....

We have every reason to believe that Maryland will be able to compete
successfully with the rest of the country in its bid for the overall share of
the fruits of expected economic expansion. The strength and the mo-
mentum of the economy of our State puts us in a good position to
participate in full measure in this new wave of industrial and commer-
cial expansion.

Just briefly, let us look at our economic condition. In the 1950-1960
decade, Maryland's gross state product increased by 46 per cent, as com-
pared with an increase in the Gross National Product of only 39 per cent.
More importantly, all of the gain over the Gross National Product has
occurred since 1957, with the sharpest rise in 1959 and 1960. And per-
haps the best indicator of all is in per capita income. In 1959, Mary-
land's per capita income exceeded that of the country as a whole by only
1. 8 per cent, while in 1960 the average Marylander's income was 9 per
cent above that of the average American. We hope, of course, that
Maryland will continue to share in the national prosperity. But we do
not assume, in the competitive atmosphere of the present, that we will do
so without effort.

In State government, we have established a Department of Economic
Development, the purpose and function of which I am sure all of you
are familiar. Its broad purpose is to develop to the fullest the economic
potential of our State. It seeks to accomplish that purpose by inducing
outside industry and businesses to locate here, by encouraging existing
industry and business to expand their facilities and by the promotion of
tourism. It is one of our newest State agencies, but by any standards I
believe it may be adjudged as one of the more effective ones.

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