plant contracts for the United States as a whole increased by only 1 per
cent, while in Maryland the increase of 1961 was 79. 5 per cent, repre-
senting a capital investment of nearly $127 million. According to the
Department of Commerce's Survey of Current Business for April,
Maryland's total personal income rose from $3 billion, 755 million in
1950 to $7 billion, 460 million in 1960 to $7 billion, 901 million in 1961.
The per cent change for the 1950-1961 period was bettered by only seven
of the 50 states, and the 6 per cent increase of 1961 over 1960 was ex-
ceeded by only five states. The per capita personal income of our State
rose from $1, 580 to $2, 394 during the 1950-1960 decade, and last year
the income per inhabitant increased to $2, 478. The 4 per cent rise in
per capita personal income last year over the year before was bettered by
only five states of the Union. Our employment in the month of March,
just past, reached 1, 058, 000—the highest March figure recorded in
Maryland history. And the civilian labor force was 1, 129, 500—also the
highest March figure in Maryland's history.

Now, I do not wish to stifle you with statistics, and I promise you I
won't. But let me offer this one: Our Gross State Product during the
1950-1960 decade jumped by almost 90 per cent, while our Gross
National Product rose by only 77. 2 per cent for the same period. And the
figure I presented in some levity earlier on Federal Reserve bank deposits
is indeed a serious one. Its significance I will leave to your better judg-
ment. To sum it up, I find from a variety of sources enough evidence of
economic vigor to give me great satisfaction with the present and great
confidence in the future of our State.

There is, of course, a gloomier side of the picture, and I would be the
last person to want to conceal it from any one. We have within our
boundaries spots of relative adversity, variously labeled as distressed
areas, surplus-labor areas, areas of under-employment or of serious
unemployment. The Area Redevelopment Administration established
by the Kennedy Administration, for example, has designated six of our
counties as areas of under-employment and eligible for ARA assistance.
These are Allegany, Cecil, Dorchester, Garrett, Washington and Somer-
set Counties. For those easily alarmed, it should be pointed out that
Maryland has only six of the some 1, 000 distressed areas in the country
as a whole. Your State government is not only aware of this condition,
but, in cooperation with the federal government and the local com-
munities themselves, is making a strong effort to correct it. And there
are many signs that our efforts are bearing fruit. New industries, pro-
viding jobs for the unemployed and pumping new economic life blood
into the communities, are cropping up in Oakland, Hagerstown, Han-

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