The economic theory of whether to spend for guns or butter must be
applied to the operations of State government. We must remember that
appropriations for one agency have a direct bearing on appropriations
for other functions of government. To devote all our energies to one
specific project means a delay or possible scrapping of another equally
worthy project. To be more specific, as Chief Executive of Maryland, I
cannot, in good conscience, promote higher teachers salaries if it means
that it would divert funds from a mental health program which has
begun to erase the blot once referred to as "Maryland's shame. " I cannot
neglect to take immediate corrective measures providing adequate treat-
ment facilities for mental patients formerly bedded down in the hallways
of century old buildings. I cannot call for disproportionate increases in
capital expenditures for education, when at the same time, additional
facilities are also desperately needed to care for the ill and the aged. You
must also bear in mind that a Chief Executive cannot burden the people
of his State with a tax program that would stifle the very economy upon
which we thrive.

It is these facts which must be considered when those charged with
charting a course for our State's future decide the relative merits of
various programs. And, if a Chief Executive is well grounded in the
art of politics, he realizes that when he makes decisions such as these,
he makes them with the full knowledge that many groups interested in
specific projects will be dissatisfied.

To make a bold, if somewhat immodest statement, let me say that I
am not dissatisfied with the progress made under my Administration in
the field of education. There is not a single county in Maryland where
teachers salaries do not exceed the State supported minimums. There
is but one county (Garrett) which does not exceed the $4, 000 minimum
salary scale which your organization favors. The Maryland salary sched-
ules for the 1961-62 school year are outlined in the October issue of your
magazine "The Maryland Teacher. " The last report I had indicated
that Maryland ranked seventh in the Nation in teacher salary levels,
first in the South and $465 higher than the national average.

At the last session of the General Assembly, the Committee on Tax-
ation and Fiscal Matters recommended and I endorsed legislation pro-
viding more than $14, 750, 000 in additional State aid to local education
and welfare programs. All but a very small portion of these funds were
available for education and were designed to raise teachers salaries and
spur the construction of schools throughout the State but particularly
in the fast growing urban regions. To finance this program, I recom-
mended adjustments in the State sales, use and cigarette taxes. I recom-

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