during this session by the passage of two bills, one consolidating the
governing bodies of the closely related departments of health and mental
hygiene into a single Board of Health and Mental Hygiene, and another
restoring the Department of Research and Education to the University
of Maryland, where it is now called the Natural Resources Institute.
The heavy concentration of population in the metropolitan areas of
Baltimore and Washington has created some very serious problems,
among the greatest of which is the development of a transportation sys-
tem adequate to handle the millions of people who daily move into and
out of these two cities.... Maryland has entered into a compact with
the Commonwealth of Virginia and the District of Columbia for the
development of a mass transportation system for the Washington area.
At this session of the General Assembly, legislation was approved for the
establishment of a metropolitan transit authority for the Baltimore
area....
I regret that the General Assembly chose to reject my proposal for the
conversion of Frostburg State Teachers College into an arts-and-sciences
branch of the University of Maryland, a project I had conceived as a
first phase of broad plans to expand our system of higher education.
This problem will continue to be studied with the hope that conflicting
views on the subject may be resolved and the program launched without
further delay.
It is regrettable, too, I think, that the Administration proposal to
reapportion the General Assembly failed again to get the support needed
for passage. I am of the opinion that this issue will remain alive until
the General Assembly takes action to meet the public demand for a
more equitable representation....
I am satisfied in my own mind that much was accomplished in this
legislative session for the betterment of the State government and for the
improvement of the services it renders to the people of Maryland.
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