of the responsibility for the orderly and healthy growth of the com-
munity falls upon local governments. Within the Maryland portion
of the Washington suburban area are two counties, forty municipal-
ities and special districts with one function or another too numer-
ous to recite.

The solution some would offer is consolidation, centralization;
but in my opinion such a solution is an over-simplification of the
problem. Aside from the purely practical obstacles, it is question-
able if better government would be achieved by the establishment of
one huge metropolitan governmental authority. I trust that my
emphasis upon local responsibility will not lead you to conclude that
I feel that your State government and your federal government have
no obligations at all in the matter. On the contrary, I believe very
strongly that a problem so widespread in its effects can be solved
only by the combined efforts of all—through local, state and federal
cooperation.

I am gratified that many Maryland communities have seen fit to
take advantage of housing, urban-renewal and other federal pro-
grams designed to improve the living conditions of the citizens of
this country. And as your Governor, I have sought to encourage a
strong and active State participation in plans to improve conditions
in the localities.

In the final analysis, I think it is a situation that calls for the
cooperation of all governmental agencies—between the federal and
the state governments, between the states, between the state and its
counties and cities, and between the counties and cities with one
another. Prince Georges County is fortunate in that it has established
a long tradition of cooperation with its neighbors. The Washington
Suburban Sanitary Commission was founded in 1918, and the Mary-
land-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1927....
The two agencies have served you well in the past and will continue
to serve you well in the future.

The passing of time has unfolded new and intensified problems,
and with them arises the demand for an extension of intergovern-
mental cooperation. The Washington area has arrived at the reali-
zation that such matters as mass transportation and water pollution
cannot be handled in a piecemeal manner by one community acting
independently of others. And so, the cooperation has been expanded
into the Virginia area, with the inauguration of interstate compacts
and the establishment of such agencies as the Washington Metropol-

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