REMARKS, STATE EMERGENCY RESOURCES
PLANNING COMMITTEE

BALTIMORE

July 16, 1964

General Van Brunt, Mr. Cosgrove, Mr. Carmody, ladies and gentle-
men:

First I would like to express my personal thanks to each member
of the committee for having accepted the duty of preparing plans
and procedures for managing resources and reconstituting the eco-
nomy of Maryland in event of nuclear attack. When General Van
Brunt and I first discussed the general characteristics that we should
look for in the the people we would ask to serve on this committee,
we agreed that they should be first and foremost be busy people. It was
our thought that anyone who is to be in a position to exercise knowl-
edgable and effective control of a resource in an emergency should
be in the mainstream of that business. Therefore, we have deliberately
sought busy and successful men and women. The fact that you have
responded to our call demonstrates your awareness that in a free
enterprise economy a position of business influence is also a position
of civic responsibility. I am most gratified with the high caliber of
personnel that we have recruited throughout our task forces. It is a
tribute to the leadership of you gentlemen who chair these task
forces that you have been able to attract such capable people.

It is readily apparent that resources are not evenly distributed
throughout this land and that each State has its own inventory of
products that are surplus or in short supply. It is a basic principle
of our economy that resources are viewed as a national asset and that
there are no normal restrictions upon interstate trade. This is the
reason that in two great wars of this century the federal government
had set up the machinery for the management of resources and the
states were not called upon to exercise any role in this field. In both
of these wars we were fortunately spared significant attack upon our
homeland. However, it is now within the capability of a prospective
enemy to wreak serious damage upon this country. It therefore is
prudent that we establish within each state the capability of initiating
measures for recovery that are consistent with a national plan in case
the federal government should be unable to act in the early stages.
This is the purpose for which we are called together this afternoon.

The very fact that resources must be controlled within a national

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