fuming the air we breathe as we do for purifying it; that is to say,
we spend $2 per capita for perfuming the air and only 20 cents per
person for its purification. Every day it is estimated that automobiles,
trucks and buses cast some 300, 000 tons of pollution into the air.
Some 600, 000 tons of soot and fly ash blanket New York City in a
year. Air pollution is already a serious matter in Maryland and in
the rest of the country, and it will become a critical matter unless we
move ahead rapidly to control it.

So, as I have suggested, it is most gratifying to me, as a public
official and as a citizen of Maryland, to see this manifestation of
interest in such matters as roadside beautification, urban, suburban
and rural planning, architectural and structural design, the regula-
tion of junkyards and outdoor advertising, the elimination of waste
and litter and an attack upon water pollution and air pollution. It
is my understanding, from your Chairman, that after a review of the
discussions and reports of today's meeting, your Commission is to
submit to the General Assembly its program for the improvement and
the preservation of the scenic beauty of our State. I shall be very
much interested in the program you submit and in the suggestions
you make. I assure you, also, that I will give every consideration to
each of the proposals you make to accomplish this high purpose.

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote these words: "In all ranks of life the
human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that
God makes are His gift to all alike. " Never were truer words written
or spoken. All of us have a deep-seated yearning for the things that
are beautiful. We see around us the beautiful things that God has
made and has left to us, all alike, as His gifts. Let us treat these gifts
of our Creator with the reverence and the respect they are due. Let
us pledge ourselves to the protection and the preservation of these
gifts of God — the beauty with which we are surrounded.

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