is the medium through which we express our will as to the form of
government we shall have and the course it is to take. It is also an
agency that provides us with the opportunity to work in the service
of the people and their government.

The Democratic Party of Maryland is the Party which for many
decades has best expressed my philosophy of good government. And
it is the Party that has provided me with the means of serving the
people of this great State. To forsake the Party, now or ever, would
be the mark of an ingrate, and I, of course, have no such intention.
I am here today to serve it if I may. I hope that I may have the
privilege of serving it for the remainder of my days. Loyalty to the
Democratic Party I conceive to be an obligation, but loyalty to the
political party of my choice is nothing new to me. I have had my
disappointments with party affairs, as I suspect most of you here
have. But I have lived with the disappointments, along with the many
triumphs and I have not faltered in my allegiance.

Among many other things, loyalty to me has meant unqualified
support of the Party's nominees for office. Party unity, from my point
of view, is an essential ingredient to the success of any political party,
and party unity cannot be maintained if disgruntled elements within
the party renege in their responsibilities by lying down on the job,
at best, or by joining the opposition at worst. As a life-long Demo-
crat, and as one who has seen the fortunes of our Party rise and fall
over the better part of a half century, I appeal to the Democrats of
Maryland — to those here and to those elsewhere — to stand to-
gether again, united in common cause — a victory for our Party
and its candidates in the General Election of next November 8.

There is every reason in the world why the Democratic Party
should be chosen by the people of Maryland to operate the govern-
ment of their State for another four years.

An illustrious Democrat, an eminent American statesman, Adlai
Stevenson, said this about political parties: "the test of a political
party, — the acid, final test" — is the way it governs a nation. The
principle, of course, can be applied to a state as well as to a nation.
And if we apply it to the Democratic Administration, of which I
have had the honor to be a part during these past eight years, then
surely we must conclude that the Democratic Party in Maryland has
stood the "acid, final test" of a political party. For, measured under
any reasonable standards, I think there is no doubt but that a Demo-
cratic Administration has governed the State of Maryland and
governed it well during that period.

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