has been closely identified with the growth and advancement of this
pleasant and progressive community.

My association, over a great many years, with Rotary International
has been one of the most enjoyable and most rewarding experiences
of my life. I consider it my good fortune to have been affiliated with
this world-wide organization of business and professional men, united
in the ideal of service and believing that he profits most who serves
best. I have been aware from the beginning, of course, that one of the
aims of Rotary is the advancement of international understanding,
good will and peace.

This far-flung influence of Rotary was impressed upon me sharply
by my travels abroad earlier this year. Last spring, accompanied by
the President of the University of Maryland and the the Dean of
University College, I was privileged to travel through France, Spain,
Italy, and Germany, visiting and inspecting branches of our Uni-
versity which have been established there for the education of Ameri-
can service men and civilians who are stationed in these countries.
In many of the hotels in which I stayed, I saw displayed in the
lobbies the familiar emblems of Rotary International, and although
I did not have the opportunity to attend their luncheons, it was
comforting and reassuring to me to know that our great organization
was there, performing the same valuable service to our friends of
foreign nations that it performs here in the United States where
Rotary had its birth fifty-eight years ago.

As business and professional men, you have a deep and abiding
interest, I know, in the economic health and strength of the com-
munity in which you live, and today I should like to give you some
thoughts and observations I have had regarding the economy of this
fair region of our state. Let met say in the beginning that it is in-
spiring and encouraging to me to see the great effort that has been
made here in Hagerstown, and in other parts of the area, toward
self-rehabilitation and economic revitalization. The achievements we
see around us here are a mark of the strong character and courage
of the people who inhabit this region. I enjoyed reading a few months
ago an excellent newspaper account of these achievements — an
article on Hagerstown entitled "The City that Rid Itself of the Blue
Ridge Mountain Blues. "

Shortly after I was inaugurated as Governor of the State, a little
more than five years ago, I received a great many letters, telephone
calls and other messages acquainting me with the serious economic
plight of these three westernmost counties of Maryland — Washington,

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