marginal risk loans — preserve the independence of action necessary
to the free enterprise system. They are assistance, not hand-outs, and
they involve no direct financial connection between the State and
private enterprise.

But in keeping with our search for talent, our standards of quality,
and our determination that it will forever flourish in Maryland, we
have provided the means to invite able men to join us by offering
needed financial votes of confidence in the proposed projects and plans.
When talent seeks us out, or we are fortunate enough to discover
it, we shall be able to claim it. As part of this search for excellence,
Maryland is also on the road to becoming the science center of the
United States. To that end, we have exerted the most concentrated
efforts possible in the few short years since we suddenly realized that
we were uniquely endowed to play a leading role in this specialized,
advance guard segment of the changing American economy. In less
than a decade we have welcomed 100, 000 new employees staffing some
500 research-oriented firms. When we set the goal of becoming a major
science-reserach area, we knew that we had a strong, but possibly not
a winning suit. Through the Department of Economic Development,
we instituted the Governor's Science Resources Advisory Board com-
posed of 58 leaders highly respected in the field. One of this board's
major recommendations is now being implemented as the state of
Maryland shares one-third the cost towards constructing a $6, 000, 000
science center in Baltimore.

I could also illustrate our success in the pursuit of quality by citing
the fact that of the 37 U. S. corporations which netted $100 million
or more after taxes in 1965, 22 had plants or major facilities in
Maryland.

I could supply the roster of the 30 or more industries preparing
ground-breaking ceremonies in Maryland this spring. It includes names
like General Motors, Standard Brands, Westinghouse, Ann our, Gen-
esco, and Sears Roebuck and Company. I could break down into
specifics the significance of the fact that the Department of Economic
Development in the first months of this year handled more business
and industrial inquiries than it has in any other similar period since
its inception.

I could discuss the details of our ambitious program that will restore
our great road west to the Ohio Valley, or I could spend a lot of
time talking about the background of action by the 1966 General
Assembly authorizing construction of another Chesapeake Bay bridge,
but I remember my promise to you, and I hope that I have said

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