of Metropolitan Baltimore and the other organizations and indi-
viduals responsible for bringing this group of business leaders together
for a discussion of legislation that may affect their business and their
private lives. I extend my commendation also to the businessmen
whose patriotic concern for the well-being of their State is manifest
by their presence at these sessions. J have made a swift examination
of your program and its leaders, and I am certain that all of you will
return to your homes from this conference better informed about
your State government and better equipped to do your part in shaping
its future for the betterment of Maryland and its people.

We are fortunate in having with us as a main speaker Senator
Reynolds DuPont, of our neighboring State, Delaware. I, myself, will
be brief with my remarks, but I should like, in a summary fashion,
to tell you some of the things your State government is trying to do
to create the kind of climate in which you can prosper in your business
endeavors. As we all know, government, by action or inaction, can be
of help to business and commerce. It follows, of course, that is can
also be of hindrance. There are, as I see it, three principal ways it
can help: (1) by the direct stimulation of the industrial and com-
mercial activities of the community it serves, (2) by the creation of
an atmosphere in which people, individually and collectively, are
inspired to creative acts, and (3) by a sound and prudent management
of the fiscal affairs of the government.

Your State government of course will not take credit for the un-
precedented prosperity that we have enjoyed for the past several years.
The vigor of our economy is nationwide. But is should be pointed
out, I think, that in 1959, Maryland for the first time adopted ag-
gressive measures in the field of industrial promotion, a move which
I think undoubtedly added strength to an expanding economy. The
Economic Development, with industrial and tourist development as
a primary responsibility, was created by an act of the General As-
sembly in 1959 and began functioning as an agency of State govern-
ment the following year. The effort to attract new industry and more
jobs — the hard labor of digging out facts that industrialists want
to know about Maryland's people, its natural resources, labor market,
taxes, educational facilities and an infinite variety of similar date —
this unheralded effort offered for the first time a comprehensive picture
of the Free State's industrial potential. Since 1960 the State has pro-
vided information and planning assistance to more than 600 com-
panies interested in developing new plant sites in Maryland. A total
of 338 business executives have come to the State for tours and to

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