Those in this audience who are charged with responsibility for
developing firemen's training programs are urged to plan presentations
in the important subject area of staff and command training for fire
officers, as well as to continue to expand training in the basics. I am
pleased to announce that my State is taking the leadership in arranging
a National Fire Service Staff and Command School, to be held July 20
through July 31, this year. This will be conducted in the Fire Service
Extension facility at the University of Maryland. It is being sponsored
jointly by the Fire Service Extension Department of the University,
the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and the National Board
of Fire Underwriters.

I mention the staff and command programs for officers as an illus-
tration of the important fact that as I stand here and take my second
look at FDIC the picture appears significantly different. On the debit
side of the ledger is the certainty that the annual economic drain of
fire losses continues at a higher rate than any of us wish to confess.
There is also the significant factor that this world is becoming more
complex through modern developments. President Johnson recently
emphasized the rapidity of our changing society when he made the
statement that 90 per cent of the medicine prescribed by physicians
today was not available just 10 years ago. He also said that three-
quarters of all the people employed by industry in 1975 will be pro-
ducing products that are unknown today and which have not yet been
invented. This indication of our rapid progress carries a connotation
that the problems of the fire service are becoming more severe and
more demanding. We must have the answers to problems that did
not exist just yesterday.

But, for my second visit, I did not come here like the pessimist who
arrived at the ball game and asked, "Who is losing?" I am more
interested in what is being done to win the humanitarian crusade
against fire losses. So, on the credit side, I see a continuing and ex-
panding realization that knowledge is needed by all levels of fire
service responsibility. I suspect that there are more knowledge hungry
people in the audience today than attended FDIC when I appeared
here in my first year as Governor of Maryland. I can point also to
the great increase in the enrollment in the four-year residence fire
protection curriculum at the University of Maryland, headed by Pro-
fessor John L. Bryan. It is significant, I think, that there are more
scholarships in this program than in any other at the University.
Incidentally, it is gratifying to me to see these fine young men included
among those getting Bachelor of Science degrees at commencement

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