I will spare you the details, but I remained clerk of court until 1938,
when I made my first try for state-wide office by becoming a candidate
for State Comptroller and winning. Four years later I ran for re-
election without opposition either in the primary or the general
election. At the completion of my second four-year term as Comp-
troller, I made the decision to enter the Democratic primary as a
candidate for Governor. In a three-way race with William Preston
Lane, Jr., and Streett Baldwin, Lane won and went on to become
Governor of the State. In May following his inauguration, Governor
Lane appointed me Bank Commissioner. Three years later, I again
took over the office of State Comptroller by appointment of Governor
Lane following the death of James J. Lacy. I remained Comptroller
until 1958, when the good people of Maryland elected me as their
chief executive, a position which I have held since.

The years which I have spent as Governor of the State have been
years of unparalleled growth, of vast economic development, of con-
siderable social upheaval. Thus, they have been difficult and chal-
lenging years. The population explosion, about which we hear so
much, has created unprecedented demands for more public schools,
colleges and universities, for more highways, for broader and more
intensified programs of public health and mental hygiene, for an
almost limitless variety of new or expanded governmental services.

Let me cite just one example. A few days ago you may have read
that Dr. Wilson Elkins, the President of the University of Maryland,
said that by 1968 we may expect an enrollment at the College Park
campus of the University of 30, 000, whereas, we had hoped to limit
the total enrollment there to 25, 000. This, as I have indicated, is but
one example of the rapid growth that we see all about us in just about
every aspect of our daily living. Moreover, Maryland is experiencing
— with the rest of the country and to a greater degree in many in-
stances — the effects of the great social upheaval that has occurred as
a result of the great scientific and technological advancements which
we have made and are making. An era of automation and computers
has confronted us with problems which we have never faced before.
While I have confidence that we will meet the challenges, I know
that the years ahead will be difficult ones, for those of us in public
office and for the citizenry in general.

I, of course, expect to retire from the public service at the end of
my term as Governor of the State. I am, as I have said, humbly grateful
for the opportunity I have had to serve the people of my State. I am
happy to have been privileged to hold so high an office in such crucial

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