sentation in our State legislatures than their population demanded, and
you have a situation that can border on the intolerable if citizens fail to
recognize that the health of our major urban centers determines to a
large degree the economic health of the surrounding suburban and rural
sections.
Fortunately, we in Maryland recognized this situation many years
ago. As a result, Baltimore and many other urban areas in Maryland
have undertaken vigorous urban renewal programs. There has also been
a growing recognition, not only in Maryland but in other states, that the
problems of the metropolis cannot be isolated by political boundaries. The
decision to attack the problems of the metropolis on a broad front was
manifested in the recommendations of the Miles Commission and the sub-
sequent enactment of these recommendations by the Maryland General
Assembly during its 1963 session. I will continue to support the Balti-
more Metropolitan Area Regional Council which these recommendations
created.
The creation of this Council and the decision to invest this body with
broad powers indicates to me the simple recognition on the part of those
political subdivisions that surround Baltimore that the problems of the
metropolis are, indeed, their problems. With this favorable attitude, I am
extremely optimistic that the future growth patterns will be determined
with the understanding that the prosperity and economic well-being of
all citizens are bound up in the economic health and well-being of the core
of the urban center. This mutual inter-dependence of the political sub-
divisions that make up our metropolitan areas will be the subject of your
panel discussion this morning. I am eagerly awaiting the results of these
discussions because I am certain they will serve to enlighten us all.
I am told that the afternoon session today will focus on the people who
inhabit the metropolitan areas. Certainly any approach to the solutions
of problems in our urban centers must be based on an understanding of
the citizens wants and needs. If we are to know these wants and needs,
then we must know the citizen.
How different is he from his father? His grandfather? How will his
son differ from him? This is an extremely difficult task because in an
analysis of the characteristics of a community of citizens, one tends to be
subjective rather than objective. It is, of course, the exception that proves
the rule, but, generally speaking, I think we can all agree that this
generation of Americans is better educated and, perhaps, better equipped
to solve the problems posed by urban living.
It requires more than education, however, to cope with the com-
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