I am deeply impressed by the appearance of the buildings and the
total campus of the Maryland Training School for Boys. For this, I
offer my sincere congratulations and commendations to you boys, as
well as to the administration of the school. This is an institution in
which the State of Maryland takes great pride, and I know that it is not
without some considerable hard work on the part of the boys and the
staff that it is kept in such excellent condition. As Governor, I feel a deep
sense of pride in all that Maryland does well. You have done well here
and are deserving of the very highest commendation for your successful
efforts.

I am sure you all know that hard work has a purpose, and in a very
large measure is its own reward. And hard work is good for everyone—
for grown-ups and boys alike. In the months ahead, many of you in this
audience will be returning to your communities. I am sure I need not tell
you that it is never an easy task to make this transition—that it cannot,
in fact, be done successfully without a great deal of preparation and
without the fullest cooperation of the families, the courts and other
agencies and, of course, of the individual boy himself. This, indeed, is
the test of the Maryland Training School for Boys and its program.
Each boy here will be given the opportunity to prove to the school, to the
community and, most importantly, to himself that he has earned the
right to take his place in the State as a young citizen.

Life can be difficult, it is true, for all of us. But it is consoling and
encouraging to know that it has not difficulties which are unbearable,
no obstacles which cannot be overcome and no problems which cannot
be solved with sufficient willingness and determination. The records of
this school will show that an overwhelming majority of the boys who
have received training here have passed this test successfully. Is there
any reason for us to think that all of you here cannot do as well? I am
sure there is not. And so, it is my sincere hope, my fervent wish, that
every boy in this audience will keep that fact in mind. I earnestly hope,
also, that all of you will face the future with confidence and with the
determination to be even more successful than the many thousands of
boys who over the past forty years have left this campus to enrich their
communities, their State and their nation as citizens in the business
world, in industry, in the military and in the professional field.

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