special problems in obtaining and holding many of our more able
younger people interested in public service. This is especially true in
the more specialized technical fields. To meet this problem, I am
asking a special task force, consisting of the Commissioner of Per-
sonnel, the Director of the State Planning Department, The Director
of the Department of Budget and Procurement and a representative
of the president of the University of Maryland, to study and recom-
mend by next December 1 ways to attract a substantially larger num-
ber of the more talented young people to State service. This task
force would work with the chairman of the proposed reorganization
Commission. I am particularly anxious that this personnel study ap-
praise the possible merit of a management intern program such as
private business already makes such extensive use of and the federal
government now has. A novel and useful aspect of the new federal
intern program gives exceptional individuals between 25 and 40, a
year of experience in high level government offices. I believe that in-
novation should be adopted here. Consideration should also be given
to establishing a series of special graduate scholarships at institutions
of higher learning in this state for residents interested in a career in
our Maryland government and capable of undertaking special re-
search for it. The intern and scholarship programs might even be
combined at least in part.
Beyond that stage, additional career incentives and advancement
opportunities should be developed so that really able individuals
can move more rapidly along within the career system. Appropriate
means will have to be provided inside the merit system to preclude
political intrusion in these special cases. But the executive branch
must develop a cadre of unusually qualified and experienced career
executives who are prepared to cope with the demanding tasks in
Maryland's future and can readily be moved about within the ex-
ecutive apparatus to relate diverse programs and help give coherence
to the overall administrative organization. Our State government, in
brief, must seek out specially qualified manpower as well as the latest
technology and most efficient organization to meet the responsibilities
and opportunities before us. In a very considerable sense, we must
not only modernize but futurize our governmental machinery.
In closing, I ask each of you — and all the people of Maryland —
to consider carefully these proposals to modernize the Executive
Branch of our State Government and prepare it for the challenges of
the decades ahead. It is my sincere hope that this cause of administra-
tive reform will receive widespread support from all segments of our
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