202 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

1900, which the electorate was forced to determine once and for all

times — whether to affirm the future or be consumed by past preju-
dices. At that time the voters cast an overwhelming mandate to reject
the past and to speak for a progressive, enlightened and action-minded
Maryland.

In my inaugural address, I paid tribute to this new spirit, when I

called for a new state of mind for Maryland, a new leadership dedi-
cated to and directed toward the pursuit of excellence. I challenged
every member of the General Assembly seated before me to share this
attitude and embrace this resolve; to put the good of his State first
and the special interest of his constituents second; to put the pride
of his State first and the patronage of his district second; to value the

worth of his work and not the recognition which might follow. I

called on these representatives of the people to join me in a new al-
liance rejecting the obstructive partisanship of the past and tradition
that failed to serve or inspire. A new alliance of people... principle...
progress.

I knew then, as I know today, that once we achieve success in chang-
ing the state of mind so surely will we achieve success in changing the
State of Maryland. And the State, my friends, has changed and is
changing. We have changed from partisans locked in battle to part-
ners joined in progress, from a government which was loathe to try
to a government which refuses to fail.

During the 1967 session of the General Assembly alone, we provided
nearly $16 million in State funds to directly assist local law enforce-
ment agencies in combatting the escalating crime rate that has plagued
Maryland's subdivisions. We provided over $20 million to assure the
construction and operation of public kindergartens throughout the
State. We have achieved fair housing legislation which will construc-
tively help to break the barriers centuries have built. We have moved
steadily from a haphazard and piecemeal approach to controlling air
and water pollution to the development of some of the most progres-
sive programs in the United States for its prevention and elimination.
We have enabled the writing of a new constitution; and in several
significant and controversial legislative actions put the past to rest and
the future in perspective.

Credit for much that was accomplished during the severity-day ses-
sion at the General Assembly belongs to the senators and delegates of
both parties who rose to the challenge and forthrightly confronted the
difficult and sometimes politically uncomfortable problems demanding