AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN 205

of race or creed. But the greatest triumph of these measures rests not
in these statutes but in the spirit which generated their enactment.
For this legislation was not the negative product of external coercion
from the Federal Congress or the United States Supreme Court but the
positive result of the independent logic and conviction determined by
a majority of the elected representatives of Maryland's citizens that
this action was morally right and ethically imperative.

Finally, there is the fourth bridge — and undoubtedly the most
significant one. The 1967 General Assembly has excavated the foun-
dation but only you the citizens can hire the architects and approve
the design for this great superstructure — which will span the length
of this century. You, my friends, are about to embark upon the op-
portunity of a lifetime. You are preparing to write history — a new
constitution for the State of Maryland.

On June 13th, you are going to elect delegates to a Constitutional
Convention and on May 14th, 1968, you will be asked to ratify a new
set of governing laws. You are going to decide whether our State will
give more powers to future governors or less, elect more officials to
serve or fewer. You will decide whether Maryland is to have a bi-
cameral or unicameral legislature, a unified or diversified Statewide
judiciary, a restricted State debt or a free one, and to what extent
regulatory powers and taxing authority should be vested in local
governments. If the matter of writing a new constitution appears to
you, in describing some of its more technical aspects, somewhat theo-
retical and removed from the practical realm of down-to-earth working
government, let me assure you that the very opposite is the case. The
constitution is not only the supreme and most important law of our
State, but sets the moral, philosophical and legal basis for every pro
tection you enjoy and every right with its concomitant obligation that
your government provides.

Of the 142 delegates to the Constitutional Convention many will be
women. And the participation of women, in itself, marks an historic
precedent, for this is the first time women will have the opportunity
to ratify, and to write a constitution for Maryland.

As University Women proud of your education, and dedicated
through your organization to progress in your community, State and
nation, I am certain several among you have filed as candidates to the
Convention. Those of you who shall win a delegate's position in the
June election will bring a special talent, experience and foresight to