228

REMARKS UPON B'NAI B'RITH MAN-OF-THE-YEAR
AWARD TO MARVIN MANDEL, PIKESVILLE

May 10, 1967

Ladies and Gentlemen:

In the months preceding my election as Governor, and in the period
immediately afterward, I was frequently asked in news interviews how
could I, a Republican, hope to work with a Legislature solidly under
control of the opposition party.

I replied in my most confident tones that I was sure I could get
along better with the Democrats in Annapolis than I did with the
Democrats in Towson. I said there were so many more of them to
work with than there had been in the tight little sextet on the Balti-
more County Council, and that I was confident we would serve to-
gether harmoniously for the best interests of Maryland.

To you I will confess tonight that this was only a brave hope, a
wishful dream. And I am happy to be here when you honor the man,
who as much as any other, helped make that dream come true.

Marvin Mandel showed through his expert leadership of a House
of 142 Delegates — many of them freshmen as I was — that he could
create statesmanship from the morass of politics, that he could and

would put the welfare of the State above party.

The record speaks for itself. The Maryland General Assembly of
1967 was the most productive in anyone's memory at Annapolis. Edi-
torial writers, columnists and even national magazines searched for
superlatives to describe it. The question had been answered. The
Republican Governor and the Democratic-controlled Legislature had
pulled together to fashion an enviable record of accomplishment.

In paying tribute to your Man of the Year, I do not wish to over-
look the efforts of others — the leadership of such Senate Democrats
as President William S. James and Majority Leader Harry R. Hughes,
or that of our own Senator Edward T. Hall and Delegate J. Glenn
Beall, Jr., of the outnumbered minority. They, too, saw the justness
of the cause and came through in every instance to put their weight
behind constructive legislation. Other legislators in both houses and
of both parties also made outstanding individual contributions.

But without Marvin Mandel's firm hand on the tiller in a tra-
ditionally freewheeling House of Delegates, it would all have been