30 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

or establish a new Government; the doctrine of non-resistance
against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and de-
structive of the good and happiness of mankind.

Over the past four decades, Maryland and the rest of the nation
have undergone transition so enormous that the Constitution which
served our forebears is no longer appropriate to serve us.

And in the sense of the portion of the Declaration of Rights just
quoted, we shall return to that mandate to "reform the old" in accord-
ance with the judgment of the voters in the last General Election.

In the overwhelming mandate calling for a Constitutional Conven-
tion, Marylanders have again demonstrated an awareness of the need
to advance with an advancing age. We ask now for a new and efficient
design to direct our course through the twentieth century and into the
twenty-first. In so doing, we not only recognize the vitality of the
future but we recapture and reaffirm the spirit of change and progress
which has been a credit to the Maryland past.

We must recognize the Constitutional Convention as the catalyst
needed to quicken the transition of governmental structure from ob-
solescence to efficiency. For we have lived with old laws too long and
resisted new ideas too easily. Without change, immediate and positive
change, we will become merely custodians of a static state; drifting
from a state of indifference to a state of emergency... searching for
direction and pleading for purpose.

A Constitutional Convention and a newly reapportioned Legislature
provide us with the ability to create a better Maryland. The real chal-
lenge and the great opportunity that lies ahead is to capitalize upon
this mandate for improvement by establishing the foundation for con-
tinuing progress.

It is within our power today to create a working, imaginative State
government. Our role is vital and immediate. We must recognize
that the benefits of legislative and administrative reform are dependent
on a searching examination and a dynamic revision of our total fiscal
structure.

States are things of economic as well as political being. Imbalances
which place a disproportionate tax burden on certain groups of tax-
payers retard economic growth and tend to stifle political action. A
fair and realistic sharing of the costs of governmental services, a shar-
ing that increases the taxpayer's economic equity in his state and in his