32 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

It has become all too obvious that the cost of failure far exceeds the
price of progress. It is evident that we can no longer tolerate from any
elected official an attitude of how much can he promise, how little
can he perform. It has become painfully clear that the reason we some-
times failed was that we were not, at all times, sincerely determined to
succeed.

We elected officials must not say, as was once said by an important
figure in the French Revolution, "There go the people; I am their
leader; I must follow them. " But neither can we sit idly in the path of
their movements, lest we be engulfed in confusion rather than en-
lightened by the demands of our times. Nor can we stand aside from
the parade of that which is, or which passes for, progress... lest we
be left like fossils of the past in the wake of civilization's advance

We who have been entrusted with offices of leadership must exercise.
that leadership to guide the rising and often healthful discontent away
from the morasses of chaos and into the channels of constructive
change.

I call for a new spirit of leadership which will consciously and con-
tinually dedicate itself to the PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE. I call
on every State Delegate to put the good of the State first and the votes
of his constituents second. I challenge every State Senator to put pride
in his State first and the patronage of his district second. I ask every
committee and every commission to value most highly the worth of its
work and not the recognition which might follow.

All that I ask of others I will demand of myself. For a people, not
just a party, has elected me Governor. A people, not just a party, sits
in judgment. A people, not just a party, is waiting to be served!

We are each of us Marylanders first and partisans second and what
divides us by party is less than that which unites us in duty. Our State
has a new unity... no longer imprisoned by old alliances and out-
moded convention. A new day has come, bringing with it a new alli-
ance which rejects tradition that fails to serve or inspire.

This new alliance is not labeled conservative or liberal, rich or poor,
white or black, Christian or Jew, Republican or Democrat. This new
alliance should be called people... principle... progress!

I ask you to welcome... as I welcome... the opportunities which
are ours... to serve our State, its political subdivisions — and its