332 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

The inability of the old constitution to envisage growth and change
is indicated by the two hundred and three amendments which have
been grafted to the original document. Even the fundamental con-
struction was beset with flaws, not apparent when State government
was small, but obstructive now that it has grown to impressive height.
So distrustful were our predecessors of political authority that they
created checks and balances not only between the three traditional
branches of government but within them — not merely hindering ad-
ministrative action but virtually strangling the implementation of
bold solutions.

Thus we have become a static State drifting from a state of indiffer-
ence to a state of emergency. Maryland is not alone in this. Other
states, perhaps even the majority of them, have suffered the same
breakdown of their political nervous systems. The Federal govern-
ment, forced to fill the vacuum created by the strangled state, has
grown out of all proportion to its constitutional purposes. In turn,
the cherished constitutional balance between Federal and state govern-
ments has been disrupted, and unless we act quickly and responsibly,
it could be permanently destroyed.

State government has a special role as the sovereign government
closest to the people. It is immediate and intimate. It is the laboratory
for political experiment, the instrument to test and apply new political
solutions to new and old problems. State government, tempered by
its unique constitutional safeguard of referendum, may yet become
the most creative, imaginative and dynamic form of political expres-
sion.

In little more than three decades we will enter the twenty-first cen-
tury. By the year 2000 we will be six million citizens. Traditional polit-
ical boundaries will be obscured by one vast metropolitan corridor
between Baltimore and Washington. Rapid rail and air transportation
will be commonplace. The atmosphere we breathe will be cleaner,
our water will be purer, and our people will be more educated and
enlightened. It is not for today, but for tomorrow, that you write this
constitution -— the sinew, soul and spirit of the Maryland to be.

As you reflect on this singular task, know that you write for not one
isolated or estranged people but for a Maryland which is itself the
very microcosm of America. In the geography of our State, the geog-
raphy of our nation is cast in miniature. In the thoughts of our citi-
zens the great philosophical cross currents from north and south, east
and west, city and suburb meet, mix and merge.