NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTIES 371

leadership as well as older, more established leaders. Responsibility
is the yardstick.

It shall continue to be my firm policy to do everything possible to
provide jobs, good housing and better educational opportunities for
the poor and underprivileged, both Negro and white, in Maryland.
I will meet with any responsible leaders to discuss the problems that
confront us. J will not meet with those who engage in or urge riots
and other criminal acts as weapons to obtain power.

In conclusion, I commend the citizens of both races who have con-
tinued to conduct themselves with intelligent restraint in spite of
great pressure. I share the sorrow of those who have suffered and who
continue to suffer from the reckless acts of a few. For the confused
and weak who seek to excuse, appease and rationalize for the criminals
who threaten our society, I have only pity.

ADDRESS TO NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
COUNTIES, DETROIT, MICHIGAN

July 31, 1967

These are times when the powers of government as we have known
them are being reevaluated and reshaped.

These are times when the enormity of central government is com-
ing to a reckoning with itself and with the citizens of the nation.

These are times when static states are stirring themselves to new
intensities of opportunity, action and responsibility.

These are times when local governments, those governments closest
to the people, are beginning to truly appreciate and to utilize their
unique intimacy with the needs and lives of those they serve.

These are times when governments of all levels and sizes are com-
pelled to reaffirm the spirit that gave our country its democratic form,
its vigor, its genius. This is the spirit of individualism that inspires
initative, creativity, and accomplishment.

The United States and its Constitution were conceived to preserve
and sustain this spirit and, if some of it today has become lost, we
must rediscover it lest we become disciples of a doctrine we did not
intend to frame, or citizens of a government we did not intend to form.