372 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

As America has evolved, America has changed; and we must under-
stand this evolution and change if we are to intelligently evaluate
where we are today and where we will or might be tomorrow.

An abundance of space, a scarcity of material wealth and a small,
homogeneous population are descriptive of the problems and people
of our nation at its birth. Less than two hundred years later, the con-
ditions and situations are for the most part diametrically reversed. We
have too little space, tremendous material prosperity, and a multiplied
and diversified population that must be secured by central govern-
ment and serviced by its state, county, and municipal leadership.

This great physical change has been accompanied by great psycho-
logical change, for most of us no longer regard government as a suspect
instrument which would deny individual freedom, but as the or-
ganized and regulated system for achieving it.

Yet our progress has not been without penalty. The state of things
as they are confounds and challenges the state of mind to which we
have willingly and earnestly matured. The "bigness" of things seems
to obscure the importance of people. The enormity of population, in-
dustry and government itself overwhelms the individual and imparts
to him a feeling of helplessness and even a sense of anxiety. He feels
defeated, isolated and discarded by a society suddenly become mech-
anized, computerized and organized to the impersonal standards of a
new world. And if in this atmosphere he should expire; if by virtue
of the very technological triumphs which he created, he should become
extinct; his government will crumble, his nation will fall and the
civilization that was intended to inspire will be destroyed.

We must not allow individualism to fail, or fail to encourage its
development, expression or fulfillment while yet we may. This is the
philosophical and political challenge of our time. This is a domestic
dilemma which cannot be resolved by the federal colossus in Wash-
ington. We must focus on local government, on the government closest
to the people, on you and leaders like you, if this challenge is to be
met.

Local government is the political instrument most capable of af-
fording the individual citizen maximum expression and participation
in the daily decisions which directly affect his life. Local government,
characterized by its immediacy and intimacy, is most capable of re-
sponding to the needs and desires of its citizens.

As Governor of a state, and as former chief executive of a large
county, my experience has revealed that local governments remain