TRAFFIC SAFETY LEGISLATION 57

much of the conflict and pleasure of life is determined. We do not
ask to be born short or tall, lean or fat, light or dark, straight or bent.
We do not choose a father and mother, a family, a neighborhood, a
school, a city, a country or a continent. Until much later do we even
become aware that who we are and what we are has already to some
extent been happily or tragically predetermined. But it is then, at that
sudden and critical point of awakening, that we must make our issue
with the world. It is then that one of favor must decide how to impart
his gift, and that one deprived by fate or circumstances must aggres-
sively seek the magic key to unlock his fetters.

And if it appears that fortune weighs mightily in favor of the man
with bounty, and condemns to uncertainty the other life, let us remem-
ber that it was Lincoln who was President, and men forgotten who
tended the accounts.

NEWS RELEASE ON TRAFFIC SAFETY LEGISLATION
February 20, 1967

A package of traffic safety legislation, including proposals to broaden
the automobile inspection law and require chemical tests for suspected
drunken drivers, will be introduced in the Maryland General As-
sembly Monday night under sponsorship of the Agnew administration.

The Governor said the bills are not only necessary and desirable
from a traffic safety standpoint, but also will bring Maryland well
along the way toward substantial compliance with the Federal High-
way Safety Act of 1966.

Other legislation will be necessary next year if the State is to fully
comply with the Federal program and not suffer any loss of aid for
highway construction through penalties. In Maryland's case, a penalty
for noncompliance could amount to $6 million a year.

But Governor Agnew stressed that the principal objective of the
program is not so much compliance with Federal standards as it is to
enact stronger traffic safety laws needed to reduce the death toll in
Maryland.

"Last year there were 754 persons killed on the highways of our
State, " he said. "While I am fully aware that laws alone cannot sub-
stantially reduce this slaughter, I feel very strongly that we have an
obligation to try. "