778 ADDRESSES AND STATE PAPERS

The U. S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare has ad-
vised Maryland that emergency assistance is available, with the Federal
government sharing from 50 to 75 percent of the costs of services pro-
vided by the State to emergency recipients.

At the same time, the Governor announced that he has directed the
State Health Department to speed the processing and payment of all
bills owed by the State to merchants in the ghetto areas.

Many of these businessmen whose stores have been destroyed have
large amounts owed them because of their participation in such State
programs as Medicaid. Under normal circumstances, several months
might transpire before payment is made.

The Governor said that because of the severe hardship involved,
the State will waive much of the complicated paper work involved
in such transactions in order to speed up the payments.

"Our primary concern is to assist the innocent victims of the recent
civil disorders in every way possible and as quickly as possible. " Gov-
ernor Agnew said.

NEWS RELEASE ON ACTION TO HELP SOLVE
PROBLEMS OF THE GHETTO

April 25, 1968

Governor Agnew called today on Maryland's Negro college youth
and returning Negro veterans of Vietnam to help solve the problems
of the ghetto, which recently erupted into violence in Baltimore.

"If progress is to come in the next decade, we must begin with the
young, " he said in a memorandum to Dr. Gilbert Ware, his staff mem-
ber in Human Relations, and a Negro.

"The problems, as you so well know, are awesome; the need for
fresh vision and dialogue is imperative, " he said. "Here we have to
overcome not only the barriers of racial misunderstanding and eco-
nomic deprivation but the very real gulf between generations. "

The Governor proposed formation of a Governor's youth council,
composed of Negro college students, "to advise us on the particular
problems of the ghetto child and to serve as tutors and counselors. "
The council would, as other State commissions, be nonpaid but
would be charged with marshaling self-help and recreation programs
in ghetto areas.