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conditions and circumstances which bring us here today,

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and think a bit about the problems to be solved and the

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possible methods of their solution.

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Today we live in a great stream of change, a

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stream which moves so rapidly and with such force that

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sometimes we are at our destination before we realize that

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we have started, and ofttimes we have begun our journey be-

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fore we have charted our course.

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One hundred years ago the people of Maryland

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and of the nation were living in a period of great social

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unrest, a period of great stress and strain. Today we are

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again living in a period of great social .unrest, another

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period of great stress and strain, but there is a tremendous

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difference between the two eras. Then our nation was at the

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end of the most bitter and heartrending conflict it has

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ever known, either before or since, a period which saw

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brother pitted against brother in cruel and agonizing fratri

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cidal warfare. Maryland, as a border state between the

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opposing social and economic forces and torn asunder by

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its own inner conflicts, had become a battleground for

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the armies of the Union and the Confederacy. But, although