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was because Mrs. Bard went into the hos-
pital on drug poisoning. If any of you
have met with this kind of a case in your
own family, you know what occurs. Within
a week after she went in or a few weeks
after that, the drug was taken off the
market.
This is just one illustration of where the
hazards are sustained side by side with
the hopes of civilization — and when man's
machines did not hold the promise of mir-
acles and on the other hand the danger of
damage to life and limb.
My own son this week received a notice
from: an important automobile association
saying he should take his automobile in —
it is a 1967 car — as thousands of others
have been informed, because the steering
on it is so terribly dangerous that there
can be accidents to him.
Today it is impossible for the buyer to
beware. No one knows how much quackery
costs the country. In recent hearings con-
ducted by the subcommittee onfrauds and
misrepresentations affecting^the^elaerly, a
unit of the federal Senate's Special Com-
mittee on Aging, testimony indicated the
costs ran into hundreds of millions each
year.
The sad part of these dealers in quack-
ery is that this affects the poor, the sick
and the elderly beyond the loss of money,
for they bring suffering, disappointment
and despair, and hold out false hopes in
terms of significant ailments such as
arthritis.
Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr., re-
cently said "Do we really know how many
Americans are quietly using therapy or
products that can give them neither cure
nor the hope of cure?"
We live in an age of chemistry, and
products so manufactured bring forth nu-
merous hazards. For example, an investi-
gation by the Fair Trade Commission in
April, 1966, pointed out that certain
sweaters manufactured in New York were
highly flammable. Television and radio pro-
grams broadcast the dangers and in a dem-
onstration one sweater was completely con-
sumed by fire in forty-three seconds. That
same month the FTC found in New York
City dangerously flammable imported rayon
and metallic cloth intended for use in la-
dies' skirts, blouses and dresses. These are
but few illustrations of chemistry that af-
fects our living. To these can be added the
effects of sprays such as DDT on our food.
To this can be added the requirement to
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protect us from impure and dangerous
drugs.
One need but note how often some drugs
have been withdrawn from the market to
recognize the safeguards that are neces-
sary. We live in an age of complex and
scientific goods, too difficult for analysis by
the average consumer. The color TV, the
modern automobile, the combined washer
and dryer are just too technical for com-
mon man to understand.
Now, for the last point, the latter third
of the 20th century is a period when eco-
nomic requirements must be made secure.
And this is what I meant when I said this
is a turning point in our convention.
Eighteenth and nineteenth century man
needed political security, and so freedoms
to vote, hold office, and to speak one's mind
were concerns of our earlier Maryland
Constitutions. The fathers of the Constitu-
tion of 1776, 1851, 1864 and 1867 recog-
nized that if man were to be free he had to
have these political securities.
At these conventions when they argued
out the significance of placing these securi-
ties in the constitution, there were some
who said they did not belong in the Con-
stitution.
But our times and those ahead of us re-
quire us to establish economic securities.
If man cannot be free economically from
want, of what avail is the ballot? Foremost
among these economic freedoms is the
guarantee that the product of our labor
will purchase that which is wholesome and
safe.
Finally, why the constitution?
The American constitution has long been
an expression of our belief, indeed our
dream. As I said the other day, when talk-
ing about natural resources within our
constitution, there has existed what seemed
to be hortatory statements for some time
and yet out of the 1851 Constitutional man-
date, "that the legislature ought to encour-
age the diffusion of knowledge" came the
development of our state school laws, and
system. Out of the constitutional mandate
that sanguinary laws ought to be avoided
has grown a good deal of our penal code.
Some said this will not mean a thing to
put it in the Constitution at the time it was
debated. We have not been overly con-
cerned about including long passages that
assure the security of justice — 10 pages,
— here we are talking about one sentence,
not ten pages. I am against class or special
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