which we cannot only not contemplate, but
not even dream of today, a constitution
which can provide an effective government
for our nearly four million citizens of to-
day, and also for our ten or more million
citizens of tomorrow.
As we set about this task, we must
realize that our separate existence as a
sovereign State, a government of and by
and for the people of Maryland, is at stake.
We are not alone in this. The separate
existence of every one of our 50 states as
viable and effective instruments of local
government is challenged. The course of
events of the past 100 years has caused a
metamorphosis. We and our sister states,
so apprehensive and fearful in the last
century of the powers of government, put
in our state constitutions shackles and re-
straints which made our state governments
incapable of meeting the needs of the
people in a rapidly changing urbanized
society.
The inability of state and local govern-
ments, because of these constitutional limi-
tations and restrictions, to meet the simple
everyday needs of people — the need for
pure air and water, sewer systems, educa-
tion, cultural advantages, recreational op-
portunities, mass transportation, created a
void, a void into which our federal govern-
ment has stepped to an ever-increasing
extent.
These needs of the people — needs so
vast and complex that they can only be met
by governmental action, needs which tradi-
tionally had been and, by all scientific prin-
ciples of government, should continue to be
met by state and local government, simply
had to be met. These governmental services
required by the people had to be supplied.
The inability of the state and local govern-
ments to do so has forced the federal gov-
ernment to meet the demand and supply
these purely local requirements.
And so, we, the citizens of what we
proudly call the great Free State of Mary-
land, have, along with our fellow citizens
of other states, become cringing, favor-
seeking vassals, fawning at the feet of
Uncle Sam, grateful for the few crumbs of
our own money tossed to us. But that great
big, sprawling, bureaucratic colossus sitting
astride the Potomac is too big, too far re-
moved from the people, too impersonal to
make more than uncertain, feeble, ineffec-
tive and ofttimes inept attempts to solve
these problems which ought to be solved
by state and local governments.
The challenge is clear for us to see; it is
written in large bold letters on the walls |
of this historic State House. We have
almost complete freedom in drafting a con-
stitution to submit to our people. So long
as it provides for a republican form of
government, so long as it does not trans-
gress the rights and liberties of the in-
dividual citizen guaranteed and protected
by the Constitution of the United States,
we, the people of the State of Maryland,
can have almost any kind of constitution
we choose. Certainly a people with the
genius for designing a craft which can be
hurtled millions of miles through space and
yet be controlled minutely in its landing on
a distant planet ought to be able to devise
a system of government which can provide
for our people at a local level those es-
sential services which are so sorely needed
—services which are needed now but which
are going to be needed to an ever-increasing
degree as our society becomes more and
more urbanized and as our population
grows to an extent difficult for us even to
comprehend at the present time.
A skeptic may scoff and say these are
but lofty, high-sounding euphemisms which
cannot possibly be accomplished by words
emblazoned on a piece of paper, no matter
how formal and fundamental the document.
He may say that in the final- analysis
whether a government is good or bad, ef-
fective or ineffective, an efficient provider
of services or an inept, bureaucratic maze
depends not upon the will of the people
which brings it into existence or upon the
piece of paper which defines its scope, its
power and its organization, but upon the
people who manage it. He may say, there-
fore, that the problems of our time cannot
be solved or even substantially affected by
the constitution which we may recommend.
This, however, is not at all the case.
True it is that the efficiency, the effective-
ness of our government will, in the final
analysis, depend upon the people we select
to operate and conduct that government,
but the kind of people who are willing to
undertake the task of governing, and there-
fore the character of the government it-
self, will be greatly influenced by the con-
stitution adopted by the people of our State.
We can attract to the legislature the most
thoughtful and capable of our citizens if we
clothe the legislature with sufficient dig-
nity, authority and power to legislate prop-
erly, provide for a legislature which can
come to grips with the pressing problems
of statewide concern and solve them. We
can induce our ablest citizens to seek elec-
tion as the chief executive of our State if
we grant to the executive branch sufficient
authority and power to carry out the |
