THE MARYLAND MANUAL is published every even year by the
State of Maryland, and copies are distributed without charge to the
public libraries, agencies of state and county government, schools,
members of the General Assembly and others as prescribed by law
(Annotated Code of Public General Laws of Maryland, 1967; 1963
Supplement, Art. 41, Sec. 106). Additional copies are printed for sale
to the general public. Clothbound copies at $4.50 and paperbound
copies at $3.50 are available at the Hall of Records, Annapolis. Non-
institutional purchasers residing in Maryland must also pay a sales
tax of 3%—$.14 for clothbound, $.11 for paper.

The primary purpose of the MANUAL is to present to the citizens
of Maryland, as briefly as possible, a description of their government,
its functions, its agencies, its cost. The MANUAL also contains
similar information for county government plus a valuable directory
of local officers not available elsewhere. The reader will also find the
Charter and the Constitution, mainsprings of our political life, and
much descriptive and historical material. The reader is urged to
examine the table of contents and the indexes with care.

Obviously, the MANUAL is more a compilation than an original
work. We are indebted for material to many agencies and individuals,
among others Carl N. Everstine for the text of and the Index to the
Constitution as well as for the essays on the General Assembly
sessions of 1962 and 1963. The charts of State Government were pre-
pared originally by Janet L. Hoffman then of the Fiscal Research
Bureau. They have required only slight revision. William H. Bayliff,
Executive Secretary of the Board of Natural Resources, is responsi-
ble for "Maryland At A Glance" and C. Frank Poole, Records
Management Officer of the City of Baltimore, for the roster of of-
ficials of that City. To the many Clerks of Court, Registers of
Wills, and Clerks to the Boards of County Commissioners we ex-
tend special thanks for helping us with the county sections. We are also
grateful to Alan Beals, Secretary, Maryland Municipal League, for
providing us with the names of city, town and village officers. We
benefited from the collaboration of Chester F. Tucker, Deputy Secre-
tary of State, and Margaret W. Lee, Chief Clerk of the Executive De-
partment, who guided us through the Executive Appointment files.

Those of our own staff who were helpful were Gust Skordas,
Patricia C. Goldsborough and Helen Kilborn, but special mention is
due Rose M. DiStefano who did most of the typing and who helped
in the preparation of the indexes.

The major burden and the large responsibility for the MANUAL
fell on Frank White. It is his duty to begin the new MANUAL when
the old one is hardly off the press, to collect the information needed,
process it and see the book to completion.

We have added in this MANUAL certain new information which
we think will be useful: vital statistics for the governors since 1867;
the tally of balloting of Maryland electors for presidential elections
since 1789; the political composition of the General Assembly since
1876; and the names of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention
of 1867.

MORRIS L. RADOFF
Archivist and Records Administrator