126 State Papers and Addresses

will mean 40 citizens lost in Maryland. Can these deaths, or a great propor-
tion of them, be averted? I believe they can. And results of Accident Pre-
vention Campaigns, that have been conducted in other sections of our country,
bear out this belief.

As an instance of what can be done, Kansas City, which while it is con-
siderably smaller than our own City of Baltimore in size, very recently com-
pleted a stretch of 45 days without a single traffic death. Against this, we
have a record in our own City of Baltimore of 13 deaths during the month of
November, along with 102 deaths from January 1st to October 31st of this
year. Possibly the most disquieting feature of this record is that while the
National trend of fatal accidents is down somewhat, and the total of deaths
in our counties showed a decrease of 20 during the first eleven months of the
year, Baltimore City offset this by an increase of 20 deaths during the same
period. Concurrently, Boston and St. Louis, both comparable to Baltimore in
population, suffered traffic death losses of less than 80 each, against Balti-
more's 115.

I cannot believe that the people of Kansas City or Boston or St. Louis
differ in makeup from the people of Baltimore City, and I believe that if
they can show records so much better than our own, it certainly behooves us
to make every effort to try to approach their achievements as closely as
possible.

There is satisfaction and encouragement in what has been accomplished
since we began this State-Wide Campaign three months ago. Before we
began Maryland was in last place among a group of States for highway safety.
We have moved ahead from the lowest position. With your help, we are de-
termined to make further progress. State officials are cooperating unselfishly
with outstanding private citizens to accomplish betterment. For months to
come we shall keep up this humanitarian effort, so important to our citizens.
Your help alone is needed. As your Governor, I ask that assistance, so that
together we can make Maryland a safer place in which to live.

MARYLAND POLICE ASSOCIATION ANNUAL BANQUET

Southern Hotel, December 6, 1939
Baltimore

SINCE your last annual meeting, decided improvement in the judicial branch
of the government has been made. I refer particularly to the elevation of
standards in the Magistrates System of the State. Through the "Trial Magis-
strate" law, which we sponsored in the last Legislature, the old fee system
was abolished and an up-to-date minor court procedure was instituted.

No one knows better than the police what an inferior system Maryland
had in maintaining the old justice of the peace procedure. Instances were
frequent where county magistrates sought business by moving from place to
place and indulging in other practices that lessened the respect for law.

The Court of Appeals just last week upheld the constitutionality of the
law we proposed and I consider this one of the most desired accomplishments
pertaining to the legal branch. As a result of the new law now in operation