236 State Papers and Addresses

recognition effective through organization of social resources. This, too, is
a part of our democracy which we cherish.

As members of a voluntary organization you have signified your active
concern for the general welfare, as public servants, we in government must
do likewise. We are both partners in the same great enterprise. This partner-
ship has been continuous throughout our past. The opportunity—and the need
for cooperation was never greater than it is today.

Many advances had been made in recent years in medical knowledge and
skill. But by and large, this has been to the advantage of the acutely, rather
than the chronically, ill. Today, the State is spending approximately $400, 000
per year in the form of public aid to private hospitals to care for the indigent
sick. It has established hospitals for the mentally ill and the tubercular. Thanks
to the pioneering efforts of persons like our good friend, Lee L. Dopkin, we
have established a system of old age assistance for old persons in their own
homes. Now it is but another step in the same direction that our obligation
to the chronic sick should be discharged.

The year 1940 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Levindale
—fifty years of service and accomplishment on behalf of the sick and the aged.
Let us hope that in the near future persons who need this type of care wher-
ever they may live in the State, will be able to receive it.

INAUGURATING NATIONAL BUSINESS WOMEN'S WEEK

IN MARYLAND

A

Radio Station WFBR, October 6, 1940
Baltimore

NY group activity of the representatives of a substantial class of the
£\. women of Maryland, will command interest among our citizens. Especially
important, however, is the week we are ushering in today—National Business
Women's Week—in which are participating representatives of the Business and
Professional Women of our State.

The Maryland Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs is,
despite its comparative youth, a remarkable organization in many respects.
It has only been in the last generation or so that there was sufficient material
in our midst from which to form again the nucleus of such an organization.
A woman in charge of, or the owner of, a substantial business, was a rarity.
A woman engaged in any one of the professions was a still greater rarity.
That condition has some time since become a thing of the past, to the benefit
of our State and of our Nation. In practically every considerable community
there are now to be found active, competent and responsible business and
professional women. There number is growing constantly larger, and the size
and character of the part thus played by women in the important affairs of our
times are constantly increasing.

Because of the broad scope of the activities of the members of this state-
wide organization, such an occasion as this concerns and is interesting to, an
unusually significant cross-section of our people. I am glad, therefore, to have
my part in opening this week's ceremonies and by that participation help to