of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 241

flung as ours, only in union is there strength: The combined manpower and
industrial resources of all of our forty-eight States are immensely more con-
ducive to peace than could ever be the efforts of all forty-eight States working
independently, no matter how valiantly. Thus, in cooperating one hundred
percent with the Federal Government, as this State Administration is doing,
Maryland is not sacrificing one iota of its own prerogatives, but rather we
are standing shoulder to shoulder with the other component elements of our
Nation to present an united front against aggression from any source what-
soever.

It was with this thought in mind that I appointed, some several months
ago, the Maryland Council of Defense and Resources. This group of outstand-
ing citizens, from every section of the State, will serve as an Advisory Com-
mission to the State Administration in matters -relating to national defense,
and at the same time will form a connecting link with Defense Authorities
in Washington.

For some weeks now this Council has been engaged busily in assembling
important information relating to the various phases of our present and
potential resources of every kind. One of its committees, for instance, has
for its particular function consideration of the many legal questions raised
by the imminent departure of our National Guard and Draft Troops to camp
for their year's training. Other groups are preparing readily available statis-
tics about potential manufacturing facilities, strategic highway needs, and
the like. As a result of such effort and planning by this Council, if and when
a real emergency should develop, Maryland will be ready to throw every bit
of her resources into the struggle without any of the heart-breaking delays
that marked defense efforts throughout our Country during the first year of
the World War of twenty-three years ago.

Naturally, one of the first important* considerations upon which the
advice and assistance of the Council of Defense would be sought, would be the
question of replacing the National Guard units of our State when that excellent
body of our State's manhood is called into active service as of January 3rd.
Here again cooperation between State and Federal Authorities becomes vital
to efficiency. While the new force, call it a Home Guard if you will, will come
directly under State jurisdiction, the matter of outfitting and arming the
various units is one where the resources of the Federal Government will be
urgently needed. And, again, the advice and experience of military authori-
ties will be sought in determining the type and number of new units that best
will answer the demands likely to be made upon such an organization.

Fortunately, as I told the members of the American Legion at their State
Convention in Cumberland last August, there is available to the State, in the
ranks of the various veterans organizations, and among the thousands of
former soldiers in our State, an ample reserve of active manpower, to form
the nucleus of the new units that will be organized. With the splendid train-
ing these men received in that tremendous struggle of 1917-1918, and judging
from the cooperative and patriotic spirit displayed by the members of these
various veterans organizations, it will be possible, I am convinced, to have
available, a State Military Force that will be completely prepared to take
over any and every duty assigned to it, a force in which the citizenry of our
State can have complete confidence, no matter how grave the emergency that.
may arise.