272 State Papers and Addresses

as you do, and comprising such a representative cross section of the very best
of our citizenry, you can be assured of our extreme pleasure in having you with
us. I am speaking for all the people of the State when I express to you our
sincere happiness at your selection of our State for this great Convention.,

Not alone is this so because of your great numbers, or the position of
consequence and substance which you enjoy in your respective states and com-
munities. These are real considerations, it is true. However, in times as
critical as these, perhaps the crowning quality characterizing your group is
to be found in the consistent and unswerving manner in which the farm people
and farm groups of our Nation have constituted the very backbone of our
conservative democratic institutions.

With the world in turmoil today; with unrest in some of our industrial
centers; with talk of sabotage and other subversive activities on the part of
various groups throughout our Country, it is a source of consolation and con-
gratulation to have with us in our own State such a group as yours, repre-
sentative of millions of substantial, patriotic, farm people.

It is a fortunate thing for this Country that your organization and the
membership it represents are available in this emergency. I proudly point
to the fact that there never has been the slightest suggestion of any un-
American activity among your members; —with no subversive attempt to
upset the fundamentals of American life have your leaders been identified; —
in no loud outcry distorting the real concept of representative government
have the voices of your spokesmen been lifted. On the contrary, throughout
the years there has been proof, consistent and undeniable, of the inseparable
connection which links your membership with the basic doctrines of American
civilization, and I venture to assert with confidence that these ties will remain
strong and abiding.

You have had your problems, and they have been many and serious, but
you have met them like true Americans and without recourse to outside leader-
ship, whose function would be further to distort the picture rather than to
solve the problems at hand. In whatever emergency this Country has faced,
there has never been the doubt in the minds of any of our leaders as to where
the farm population of our Country would be. They knew from experience
that your people would be on the side of the preservation of those principles
and institutions which have brought to the people of America a more complete
enjoyment of life, and have made this Country of ours the envy of all the
other peoples of the world.

For these reasons, I assure you that you have never found a heartier
welcome anywhere than is your today in Maryland. Your sessions will be
productive of much good to your membership throughout the Nation, I am
sure, and thus rebound to the betterment of all our people, for the prosperity
and welfare of our great farm population in indissolubly tied up with the
prosperity and welfare of America.

Fortunately for our own people, time has been allowed by your Program
Committee to permit you to experience and appreciate some of the many
good things that our State has in store for you. I trust it will be possible for
all of you to take full advantage of the opportunity to meet and know the
people of our State, and that even after your business sessions are ended, it
may be possible for many of you to remain with us for a little while and to
explore more fully the cultural and scenic advantages with which a beneficent