464 State Papers and Addresses

that the individual citizen will be spared too-burdensome taxation. The more
efficiently that can be injected into State and local governments and the more
that unnecessary outlays can be eliminated, the more assurance will there be
that governmental expense will be kept at a minimum.

The strategy of today's wars is tremendously different from that of years
gone by. As a Nation, for our very salvation we must be alert not only to
what immediately impends, but we must be alive to forstall and circumvent
world happenings that would seriously endanger our progress and threaten our
National integrity.

The bitter experience of the unfortunate nations of Europe certainly should
convince us that we cannot, we must not, wait for the actual opening of hostili-
ties before we make our own dispositions. History will record that in the
European Blitzkrieg the planning that preceded military actions was of. even
more importance than the military action, itself. Therefore, keeping in mind
the calamities that have befallen European nations who waited until it was too
late to take adequate means for protection, let us, by all means, do everything
possible to insure peace, but never for a moment neglect our preparations
for war.

We hope to avoid war, of course. Every sane, sensible American does.
For this very reason, therefore, we must sec to it that our Country in its
economy, its financing, its very thinking is prepared for war in the shortest
possible time.

In the face of what has happened to once powerful nations, it would be
folly of the worst kind for us to fail to take advantage of the lessons that have
been laid before us.

Our State, throughout the Union's history, replete with vicissitudes, has
ever been ready and eager to aid when any danger threatened the national
security. Today, when the greatest menace to our liberty and freedom has
continuously become more pressing and imminent, Maryland can be counted
upon to give its all in order that our priceless heritage may be preserved. This
would be expected because many of the foundational principles, which are
threatened with extinction elsewhere in the world, sprang from seeds implanted
in the soil of Maryland.

The people of our State, with our fellow-citizens from other States, hope
and pray for the early realization of world peace. We are a peace-loving
Nation. We are advocates of the "Every man his own master" philosophy. In
America we have cultivated and idealistic way of life in which the patterns of
government and daily existence are all geared to the theory of the greatest
good to the greatest number of Americans and we have come to believe that
this way of life is ours—first, because we inherited it; secondly, because we
have been the faithful stewards and guardians of that legacy handed down by
the fathers of the Republic.

In the past year and a half we have received a rude awakening. We have
suddenly been brought up sharp with the realization that this way of life is
challenged from afar. At first, many of our citizens believed or tried to believe
that the challenger was too far away to be really threatening; that the danger
was remote, chimerical, even imaginary.