534 State Papers and Addresses

"E" PRESENTATION CEREMONIES
TRIUMPH EXPLOSIVES, INC.

November 10, 1941

Elkton

IT is to be admitted, and I think every sensible business man and woman
realizes, that there are indeed serious times ahead for America and for our
own State, even though we never fire a gun.

There are serious and busy times ahead for our civilian populations, too,
if the firing does begin. Never was there a war such as this one! Never be-
fore, even when the barbarians of the Middle Ages overran Europe, was there
a more brutal disregard of the rights, the safety, the very lives, of non-combat-
ant populations.

Today, as Nazi Germany has established the pattern of total war, the aged,
the tiny babe in its cradle, are not spared. Total destruction is the aim and
purpose of behind-the-lines bombings, and civilians, therefore, become a major
factor in the defense personnel set-up.

If and when such total war should come to America and to Maryland, death
and destruction will rain from the skies, on our cities and towns, our roads and
our bridges, our factories and our homes. You and I and every able-bodied
member of every community, young and old, must be prepared to step into a
task that will be assigned, and to perform that task, no matter what comes.

A terrible possibility, yes! But it can be an inspiring one, too. For under
such conditions, a populace, a nation can rediscover qualities that possibly have
been completely forgotten—can rise to heights of national and spiritual ex-
altation. England has done just that. Its people have rediscovered their
national soul, so to speak. And out of the fire and tempest that now rage
around them, the people of Great Britain will emerge revitalized to an apprecia-
tion of the truly important things of life.

Honor, courage, fidelity to trust, appreciation of one's fellow-man—these
are some of the virtues that stem from great tribulations and from hardships
shared together in a righteous cause.

May it never be required of us that we rediscover them in travail. and
terror, as England has done. But if in the wisdom of a Divine Providence,
such is required of us as a Nation, we will live up to the example set by our
forebears, we will come through our trial by fire a better Nation, a newly
inspired people.

Today there is room for no division of spirit among the people of America.
Rather there is a very definite need for reawakening of that spirit of old, that
spirit that prompted our fearless and self-reliant pioneer forefathers to over-
come every obstacle in their fight against the wilderness, and against the forces