of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 661

LUNCHEON FOLLOWING LAUNCHING OF S S ROGER B. TANEY AND
RICHARD HENRY LEE*

BELVEDERE HOTEL, December 6, 1941

Baltimore

TODAY'S launchings are of more than usual interest to us because of the
fact that they memorialize the accomplishments of two great Americans.
One, a Marylander, Roger Brooke Taney, who rose to the judicial heights to
become one of the great Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court. The
other, Richard Henry Lee, a resident of our sister commonwealth of Virginia,
and a noted patriot who enjoyed the confidence of his Colonial contemporaries
to such a degree that they chose him to be President of the Continental
Congress.

Far beyond any such considerations as these, however, exceptional interest
must attach to today's launchings in view of the critical times. There have
been added thereby to the rapidly-growing merchant fleet of the United States
two modern units for that chain of shipping that must be maintained intact if
we are to keep flowing into our Country the much-needed raw materials for
defense, and if we are to continue delivering life-giving supplies to those na-
tion now engaged in a struggle to the death against Hitlerism and its ac-
companying evils of national and individual slavery.

We hear much today about tanks and planes and guns. And rightly so, for
they are absolutely essential to adequate defense in today's mechanized war as
it has been developed by the dictator nations. Those tanks and planes and guns
will be of little avail, however, unless they are supplemented by a merchant
marine of a size not only to keep basic supplies and war materials moving
freely, but also to insure replacements for shipping sunk by enemy raiders.

As Marylanders, therefore, it is a double inspiration to us to witness this
imposing evidence of Maryland's achievements on the National Defense front.
President Roosevelt has declared that America must be the Arsenal of De-
mocracy. Certainly in such an Arsenal, Maryland deserves to be rated at least
as an incubator of defense, for between the shipyards of our State, our tre-
mendous plane factories, our armanent plants, and the thousand and one sup-
plementary defense industries now in full efficiency of production, Maryland is
contributing to the defense effort far out of proportion to our size and popula-
tion.

*Mrs. Herbert R. O'Conor was the sponsor of S S Roger B. Taney and Miss Mary Patricia
O'Conor sponsored the Richard Henry Lee earlier the same day at the Bethlehem-Fairfield
Shipyards. x