of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 785

what Selective Service organizations should be. The State Guard, following
extensive inspections by regular Army officials, has been given a rating second
to no State Guard Unit in the Country.

Such is the tradition of Maryland, however, that even the most complete
absorption in. winning the war, has not, and never will make us forget that
there are other things of importance in addition to winning the war. Our form
of Government also must be preserved.

Some may inquire what has been the magic formula which enabled us to
grow, progress and proper though boom times and bad, wars and panics.

There has been no magic formula! America has survived through the
years because her people at all times were close enough to the functioning of
Government, through 4he exercise of their privileges as citizens in the conduct
of their local affairs, to maintain an active interest and to play their part in
all the activities of Government. Deprive them of that incentive, and history
has shown conclusively that you prepare the way for the loss of freedom itself.

When the 7, 500, 000 men whom Secretary Stimson has declared America
needs in the armed forces return to us - - and God grant they will return, soon,
without great casualties, Victorious in the cause of humanity - - our aim and
purpose must be to preserve for them the same kind of a Country they left,
the same kind of a Country Thomas Jefferson envisioned many years ago, when
he wrote: *

"Were not this Country already divided into States, that distribution must
be"made, that each might do for itself what concerns itself directly, and what
it can do so much better than distant authority—It is by such partition of cares,
that the mass of human affairs may be best managed for the good and prosperity
of all. "

When these 7, 600, 000 stalwart young Americans come marching back to us,
likewise we must be prepared to receive them in a Country so economically
ordained that they can settle down to the enjoyment of the fruits of Victory—to
the achievements of their aims in life, free from the aftermaths of war that
plagued humanity as a result of World War No I.

To guarantee this kind of a Country to our courageous men whose heroism
en the far flung battle fronts, is a record that glows like an endless string of
pearls, there are two principles that must be borne in mind. First, that power
should only be surrendered that is actually and directly necessary to win the
war, second, that it should be clearly understood that the return of that power
from the Federal to the local governments will come with the end of hostilities.

The power of the Federal Government steadily has grown. That growth
had to come from somewhere, either from the States or from that great reser-
voir of ultimate power which had been in the beginning carefully preserved for
the people themselves. It has been said that the tremendous increase in Federal
power came through the entry by the Federal Government into new fields' not at
the expense of the states and the local governments. Observers who have
studied the problem and who have, witnessed the sharp curtailment of State
authority know that this contention is not true.