of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 793

COUNCIL OF STATE GOVERNMENTS

MUTUAL NATION-WIDE HOOK-UP, INCLUDING STATION WFBR

November 14, 1942.
Chicago, 111.

Meeting today in Chicago are Governors, Legislators, representatives from
various agencies of State and local governments—all bent upon one single ob-
jective. These officials are from the West and from the East Coasts, from the
Nothern and Southern sections of our incomparable Union.

The single objective that is stamped upon every act and word of these
State representatives, meeting under a auspices of the Council of State Govern-
ments, is to exert every effort to further our Nation's success in the War. While
these elected and appointed officials are of different political faiths and economic
beliefs, there is not the slightest tinge of partisanship or ulterior purpose in
their deliberations. All such considerations are laid aside, for the good of our
Country, while concerted effort is directed toward arranging a program which
will hasten the day of Victory.

In consulting with the Governors and other representatives one is convinced
beyond all doubt that America is completely united in its purpose to defend
those basic principles which are its very life blood. The men of the 48 States
have given indisputable evidence of that on Wake Island, at Bataan. More
recently in North Africa, they have added to the renown of our Nation's fighting
forces, and have attested to America's belief in the rights of all peoples to liberty
and self-government.

Today it has been re-assuring to witness the adoption by the Council of
State Governments of a program of unstinted, unreserved cooperation with the
Federal Government in every phase of the war's activities where State support
is essential. This is proof that America's 48 integral units of State Govern-
ments are functioning as one patriotically-fused whole.

Therefore, it is a matter of deepest gratification to me as President of the
Council to be able to report to the public as to the laudable purpose and unshake-
able determination of the respective States to place every resource and all our
manpower behind America's fighting forces in the battle for Victory.

The issues at stake today are older than the American Union itself. Com-
ing as I do from Maryland, it is but natural that I should point to the fact that
a century and a half before the great American Constitution was proclaimed
to the world, Maryland's gallant founders had set the stage for it by establish-
ing a sanctuary for the oppressed of all the world, a sanctuary where the
individual might-live his life unhampered, no matter what his private beliefs
or racial origin.

Because these early Maryland principles, which are the basic tenets of
Democracy, are being attacked today by ruthless dictators, they stand out in
bold relief against the Axis theories. Because they are menaced today as never