Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1891-05-14

estly surrounding the lease with
every restriction which legal ingen-
uity could suggest, and, ! can i'm
agine another Legislature, just as
honestly and with equal ingenuity,
reversing its acts. The possibility
of corporations receiving grants of
land in the Chesapeake Bay bot
toms is the assurance of the ultimate
formation and control of the trust
the big fish would swallow the small
of their own kind. Bearing in
mind the course followed BY these
trusts" which / have outlined in
my remarks, realizing that in
every instance they have sought to
advancesPrices by restricting pro-
duction, we can scarcely be expect
ed to believe that such a control
over the oyster fisheries as that sug-
gested would reverse the presidents
and seek to enlarge the supply and
reduce the price to the public. On
the contrary the inevitable result of
OF such course as the surrender of
these lands to private corporations
would be to restrict the taking of
oysters to limited territory, to
confine the market to limited sup
ply, to increase the cost of the oys-
ter to the general public, to de-
crease wages, and to throw out of
employment the great multitude of
men who now enjoy frugal living
from this industry.
The methods which large capital
would employ in the fisheries by
the introduction of steam and
machinery, would dispense with
the labor of hands; experience and
knowledge of the business would
be as little necessary as in the pres
ent labor of our machine-worked
farms. The fisherman would be
absolutely wage-worker, depend
ent on the corporation, and his
wages regulated by the competition
of the worlds market and not by the
population of a county or town.
The private capital, the savings of
years of patient industry, now re-
presented in the bateau or canoe,
would depreciate in value. The
school fund would vanish, the
company's store would come, and
the one section of the State where
it has been our boast to say that
any honest man who would work
could get his own living, and where
God had opened the storehouse of
nature to His hungry poor, would,
practically, pass under the control
of q reat and irresponsible power,
VI Gord would become the law
of the necessities of the
Re packer who was not ad-
mftV to this combine, or who,
having been admitted, was after
ward squeezed out as an incumbrance
by his more crafty or more power
full confederates, the existence of
this "trust" wonld simply mean
subjugation and ruin. 1t is not
reasonable that the operations of
such corporation would be con-
fined to the oyster fisheries; it
would, as natural sequence, con-
troll all collateral interests, and the
packing trade and the tin-can
manufacturer would gradually but
surely pass under this overshadow-
ing monopoly.
The small competition in wages
now existing in those trades, which
yet affords some semblance of in
dependence to the labor, would be
gone, and the great army of men,
women and children would fail of
employment or obtain a precariOus
living at greatly reduced rates.
am told that some amendments
to the existing "cull" law would
go far to perfecting it in operation;
that for all practical purposes it
would insure an improvement in
the future supply; that this law has,
SO far, operated advantageously;
that time, by natural law, will
cause the recuperation of the oyster
bars; that the men engaged in the
fisheries are willing to observe any
statutes which may be enacted
looking to this end and for the
general welfare.
l am informed by many practical
men engaged last season in the
fisheries that the grounds are well
supplied with young oysters. | do
not believe, with such a public sem