Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1907-03-19
Communicated.
THE OYSTER QUESTION.

To the Editor of the Evening Capital /;
Please ALLOW me space in your val-
liable psper on the oyster question.
/ see by the Baltimore sun under
date of March is, '07. that Or.
Grave made a strange speech at
dinner given by the trustees of the
Johns Hopkins University Saturday
night in Baltimore. j hope the Doe
tor enjoyed his free feed for what
he had TO say on the oyster Question.
] suppose he must have been too
fun of the good things or of good
oysters that he did not mind his
stops. Now, | have attended every
meeting of the oystermen 's-union in
our county, aud l know no one else
has ever heard OF these gentlemen
being referred 10 as the rbrok en-
down politician from Charles coun-
ty, the grocer from Somerset or the
Doctor from Johns Hopkins Hospital.
These are words of his own and have
never been used by any one at any
of our meetings. The commissioners
have never been referred TO only as
ncntlemen at all our meetings. We
are not organized to degrade anyone,
but to demand our rights, and we
don't have TO sneak away under the
cover of night TO attend our meetings,
but go in broad daylight and do al |
we can, both by night and by day
10 gain our demands.
| think the Doctor better get n move
on and don't waste his time going
around TO free dinners. He should
try and do something TO earn his sal
airy. If he cannot make living by
being Doctor to mankind, let him
pay more attention to the oyster ques-
tion. for by what / am told he has n
good deal to learn about them. He
gets paid very well for his talk, that
is all it amounts TO, but let the gentle
man when he talks confine himself TO
the truth. / am not writing about the
gentleman with tears in my eyes, but
| am asking him when he addresses a
lot of Randalls, Youngs and Lever
ings at free feed. to confine himself
TO the truth. 1t is immaterial TO
us whether we go to the next legisla-
ture or not, but we can assure the
Doctor that we will have gentlemen
there from the tidewater counties TO
look after our welfare and not TO be
led astray by Jones, Brown and
Smith from Baltimore city on the
oyster question. They will know
who to look to at the next legisla-
-ture, and who they may rely on, and
not men who will sell their birth
right for a mess of pottage. The dear
Doctor has been informed by packers
that load after load of oysters has
come from Anne Arundel county,
which were at least 30 per cent under
size. Good Lord, what sin. Where
was the admiral of the oyster navy
Where were the Shellfsh Commission,
and where was the army of oyster in
spectors? All of these higb-paid and
low paid officers of the oyster navy to
allow these thieves in Anne Arundel
county to steal all of the oysters in
our county and carry them up to the
city under the nose OF all the inspec-
tors, and no one to arrest them. All
the rest of the oystermen in the coun-
ty don't do anything of that kind.
May the Lord bless them.
Were all the officers of the oyster
navy at the free feed with the dear
Doctor, or were all the inspectors up
in the sail loft at the head of the basin
keeping warm? Rushing the growler
in place of being down on the wharf
looking out for their oyster thieves
from Anne Arundel? Maybe the next
legislature will increase the number of
our noble officers of the oyster navy.
This remains to be seen. | would like
the dear Doctor to accompany me to
our oystermen' S union meeting this
evening. We meet over the Hub
clothing store on Market Space for the
present. j will be glad to wait at