The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1913-10-07
WHATS TIL. Use.

WHAT'S TIE USE.
The old storeotyped efusion about the hsh
snaustrv in virginia that has worked overtime
y Tar agitators and worked upon some Of the credu-
,oas again poppcd up yesterday morning as fl
beading piece on an industrial page. The thing
has two virtues-it fills space in dry" time and
II helms the scissors man. along with the theorst'
10 hold their Jobs What 1t pnrports to rec'te
NAV or may not have been given out from the
washington fish conference. but, If so, 1t smacks
altogether Of the ex parte, and would seem 10
b. in bad faith, as the Virginia defenders have
not been publicly heard-further than to deny IN
lweneral terms the correctness OF the premature
| statements and ask suspension Of Judgment
until all the facts are In and the matter has
been fully presented
The view of Virginia authorities Is that our
commercial food fisheries are not dwindimg
Int on the contrary are increasing; that the
salt water hook and line fishing was never
better. and that the statements as to the shad
catch, In comparison with North Carolina are
totally incorrect and In the view Of practical men
absurd To the extreme. 1t Is not claimed that
these figures are designediy wrong, hut they have
creu, into some report OF an imperfect census
ana given undue publicity TO the great injury Of
virginia and virginians The state fish officials
are in no way responsible for this, as 1t ema-
mates from some source In Washington ana
should be taken cum grano salis-and big one
1t that Nor are the Virginia officials to blame
II h,ame there be-for permitting any industry
now legally carried on In Tidewater, as the legls-
latnre has from time immemorial legalized them.
The Ash commissions of the Atlantic coast
states have recently commended the Virginia
legislature for It's admirable code Of fish laws,
which are still undergoing review and improve
ment The enforcement Of these laws have only
In recent years become special object with the
fish and oyster commission, and because Of &C
tivity along this line the officials have made
enemies large part Of the complaints being
from such a source and are like a sweet morsel
for some newspaper folk not honest enough TO
confess the origin
1t is safe to reckon that there are ten eaters
or fish today to twenty years ago. while the
catch has only about doubled in Virginia waters,
1t la easy 10 increase the number Of eaters; that
materially comes with our increase of popua-
hon. and is intensified by our high manner of
+ iigfng I0t IL is mol sdSY-it - iu'P"HSA''"
10 increase proportonately the fish of a circum-
scribed area like the Chesapeake bay. That body
f water is doing wonders in the food line and
the State officials are pondering night and day
how to make it still more productive, II is ab-
4 surd to charge that they are not Just as we'll
say that a forester wants to see his timber
twindle or a rancher his herds
1t IL a sore spot with some Of us on the upper
u waters that we do not catcn the shad and her
ring we once did, but tenfold number of Vir.
ginians who get the FIRST cast are gathering them
In and so far as the output is concerned, Virginia
and yirginians somewhere are reaping the hene
fits II ii be a question OF who is to get them
1 then there might be some reason for this agta
ton But that issue cannot well be presented
Aithout bringing out local and preferential pleas
But what's the use Of newspaper argument
when certain ones are in it only to vent crouch
and Others in 1t for the love Of sensation whether
Ii hurt the State or not AS We recently
said these same papers few years hence will
lie boosting virginia's fisheries. but not unit
they have seriously crippled her oyster trade az
they have already crippled her fish industry
They now see the folly Of their former course II
n regard to the one. and experience would oper
rheir eyes to their present folly were not theiI
blindness the blindness Of those who will no
see