Evening journal., 1913-08-05
FEAR FOR
OYSTER FELT
In MARYLAND
Hostility Against Private
Planting is Growing Much
Stronger Daily
SAYS GULL LAW
Is NOT ENFORCED

section to the amended Hayman law, /
intended to promote private plant |
ing, as so hostile that in his opinion |
the success of the plan is seriously !
menaced.
1T is regrettable," said Mr.. Veach, |
that theoystermen are not in perfect |
harmony, and that such feeling is ex-
hibited against those who favor the |
Hayman oyster law as amended and
enacted by the last legislature.
For years the natural resources !
of the state have been iealously
guarded land squandered) by the |
oystermen. It remains one of a large
field with clumps of wild strawber
ries here and there The field is not
owned by individuals but by the coun- |
ty or state, and is known as com |
mons. Those near by gather the per-
ries with a total disregard of the
future crop, and object to having the
field cultivated. not because the land
belongs TO them, but because they
obtain a livelihood from the product
of the field, and because cultivation
means labor. abundance of fruit, COM
petition and possible over supply.
"A Gull law making il punishable
by fine to take from the bottom small
oysters, has never been enforced.
Commander Howard of the police
force is probably indebted to poll
tics for his position; and If the ma
jority of oystermen want to rob the
beds of future product, being an en-
emy to themselves, under the excuse
that if they don't catch the small oy-
sters some other fellow will, why
WELL they have gone on disposing
the seed, and good oysters are becom-
ing scarcer each year. During the
past year the writer never saw
single load of oysters within the law.
Statistics show that the oyster
industry in Maryland is on the de-
cline. This. together with the fact
that private planting on all sides,
north and south, has increased the
production of oysters elsewhere,
bringing the inferior and scarce stock
of the Chesapeake bay and its trib-
utaries into competition with those
sections with their abundance and
fire quality of oysters. Hence, the
once fourishing oysterman now
elicits from the oyster season only a
living for the time engaged. Notwith-
standing, he is unrelenting in his op-
position to the efforts that have and
are being made TO develop this man.
moth industry.
"The last Legislature. encouraged
by our Democratically elected Repub-
lican governor. passed a law to en-
courage private planting of oysters,
because the maxim that what is
everybody's business is nobody's bus
mess is we'll demonstrated in the
oyster industry (as in the berry field
THE law provides for a survey of
the natural beds or bars of oyster
bottom (the good clumps in the berry
field), which are to be reserved to
! the people who oyster. The less fav-
ored bottom is open to lease for the
cultivation of oysters by individuals.
The attitude of the State, summed up
seems 10 be:
From this vast resource. belonging
Z to the whole State of Maryland. we do
4 not obtain sufficient revenue to sup
+ port the police service maintained. A
4 small portion Of our good citizens
4 are wantonly destroying the oyster
a industry to the detriment not only Of
4 themselves but the whole State.
Cup in the counties our people own
the land from which they exc living
if they do not own and pay taxes,
they lease and pay rent Why, then,
ehould this vast resource lie dormant
because of the preiudices and iealousies
f of the oyster men? IL is like the in
+ ventor who conceals from the public
4 some splendid invention. which means
& much to humanity, because he fears
some one else than himself will profit by
3 its exploitation.
s. "The oysterman neither owns, pays
q rent or taxes on the bottom from which
81 he gathers his harvest, but a nominal
& license, yet to him is reserved the ma
a jority and best bottoms. From the pro-
Il ceeds of such other land as we may
lease, which belongs to the whole state,
we will set aside half of the net
income to restock the natural bars, and
the other halfwe will use in the building
of highways, so that the whole people of
+ the state may be benefited by the de-
velopment of an industry that is on
3 the decline " d.
Zone closes the code with a profound
N appreciation of the equitableness of the
"a act.
True, as the oystermen Justly claim,
some OF the land omitted from the re-
served and set aside for leasing may
81 afford them a few days work at the
81 opening of the season, but il occurs at
once as a senseless waste TO permit and
II TO lie idle what by cultivation could be
made to produce more than hundred
fold afford more labor and food for our
increasing population, help build our
highways, place our oyster supervision
and protection on a self-supporting bs .
sis and assist in the restocking of the
natural bars reserved to the oystermen.
Il Yet from the Chesapeake and its
a tributaries comes a wall of protest and
howl of Indignation from the ranks of
the oystermen, who see in this encroach-
"a ment the fingers OF greedy interests,
81 which shall eventually usurp from hem
81 the treasures they Eavt hidden under
q the bushel Mass meetings have been
called and an organization ede"ted
We will kill the law. they say; we
will dispute the pas,ral bars rs laid
down, so as to prevent leasing until the
next Legislature meets. when this law
stealing from us our inherent ,i.hts
must bc repealed. ls they ever get foot
hold, IT is all lost.
Just as they robbed the Indians OF
their rights. they will take away cur
oyster beds II they are allowed to have
this planting law and in ten years they
will 'be owned like the coal fields of
West Virginia and Pennsylvania bv
multlmillonalres, and we won't have a
smell
'Swepson Earle shall not survey IN
these waters, We will meet him in a
body and force him to desist. Ph,nt-
ing means that oysters will be so thick
and. .plentlfd the maci.st will be swamp
ed Oyster houses viii have their own