The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-08-31
Announcement
To My Friends and Voters
of DDrc haStpI. Count

To My Friends and Voters
of Dorchester County:
am a candidate for the Republ1-
can nomination for State Senator at
the approaching primaries, Sept. IL,
and am using this means to let ev-
eryone know my position on some
very serious matters which affect the
interests of the public in this day of
high prices, when the necessities OF
life are almost prohibitive. In some
cases, many of our people who are
honest, God-fearing and Iaw-abidins
citizens, are burdened with obnoXi-
Gus laws, one of which affects the
crab industry. L know something
about this, for my near relatives and
friends are in this business, and some
have had to leave it entirely to make
Il living.
Believing, as l do, that the RepuD-
iican party will control the next leg
lslatlve body OF Maryland, If | should
secure the nomination and election
at the hands OF my party this conn
ing November, | shall be lii a posi-
ton 10 help in securing a better law
than that now in force, namely, the
5-inch crab law, as its enforcement
has driven people out OF the county,
and away from home, 10 make a liv
ing for their families, and, in some
instances, whole families have LETT
and moved away; this affects the
merchants and all other business In
tereSts in that community, and in.
directly affects every portion of the
county. This or any other law tina.
makes. it harder for the Iaboring
man to make living is an obnnxl-
Gus law, especially in this day, when
1t costs more to live than ever be-
fore, and | stand pledged to do my
utmost toward securing the modin-
cation and repeal of these laws; also,
If we must have crab anu oyste,
laws, / know that the laborer's in
terest must first be considered.
1t seems to me that the Crab law
passed by the Legislature of 1917
was not consistent. We take up first
the inch crab law, affecting the
soft and snedder crabs, or peeier
crab, as called by the crabber; the
law says you cannot have any in
your possession less than three in
cheS. The crabber says today he
throws away this crab, and tomor-
row catches this same crab, which
has hardened up some, and is then
called by the crabber a buck; he can
sell this crab, then, but has to give
the buyer 4 crabs like this to count
as one; in other words, if soft crabs
were &c. each, he only gets one-half
cent for the buck, the catcher losins
Zee. on each crab that he throws
away and catches again. This means
not only the loss on each crab, bun
1t means four times as much time re-
quired, etc.
Also take the hard crab law, as it
affects the trot line crabber. The
law says you must not have either
crab less than 5 inches. Now this
seems very unreasonable, as it is a
known fact that crabbers have tried
their utmost to Gull their catch, ana
in some way in handling the crabs
from the net used in dipping them
from the line, a few small eraD.
crawl into the barrels of culled crabs
and sometimes find their way down
toward the bottom of the barrel. Now
just imagine crabber out in the hoe.
burning sun, his boat tossed to and
fro, trying to find this small crab
which has, without any intent upon
his part, gotten down into his bar
rel OF crabs. Also imagine what II
means when crabs are biting and
swapping, to go over barrel after bar
rel, with lines still baited, and the
crabs eating up the expensive bait,
while the poor crabber goes search
ing through the barrel after these (
one or two small crabs that have got
into it.