The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1959-04-03

mill closed, or the timber was all
cut, or the end of the war shut
down the defense installations.
If this secondary source of in
come were farming, instead of
fishing, we might be able to sit
back, as many agricultural coun-
ties are doing, and let the Federal
Government try to figure out how
to save it for us. For the govern
ment maintains a mammouth
bureau in Washington, with
branches in every farming commu-
nifty in the nation, for the one pur-
pose of keeping farmers prosper
GUS enough so that they will con-
tinue turning out essential food
supplies.
Billions of dollars are spent each
year in buying the farmers crops
when he isn't able to get decent
price on the open market, and in
helping him in numerous other
ways, and though many farmers
as well as a lot of the rest of us
don't approve of these methods,
the fact remains that the United
States has made farming and the
success of the individual farmer a
responsibility of the government.
There is no comparable govern
ment agency concerned with insur-
ing continued supply of fish,
which is just as essential crop as
those produced by the farmers.
Neither are there County Fish
Agents, or a fish parity program,
or fish crop insurance, or federally
backed fish loans. do not mean
by this that l would advocate ask
ing the Federal Government to
step in, because l consider that the
extremes to which the farm pro-
gram is currently being carried are
little short of a national disgrace,
and l doubt the independent Dare
County fishermen would put up
with that kind of thing for very
long. What / do mean to point out,
however, is that the farmer and
the people in the farming commu-
mites can't do much about insur-
ing their own future success be-
cause it all depends on what the
government does, whereas in the
case of the commercial fishermen
if anything at all is to be done
they must do it themselves.
The current problem of the
commercial fishermen stems large
ly from the fact that the fish are
more scarce and widely scattered
than, say, fifty years ago, and the
price of just about everything ex-
cept the fish he catches has gone
up and up and up. Today's fisher
men must have larger, more COM
plicated and more expensive nets
and boats than their forebears,
must pay their helpers more than
ever before, and must travel much
Greater distances in order to catch
their fish. Because of this it is
Essential that deeper and wider
channels be maintained between
their home bases and the fishing
grounds land that larger and bet
ter protected harbors must be pro-
vided for them to dock their boats
in safety.
The main channels, harbors, ba-
sins and breakwaters come within
the domain of the U. S. Army En-
gineers, and getting new one
authorized and built involves a
long process of hearings and sur
veys, beginning with a preliminary
authorization from Congress and
ending on an average of ten years
later with the actual construction
under the direction of the Army
Engineers-providing, of course
that the project was not turned
down during one of the half dozen
separate reviews by Congress, OF
the even more extensive reviews by
1.-THE Engineers or Budget officials
The Oregon Inlet project, in
volving the attendant construction
of good channels to Manteo and
Wanchese, has been in the works
for years; and in each of those
years the late Alva H. Ward and
his successors were forced to pre-
Ipare briefs, make trips to Wash
ington, and write letter after let
ter to anyone who could conceiv-
ably help speed up the project
Even SO, the possibility has arisen
this month that both the Manteo
and Wanchese porjects could be
abandoned because sufficient ar
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