Evening star., 1962-04-04
Candidates Clash
On Oyster Industry
Bid for Votes
OfWutermen on
Eastern Shore
By PAUL HOPE
Star Staff Writer

Star Staff Writer
Maryland'S oyster wars have
moved from the Potomac River
to the Eastern Shore.
And it's not the oystermen
and the fisheries inspectors who
are taking pot shots at one
another. It's Democratic gu
bernatorial candidates.
George P. Mahoney, who is
challenging Gov. Tawes for the
Democratic nomination, ac-
cused the Governor last night
of failing to have the watermen
fairly represented on the Tide
water Fisheries Commission.
What the Tidewater Fish
cries Commission needs is
good down-to-the water water
man, Mr.. Mahoney asserted in
a campaign swing through Dor
chester County.
The challenger vas hitting
hard at a theme he and his
ticket colleagues plan to use up
and down the Shore the As
sociated Press reported.
Recalls Leasing Plan
The Mahoney forces also re-
called that leasing of oyster
bars, unpopular among water
men. had been proposed once
by DR.. Harry c. Byrd, Tawes-
appointed chairman of the
Tidewater Fisheries Commits
sion.
Over in Wicomico County,
Gov. Tawes was claiming he's
a friend Of the watermen and
aware of their problems.
The Governor, a native of
rural Somerset County on the
Chesapeake Bay, asked what
Mr.. Mahoney knows about
oysters anyway. He said Mr..
Mahoney is city slicker
brought up in Baltimore City
and who lives in Baltimore
County"
Attorney General Thomas B.
Finan, who is campaigning for
reelection on the Tawes ticket,
got his oar into the fight over
water policies with the state
ment, THE only thing George
P. Mahoney has in common
with the seafood industry is
that he is dumb as an oyster"
A Dorchester County water
man, listening to Mr.. Mahoney,
commented that the members
of the Tidewater Fisheries
Commission know about as
much about an oyster as a
mule does about Sunday"
This was about the time Mr..
Mahoney was contending that
Gov. Tawes wrote a letter to
two prominent residents of the
Eastern Shore saying that he
(the Governor) had decided
that it will be in the best in
terestS of this new Fisheries
program to avoid appointing
anyone too closely identified
with any phase o the in
duStry."
Seeks United States Aid
Gov. Tawes, meanwhile, fatty
denied that he had ever
eSpoused the leasing of oyster
beds.
The Governor also announced
he has urged Maryland's two
United States Senators to sup
port legislation designed to aid
the oyster industry.
In Baltimore, the third major
candidate for the Democratic
gubernatorial nomin alton,
David Hume, an ardent conser-
vationiSt who doesn't think the
watermen are getting a fair
shuck from Mr.. Tawes either,
was belaboring Mr.. Mahoney
yesterday.
Said Mr.. Hume:
"As the emotional Mr.. Ma
honey wallows in his spasms of
character assassination on tele-
vision, it would be well for the
public to remember that this
would-be Governor had those
television tapes done outside
the State. =. At a time of high
unemployment Mr.. Mahoney
has used Maryland contribu-
tions to pay for material and
talent to outsiders"
At the Mahoney and Tawes
headquarters in Baltimore, the
publicity men were debating
whether Mr.. Mahoney's cam
paign was off the ground.
Down off the Eastern Shore,
the oysters we're wondering
what was muddying the waters.