104 Report of the Board of Shell Fish Commissioners. 



Commission is convinced that any one of these three fundamental 

 privileges is valuable to the oyster culture scheme only when sup- 

 plemented by the others, and it is fully justified in the position it 

 takes with reference to them — ALL or NONE. 



In support of this contention, the following carefully prepared 

 statement from Dr. H. F. Moore, the oyster expert of the U. S. 

 Bureau of Fisheries, is hereto added : 



"Mr. Walter J. Mitchell, Chairman of the Maryland Shell Pish 

 Commission, Annapolis, Md.: 



"My Dear Mr. Mitchell — I have just returned to Washington 

 after an absence of six weeks, and am glad to be again in touch with 

 the Maryland oyster situation, though I regret to learn that there 

 is but a remote probability that the amendments asked for by your 

 Commission will be favorably acted on by the present Legislature. 



"In view of the complexity of the issue, I am apprehensive that 

 there may be some attempt to compromise the matter by passing 

 some of the amendments, perhaps in a modified form, and rejecting 

 the others, a course against which I venture to strongly advise. 



"As I view the case, the amendments asked for represent the ir- 

 reducible minimum necessary to per feet the law and make it effective. 

 The elimination of any part of the amendments will be against the 

 interests of the State, oyster culture and the oyster industry as a 

 whole, and will seriously retard the assumption of the position to 

 which Maryland's natural advantages entitle her. The amendments 

 were proposed after careful consideration, all not absolutely essen- 

 tial was eliminated, and there was nothing inserted for the purpose 

 of trading or compromise. 



"I do not believe that your Commission can afford to acquiesce, 

 even under stress, to measures which will militate against the inter- 

 ests entrusted to your care. I do not understand that you even con- 

 template such action, but feel that my connection with the Maryland 

 survey makes it obligatory, in justice to myself, to express myself 

 frankly. Should an unsatisfactory compromise be accomplished, 

 the odium of its failure as a practical measure must fall on all who 

 acquiesced in its perpetration. If the recommendations of the Com- 

 mission be rejected, the responsibility will lie on those who opposed 

 them, and we who have endeavored to give the subject our best study 

 will be absolved. 



