Rowe. — Decline of Oyster Industry 35 



Connecticut had but few votes with which to defend their interests, 

 some of them were ready to follow the lead of a Governor whose 

 policy might be good politics but was not good statesmanship, and 

 for the past ten years, the assessments on oyster grounds in 

 Connecticut have been made, in many cases, at five and ten times 

 their market value, although the fair market value is all that is 

 sanctioned by the law. 



During the same period chemical manufacturing wastes have 

 been discharged into the waters of the state in greatly increased 

 quantity, with the result that the embryo oysters have been 

 destroyed, together with swimming fish, in vast quantities, so 

 that the set of embryo oysters for several successive years has 

 been practically a failure. 



Under such unfavorable conditions, public policy dictated that 

 the industrial wastes should have been kept out of the waters, 

 and that a great food producing industry should have been 

 fostered and encouraged. Instead of such an enlightened and 

 intelligent policy, this time was chosen to unjustly and unlawfully 

 exact from the oyster farmers a great amount of direct revenue, 

 thus "killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. " 



Rhode Island followed the same short-sighted policy by increas- 

 ing her revenue per acre from oyster grounds. It was proposed, 

 several years ago, to add a tax amounting to thirty or forty per 

 cent of the rentals to the revenue from oyster grounds. The 

 writer pointed out to the Tax Commissioner of Rhode Island 

 that the industry was already carrying "more than the traffic 

 would bear" and that if any considerable increase was enacted, 

 the industry would decline so that the state would receive less 

 annually at the end of five years than it would if no increases were 

 made. In view of the facts which the writer presented to the 

 Tax Commissioner at that time, the proposed increase was reduced 

 from thirty or forty per cent, as at first planned, to ten per cent, 

 but even that proved too much, and instead of increasing the 

 revenue, it is now less than one-half what it was when the increase 

 of rate was enacted. The prediction of the writer was thus more 

 than fulfilled. 



The same difficulty exists also in Rhode Island as in Connecticut 

 by reason of the discharge of industrial waste into the waters of 

 the state, and the failure of the state authorities to police and 



