Address of Representative Linthicum 195 



We are apt then to witness the employment of log-rolling 

 and filibustering tactics to defeat legislation for the gen- 

 eral good. Under such conditions the equitable solution 

 of the problem rests with those members whose constit- 

 uents are not directly affected by the proposed legisla- 

 tion. For example, it is said that members from the 

 interior counties of Virginia have given that state the 

 best fish and oyster laws the Old Dominion ever enjoyed. 



The disposition upon the part of state officials to deal 

 leniently, even gently, with violators of state laws, is 

 too well known to require comment from me. And where 

 a specific individual is the wrong-doer and the great im- 

 perceptible body of the people are the sufferers the inclina- 

 tion to leniency on the part of such officers is apt to be 

 unduly magnified. 



When a reformative measure is contemplated by one 

 state, which entails the co-operation of another, we have 

 found it next to impossible to secure its passage, for the 

 reason that there is no officer who can pledge his state to 

 do its share toward the correction of the situation requir- 

 ing joint remedy. And when one state proceeds to enact 

 a measure, the success of which depends upon the joint 

 action of other states, and the other states fail in their 

 part, the state which has taken the lead invariably feels 

 that it has been aggrieved and imposed upon and future 

 efforts for reform inevitably suffer a set-back. 



It required more than one hundred years of dickering 

 upon the part of Maryland and Virginia to concur in 

 measures for the protection of the oyster beds in the 

 Potomac river before satisfactory legislation was finally 

 agreed upon. 



We should bear in mind that the natural resources of 

 the state are equivalent to so many dollars in the bank 

 placed there by an all-wise Providence. Every state 

 ought to know the extent and value of these resources 

 within its dominions. It ought to inventory them as 

 correctly as possible, check off withdrawals, keep tab on 

 their increase or decrease and conserve and protect them 

 in the same systematic and methodical manner in which 

 it accounts for and protects its other treasures. 



