American Fisheries Society 155 



how ? I believe that if it comes within the constitutional powers 

 of the government, congress should pass proper interstate laAVs 

 for the protection of fish." 



Thousands of dollars are being spent, practically wasted for 

 fish propagation in Maryland. The state has persistently ne- 

 glected to provide for protection. ISTot until after fifty years of 

 constant agitation, and the practical extermination, commer- 

 cially, of the oyster, has Maryland awakened, (and that but two 

 years ago) to the fact that the oyster in Maryland must be pro- 

 tected or exterminated. If it has taken us this long to awaken 

 to the serious condition of the oyster, how long will it take to 

 recognize the necessity of the protection of the fish, and thus save 

 to the people of our own state and other communities from ex- 

 termination, one of the greatest natural food products of the 

 world y 



Mr. Bryan, at the conference on national resources, in Wash- 

 ington, in May last, in which the governors of the states and 

 prominent men of the nation took part, said with reference to 

 the protection of the great national resources of the country that 

 '"he regarded the de^'elo|)ment of Avater transportation as essen- 

 tially a national product, because the water courses run by and 

 through many states." In my judgment, it is just as important 

 for the national government to protect the natural industry 

 wliii'h lias its life and being as a food product in and under the 

 waters of this country, as it is to enlarge and protect the water- 

 ways for carrying away from, and bringing to us, the great com- 

 merce of the world. I believe it more important because the 

 product of the water since the beginning of the world, has pro- 

 vided food and life to man long before he thought of the creation 

 of great fortunes by the use of Avater courses for commercial pur- 

 poses. 



I am a state's rights man. and am jealous of any action of the 

 national government which would deprive the state of a single 

 right, but when yon consider that the great bodies of water which 

 produce natural food run by and through different states ; when 

 you consider that petty political influences, jealousies, and other 

 equally silly reasons, prevent a state from protecting from exter- 

 mination a natural product of food, notwithstanding it has legal- 

 ly determined that fish are the property of the state, I am con- 



