136 Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting. 
it unlawful to take any of these fish of a certain size, to-wit, 
white perch less than seven inches in length, yellow perch less 
than eight inches, pike less than fourteen inches, rock or striped 
bass or tailors less than ten inches, and black bass less 
than eight inches, and provided further that the season 
shall be closed at certain times of the year in which these various 
fish may spawn.” One of the fairest bills for fish protection 
that | know of, admitted to be such by the members of the 
Legislature who passed it, but notwithstanding the fact that 
they admitted it was one of the best bills ever presented, the 
representatives of nine out of the twenty-three counties had it 
exempted from operating in their counties. 
This bill also made it unlawful to have in possession or offer 
for sale any of the above enumerated sized fish in the City of 
Baltimore. Now what is the result? I began first to Have 
arrested the wholesale dealers who offered for sale undersized 
fish. From this began howl No. 1, resulting in the bill going to 
the Court of Appeals on the ground of unconstitutionality, but 
which the Court of Appeals sustained. 
1 then began a crusade against the retail dealers, which 
brought about howl No. 2. Their chief complaint was that if 
a fisherman was not permitted to catch fish undersize, then they 
would have no undersized fish to offer for sale. I then at- 
tempted to pursue (and in many cases succeeded) the catchers 
of undersized fish, but on going into certain counties my hands 
were tied because that particular county was exempted from 
the provisions of this bill and I was up against this condition, 
that while it was lawful for them to catch undersized fish, ac- 
cording to this law, in the waters of their county, it was unlaw- 
ful for them to take such fish to Baltimore to offer them for 
sale. 
| merely mention this to show the chaotic conditions which 
are prevalent not only in Maryland, but in other states of the 
Union, where the local laws of a county are superior to the 
state laws. Our state has been working for a long while to get 
a uniform and consistent fish law for the protection of all kinds 
of food fishes, but without result, and this may be apparent to 
you when I tell you that there are certainly thirty thousand vot- 
