possible, and that those industrialists seeking information about our
State will be impressed with the business-like utility of the informa-
tion we provide. Meanwhile, the Department of Economic Development
is striving to tell the entire American business community about the
superior economic climate that industry can find in Maryland.

A highlight of this effort will be a special Sunday supplement on
Maryland in the New York Times, which is scheduled for publication
on Sunday, May 1. This publication will reach approximately 1, 300, 000
readers. I am convinced that these endeavors will have a most bene-
ficial effect on the State.

The establishment of this Economic Development Committee in
Talbot County is an indication that the people of the State have
been aroused to a consciousness of the importance of the development
of our economy to the fullest. Many changes have occurred in these
Eastern Shore counties of our State during the past few years. In
early colonial times, the great Chesapeake Bay, which created this
distinctive region known as the Eastern Shore, served as an avenue of
communication for the boat-minded people of the two shores of our
State. But as land transportation developed, the shore counties tended
to become isolated from the remainder of the State. The tide of land
traffic, first by stagecoach and later by railroad, moved southward from
Boston and New York through Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washing-
ton and to the south, brushing the Eastern Shore but not entering it.
Then came the automotive age, with paved roads for motor cars and
motor trucks. The Bay Bridge was built, and as the network of high-
ways expanded, the Eastern Shore was opened up to industrial expansion
in a manner the railroads and steamboats never succeeded in doing
fully. In the 1920's and 1930's, small manufacturers began to take
advantage of the good labor supply in the Shore counties and the
proximity of the region to the great markets of the East. By this time,
every town of any size, and many of the villages, had their own
garment factories to supplement the many canning plants and, in the
case of waterfront communities, the seafood plants. The acceleration
of the Eastern Shore's industrial development was obvious even before
World War II and the erection of the Bay Bridge.

Of highest industrial importance, as those of us who are natives
of the region know so well, was the development of the gigantic broiler
industry. The "chicken business" has brought millions of dollars to
the Shore's trade channels, has led to the establishment of poultry
processing plants in many towns and has brought prosperity to count-
less farmers and poultry producers. It has largely replaced seafood

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