rivalry between tongers and dredgers, between crab-potters and trot-
liners was such as to make a reconciliation of their differences impossible.
As one who has lived with these people all my life, I refuse to believe this.
I have confidence in the basic intelligence of watermen, and I am sure
that they, working closely with the Commission, will develop a program
which, while everybody may not get everything he wants, there will be
in the program benefits for all.

I think we have every reason to believe that, barring unforeseen events,
our oyster production in the next four years can be doubled to around
four million bushels, which would be the highest in forty years. And I
can see no reason why in succeeding years the production cannot
continue to rise.

I have spoken here mostly of commerical fishing, but the Commission
is not neglecting sports fishing, the $12 million annual income of which
matches that of commercial fishing.

The attainment of our goal will require intelligent planning and hard
work for all of us here. I am sure I can expect both from you.

I hope that at the end of my term as Governor I shall be able to point
with pride to an Administration that attempted and succeeded in
rejuvenating the seafood industry in Maryland.

ADDRESS, ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE OYSTER
INSTITUTE OF NORTH AMERICA AND THE
NATIONAL SHELLFISHERIES ASSOCIATION

BALTIMORE

August 2, 1960

Let me, first of all, offer the hospitality of the State of Maryland to
those of you from other states who have come here to attend this 1960
convention of the Oyster Institute of North America. You will, I
think, find the surroundings congenial here, for we Marylanders, living
on the shores of the beautiful and bountiful Chesapeake Bay, consider
ourselves pre-eminently seafood conscious.

Born and reared in Crisfield, among families who for generations
have earned their livelihood on the water, I have acquired some knowl-
edge of the problems of watermen and of the seafood industry in gen-
eral. With such a background, it is only natural that I have lively

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