720 feet long and 90 feet wide, and has 36 feet of water at pierside.
While built by the Port Authority, it is operated under lease by the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

Not all of our Marylanders are employed in the giant industries of
the metropolitan area, however Countless others work in smaller
plants and companies stretching from Crisfield on the Eastern Shore
to the mountains of Western Maryland. Many of these plants would
not be in Maryland were it not for the State's maritime industry. The
boat builders on the shore depend on tea imported from the Far East
and South America. Workers on the poultry farms must have outlets
for their frozen chickens and turkeys abroad. And the packing houses
of Dorchester County must depend on Tuna brought by refrigerated
ship from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. In central Maryland, work-
ers in the brush and button factories of Frederick and Washington
counties must have bristles brought from India and the Far East and
shell and coral imported from the Caribbean. In the mountains
further west, the coal miners depend on export trade to move the
fruits of their labor abroad. And workers in plants such as the
Celanese Corporation of America in Cumberland and the Mack Truck
Company in Hagerstown are similarly dependent on export com-
merce if their company's products are to reach overseas markets.

So it goes across the length and breadth of the State. Countless
thousands of Marylanders are dependent for their livelihoods upon
a flourishing port and a flourishing merchant marine. I know that
the situation in Maryland is matched in many of your home states —
perhaps even exceeded. That is why it is so important to both the
State and the nation that you gentlemen meeting here today move
forward with determination toward solving the problems that beset
the industry.

Although Maryland's history has been a maritime history, we were
late in recognizing many of the problems that have beset the industry
here. It was not until June of 1956 that the General Assembly of
this State met in special session to take full recognition of these prob-
lems. The Assembly in that year created the Maryland Port Authority,
a semi-autonomous public port agency designed to protect, promote
and develop the State's single greatest asset — the port of the Chesa-
peake Bay. Our Authority was created 20 years after the last authority
had been established in any other major port of the nation. But
while the legislation may have been late, it was not vague. Legislators
representing both city and rural areas directed that the Port Authority
should be charged with increasing the waterborne commerce of the

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