of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 37

But that is not all, because they find that Maryland people in the tidewater
counties are almost unanimously in favor of my proposal they have repeatedly
asserted that these people are politicians, who are indifferent to preserving
the State's natural resources. For my part, having the high regard for the
people of the tidewater counties that I do, I should prefer to believe that these
citizens are just as public-spirited and just as jealous for the preservation and
safeguarding of Maryland's possessions as is the Editor of the Baltimore
Evening Sun.

While one in a position such as mine desires to have the approval of all
interests, I really don't think their opposition is to be worried about. Certainly
it is not important enough for me to refrain from doing my duty in order
to secure it.

Few States in the country have a more diversified patrimony than Mary-
land has enjoyed. Not only have we the great wealth of sea products to be
found in our vast tidewater areas, but we have in addition hundreds of miles
of fresh water streams teaming with fish for the sportsmen; we have our
upland areas replete with wild life for the huntsman; we have present and
potential forest wealth whose future importance to our State can hardly be
overestimated; and in the mountainous western sections of the State, we have
areas of once-great importance that now present problems of pressing moment.

Unfortunately, the conditions of these various divisions of our natural
resources today are not at all satisfactory and the reason therefor is not far
to seek. In the past we have had these natural benefits in such great abun-
dance that they seemed almost inexhaustible, and very few among our citizens
and public officials have invoked measures to guard this great wealth, and to
insure its continuance on the grand scale to which we have been accustomed
to regard it. The result is that today we find our sea-food resources depleted
and rapidly getting worse; our inland fish and game enjoying a limited amount
of protection, but certainly not under the best regulation that could be pro-
vided; and our other natural resources no better.

Faced with the drear prospect of ultimate loss of our once-sacred heritage
an aroused citizenry has been making known its wishes these past few years,
that something be done about it all, done quickly, and done properly. And
in my campaign for election to this high office of the Governorship, I very
properly made the matter of Conservation one of great importance, and I
promised to see that something was done about it, done quickly and effectively.

As an instance of my attitude towards one phase of the problem, let me
quote from a public letter I sent on April 11, 1939, to Mr. J. Wesley Kelley,
Secretary of the Western Maryland Outdoor Life Federation. "I am absolutely
in favor of the separation of Chesapeake Bay conservation matters from those
pertaining to inland fisheries. It is my sincere belief that in order to restore
this important activity of our State to the high place it merits, the Governor of
Maryland should establish as a State policy the separate handling of tidewater
questions from those of inland fisheries. "

The matter of Conservation was uppermost in my mind when I conceived
the idea of appointing the Commission of which Dr. Bowman was Chairman.
So many ideas have been advanced from time to time with regard to the many
phases of conservation—most of them from organizations and persons who
unquestionably have only the best interests of the State at heart—but all of
them differing in many essential fundamentals, that I welcomed an opportunity