40 State Papers and Addresses

tion Commission and who have failed or neglected to enforce the laws and, by
supplanting them with persons who will do so, this phase of the problem can
and will be corrected.

Under the separation of the division of inland fisheries and upland game,
the program contemplates that all monies received from the sportsmen through
fees and licensing are not to be diverted to other uses but shall be used solely
in the support of the activities and functions of the commission including the
propagation of game and fish.

Let me stress another all-important fact. The handling of the respective
phases of Conservation is going to be just as good or just as bad as the people
who are selected for the commissions. I intend to appoint persons of character,
experience and ability to these important places just as I have appointed out-
standing" and well-qualified persons to positions of responsibility, since I have
been Governor.

In closing let me again state to you that which I so frequently stated
during the recent campaign, namely, so long as I am Governor of Maryland
I shall not permit anyone to dictate to me whether it be politicians, organiza-
tion or newspaper but shall make my own decisions based upon the best judge-
ment of which I am capable. In this matter of Conservation which has been
so unfairly publicized, I have not yielded to the pressure or importunities of
either politicians or newspapers and the program which I have briefly outlined
represents my honest and sincere judgment of what is in the interest of the
State and for the good of its people.

THE HIBERNIAN SOCIETY

Emerson Hotel, March 17, 1939
Baltimore

MY friends of the Hibernian Society—I have been privileged to be with
you on numerous previous happy occasions, to join with you in paying
homage to the memory of our great Patron Saint. Tonight, however, the
occasion affords me the added happiness of being with you not only as one
of you, but also as your Governor. For there has always been, to my way of
thinking, such a marked kinship of spirit between the Free State of Ireland
and the Free State of Maryland, that it seems only fitting and proper that
at last one of the "Macs and the O s" should be at the head of the State to
which so many eminent Irishmen have contributed so lavishly in the more than
300 years of its history.

Now, as your Governor, but more particularly as one who always will be
proud of the Irish blood that flows in my veins, as one who treasures fondly
the splendid traditions that are the priceless heritage of every true descendant
of the Sons of Erin, I bid you "The top of the evening, " and assure you that
tonight, as we are gathered for our annual tribute to Patrick the Apostle of
Ireland, I can bring you the good wishes of every citizen of this great State,
irrespective of nationality, or creed or color.

It is, indeed, a remarkable tribute to those of Irish blood, that on this day,
which we set apart to the memory of Ireland's renowned religious leader, so