of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 83

With such traditions of independence and self-reliance, should we not
have reason to expect that Marylanders, above all other residents of this im-
mense land of the free, should be specially vigilant to protect inviolate the
heritage of freedom so nobly won for them by their gallant forebears? Should
be resolved to resist, at all costs, the threatened inroads of subversive doctrines
that have inundated so many of the lands of the world?

MILES RIVER REGATTA

August 5, 1939
St. Michaels

THE Maryland Regatta Season reaches its climax here on the beautiful
Miles River, during this colorful meeting in which we are privileged to
participate. As Governor of a State that has always been conscious of its
splendid heritage of tidewater and inland water resources, but which, I am
afraid, never has been and is not even now fully appreciative of the extra-
ordinary advantages showered upon it by Nature, I am particularly happy to
be here today and to play my little part in this spectacular and important
event.

Few States in America are as privileged as is Maryland in the extent
and the availability of its water sports and recreation areas. Nowhere else
in America, I -am told, does the desire for the more sporting types of water
activities find such ready and widespread expression as it does here in Mary-
land, up and down the Chesapeake Bay.

For the past several weeks it has been my good fortune to attend Regattas
at various points on the Eastern Shore, as well as to visit around with many
of my good friends on the other side of the Bay, at Solomon's Island and along
the Western Shore, so that I have had perhaps a better opportunity than does
the average citizen of our State, to get first-hand knowledge and appreciation
of the almost limitless expanse of beautiful water-frontage that is literally
"at our back doors. "

On my frequent trips ashore, however, I have been regretful at times to
note that a great proportion of the automobiles that were clogging the roads,
or parked near the hotels, were from Washington or Pennsylvania, from Dela-
ware or New Jersey. Not that we are not glad to welcome with the utmost
cordiality these visitors from other States, and to do everything we can to
persuade them to "keep coming" in even larger numbers.

The suspicion arises sometimes, though, that perhaps the rank and file of
the people of Maryland, unless they happen to live in a region adjacent to
the Bay or one of its many tributaries, do not fully realize how delightful a
section of the country this is, and do not enjoy it to the fullest. Certainly
the people of adjacent States, and of the District of Columbia, who flock here
in such numbers, have a very decided appreciation of Maryland's waterfront
possibilities; certainly such groups as the Chicago followers of Izaak Walton,
who came by special train to Annapolis to try their luck and skill in the
Chesapeake, know and appreciate what we, from close association, may have