Household income has gone down. Seven million more Americans do not have medical insurance. Another 3 million manufacturing jobs lost. The number of foreclosures doubled last year. Gas prices doubled. College costs are exploding. Health care costs are skyrocketing. Deficit and debt are out of control.
The J. W. Somerville launched in 1919. A whistle blew signaling the launch. Businessmen hung their closed signs, and large crowds hurried to the river to attend the christening of the new vessel. As the whistle blew, men began sawing the framework supporting the James W. Somerville. Passengers boarded the ship from tall ladders. George Marshall, a Black minister, presided over all Mayor E. J. Tull's ship christenings. A family member or a friend of the owner christened the boat, and the owner provided refreshments for all.
In the good old days women wore dresses and climbed thirty feet on a ladder to attend a ship launch. In the good old days, the husband and father left for two weeks or a month in the most prosperous households to ship produce, lumber, seafood or at best pineapples from the Bahamas. Pocomoke City shipped 1,300,000 bushels of Irish potatoes and 2,500,000 bushels of sweet potatoes.
In 1921, Pocomoke City National Bank reported substantial profit in one of the best and most profitable years in the history of the institution. Citizen's National Bank reported paying liberal dividends and carrying a substantial sum to its surplus fund in one of the best years in the business's history.
The Baltimore Chesapeake Atlantic Railway discontinued steamships loaded to the guardrails with freight on the Pocomoke River by January 1921. In 1921, there was no demand for white or sweet potatoes. Isolated fires occurred in 1921. A grocery store burned. The bakery burned and was rebuilt. No steamboats on the river, no demand for potatoes, and isolated fires in 1921 were symbolic of the end of Mayor E. J.'s life, the economic decline to follow, and the total devastation of downtown Pocomoke in the 1922 fire.
Southern Maryland wants idyllic rural life. Seventy-five percent of all jobs in this country and nearly 50% of the total U.S. gross domestic product come from small businesses with less than 25 employees.
Governor Martin O'Malley emailed that the State of Maryland is one of six states selected by the National Governors Association to promote Innovative Clusters and Regional Economies. Senator Mikulski chairs a subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland has great influence. Steny Hoyer and Barbara Mikulski intend to partner with the private sector and the public sector to maximize benefits to Marylanders.
Thomas S. Lyons, Ph.D., University of Michigan, registered a model for fostering entrepreneurs regionally. The challenge is to develop a supply of highly skilled entrepreneurs capable of transforming the regional economy. A way to do it is to meet the technical and financial assistance needs of the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial skills include technical skills, managerial skills, entrepreneurial skills, and personal maturity skills. Technical Skills are the ability to do the work, perform the business operations. Managerial Skills include the ability to organize and hire employees to attain business goals. Entrepreneurial Skills are the ability to identify opportunities and create solutions. Personal maturity skills are accountability, ethical, emotional, and creative development. The goal is to develop a supply of highly skilled entrepreneurs capable of building successful companies in sufficient numbers to transform the region's economy.
The Maryland Small Business Development Center Network (MDSBDC) provides individual counseling—at no cost to the client—to assist in developing and refining business plans, solving specific problems, locating capital and brainstorming innovative strategies to support growth and profitability. John Hickman, Faculty Director of the Small Business Development Center of Salisbury University offers training programs for all stages of small business development. Free online courses are available at www.salisbury.edu/sbdc. Free online courses teach starting a new business, managing finances, the foundations of marketing.
In the good old days, men and women worked happily with their peers cleaning, slicing, and canning tomatoes at Campbell's Soup. Others cleaned, canned, or shipped vegetables from Birdseye. Remember the good old days when a young man could earn $1 per day learning shipping to and from the Bahamas?
The departure of a big schooner excited most Pocomoke kids, who welcomed the arrival or hastened the departure of the ships. Children ran up to the ships that arrived from Florida to get a banana or orange and hear stories of the deep sea, whales, porpoises, serpents, and sharks.