The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1866-09-20
state Publishing House.

AA"Ah WIN wv ShSENoNAVhS Va NNa NN'
temporary, and we should like yer
much to see in operation such an es
tablishment as the one proposed
'NWhether located at Holly Springs
Grenada, Oxford, Columbus, Meridian
Jackson, Vicksburg, Natchez, or an.
other point in Mississippi is inmate
rial. Under proper management, a
either point, it would not only prov,
creditable, but eventually profitable tC
the State.
We cann0t see, however, that oul
State has the ability, just now, to EN-,
bark in such an enterprise, however
laudable and praiseworthy it may be.
An outlay of two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, or any sum approx
imating that amount, cannot now be
spared for such a purpose. Our State.
it must be admitted, is in very i'm
pOverished condition. 1t will take
years to recuperate. 1t will require
great patience, and the exercise of all
our energies before we can regain any
thing like our former prosperity. 1t
will require heavy taxes for years to
rebuild our public institutions, to de
fray the ordinary expenses of govern
ment, and to meet all the financial de-
mands which a Radical Congress, by
Freedmens Bureaus, and other iniqui-
tous measures, may require at our
hands. We cannot, therefore, as n
State, afford, for years to come, to in
dulge in luxuries or experiments. We
have sacred obligations to discharge
to the living and the dead. We have
at least ten thousand widows and or
phans in Mississippi who need bread,
and to whom the paltry sum of sixty
thousand dollars now in the Treasury,
will afford scarcely mouthful. Yet,
considering the ability of the people,
it was deemed by our Legislature, a
fair and liberal appropriation. There
is want and destitution within our bor-
ders that cries loudly for help. The
homes of thousands of our fallen
braves have becoEe the dreary abodes
of hunger, dependent for relief upon
the cold and uncertain charities of the
public. If our State has quarter of
a million to invest, let it be applied in
this direction, and let the project of
State Publishing House be postponed
until we are better able to inaugurate
and sustain it.
The proposition of the Reporter, al
though it may not be practicable to
carry into effect at present, as State
affair, is at least very suggestive, and
we hope may induce some of our pub
ic spirited capitalists to invest in such
an enterprise. Let books of subscrip-
ion be opened, a charter of incorpora- /
ion be applied for, and let us com
mence the good woak of encouraging |
and building up a home literature
from our own presses. We never will |
be truly Independent people until we
lpply ourselves more industriously to
.he development of all our varied and
abundant resources in the department /
Of literature, as well as in agricultural
md mechanical pursuits. We must
earn to rely upon ourselves, and we
must learn and exercise the duty of
sustaining home enterprises of every
sort. Let us abandon the suicidal
policy of sending North for all that we |
wear, all that we eat, and for all that
We read. Let us cease taxing ourselves
o support the factories and publishing
louses of Old England and New Eng
and, aud wherever we can spend a
lollar at home let it be retained here.
All branches Of the mechanic arts in
bur State are crippled and discouraged
~ an indisposition on the part of the
public 20 sustain them. In times not
ong ago we have known merchants to
send out of the State for cotton cloth,
when a better article of home produc-
ion, could be purchased at lower fig
lres. And we fear the experience of
the past four years has had but little |
to induce reform in this par
ticular As publishers, we aud all |
other conductors of the press in Mis-
sissippi, have especial cause to com
plain Of the evils and injustice Of such
4 policy Because, forsooth, we may
not have the facilities to do work as
cheap OF as neat as establishments in
New York and Boston, the pamphlets,
re catalogues, the circulars, the bill
Is and the cards Of many Of our
al and business men must
sent to those and other
in return for which
ect. Of course. to