The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1883-10-04
'.Eour Years in the South. -

zine afflcie pnDllsDed IN the
Times Democrat on Sept. 2, under
the caption of -Four Years in the
Sputh,' showing the progress made
between 1879 aud 1883, was Il reve-
lation to the world, which, whilo it
knew that the Southwestern and
Gulf States had prospered, was
scarcely prepared for such an in-
crease of wealth and development of
resources as we here showed, ~
In making Il il comparison, we dc
pended not having the Auditors
reports of these State close at hand,
for the as sessments of Louisiana and
Mississippi in 1879 upon Spofford's
Ame9ic0a 1ln0aGc, which has gem
orally been considered reliable
authority in matters OF ofstatistics and
whose figures on this sui jeet bad
never been denied or corrected Un-
luckily here, the Almanac was not
to be trusted, and the result was
that Louisiana and Mississippi did
not appear to have increased Their
assessment ike their sister States of
the South. In other words. while
our figures for these States in 1888
we're correct, those for 1879 were
no so, and the comparison between
these two years, therefore, was less
favorable than it should have been.
Thus, Spofford reports the assess"
ment of Mississippi in 1879 as S5I29,
30S, ,345, whereas it was really $l06,-
59f,7OS; while Louisiana instead Of
being 09.3Gl;402 in 1879, as the
Almdaac dociaref, was ms we have
already shown, $15S 587,l05.
These corrections, of course, i'm
prove the favorable showing for tho
South, and mako the increase ia as
seBsments in this section since 1879
oven groafer than we first reported
them. The total of This increase in
four year, instead of being $494,,
$40, G68, is S5G5 324 522, and may be
even larger, for the returns coming
in from various counties, espt claliy
in Mississippi, are more favorable
than had been expected.
Our statistics showing the immense
crops gathered in the South the
miles OF railroad built, and all the
improvements of this section were
flttering indeed The only amend
ment to be mado to our article is by
decreasing the assessments of LOnis
lana and Mississippi in 1890 make
the increase since then larger, or
$5G6, 324 522, an improvement in
wealth ut the rate Of Sl42, ,0Sl, ,l30
annually Those Northern papers
which accepted The former figures as
showing au Extraordinary develops
ment, II wonderful industrial pros
gress, will he perhaps astonished at
learning that we upderestimMed in
stead uf exoegoraied the growth in
-Four Years in the South IN q
r. d
Tho Times Democrat though IN
tending TO be fair does not yet do
the State of lI;ssissippi juslioe, for
it says-speaking of Mississippi and
Louisiana-"wh.lo our figures for
those States in 1883 were correct,
those for 1879 we're not go Now
we respectfully submit that the
Times did uot have in its possession
aud did not use any figures indi-
cuting the assessment of Mississippi
in 1888, aud that at the time of the
publication referred. to there were nc
returns for 1883 in the hands of the
Auditor of our State. In suggest
ing the correction that it endeavoreC
to make, we furnished it with more
and better data than it could have
obtained elsewhere at the time-iol
the Auditor only supplies oficia
matter-but it preferred making the
onlen9o in its own way and we sup.
pose we will have to take what We
can get and be thankful, regardless
of the result e-7.
Now the truth Of the matter il
that the total given for 1883 by th(
It'd, was the result OF the assess
ment, in 1881, while the total fol
1882, which amounted to 1926
0G0, though never officially published
by the Auditor, would have been aI
freely furnished to our New Orleans
contemporary us to MS, and wa'
rendered by us to the I'D.
Tie assessment for 1888, wbicl
involves a new listing of the lands
a thing that is done only once in foul
years IN Mlssisslppi-wlll show al
advance in values since 1879 of a
least twenty five millions of dollars
Notwithstanding the enormous OK
emplions from assessment, allowed
by statute to every tax payer in the
State.
IT is sometimes generally mos
always the case that the men who ar,
running the weakest political chebans
do the most talking. In fact where