The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-12-22
VOLUME XLVI.
MISSISSIPPI MATTERS,
By ]. L. POWER.

NOTES OF PAST AND CURRENT EVENTS
ulss,.sippl Coming to tho Front.


mississippi Coming to tho Front.
Gov. A. II. Longino had an excellent op-
portunity Of saying good word for his
State at the Southern Industrial Conven-
t;on in New Orleans, and he said it in fine
style.
Being called upon to respond for my
State. forming part Of this association,
and which hopes to benefit from the re-
suits of its deliberations, it seems proper
that make some reference to matters Of
public concern to that State.
may say in this connection that as
q Mississippian am proud of many Of
the facts and features that help to make
her record of Statehood. Nature has been
we'll nigh prodigal in its gifts to her of a
virgin, fertile soil adapted to the produc-
ton Of almost everything known to any
zone, with which to feed and clothe man.
kind, and for the information of any who
may desire to make business verifica.
ton of the character and products OF
Mississippi's soil / bid them to go to the
great Yazoo- Mississippi delta, whose rich.
ness of soil is uDexcelled anywhere per
haps IN the world, and whose forest
sbounds in all manner of hard wood, and
with cottonwood, cypress, persimmon
red gum and many Others.
Crossing from there east is to be found
as magnificent stretch of forest valley
and plain as can be found anywhere un.
til is reached the broad prairies of North.
east Mississippi, which rival in beauty
fertility and scenery the famous prairies
of our great West; travelling thence
south, covering more than half the State
to the beautiful Gulf coast, can be seen
the largest unculled yellow pine forestries
now perhaps left in the United States, and
soil which responds readily and profita.
bly, to fertilization, and climate com.
parable to sunny Italy.
am proud also OF the record the State
has made in the education of her sons
and daughters.
Approaching the fact that the success
of republic depends upon, and is meas
ured largely by, the enlightenment and
intelligence Of its citizens, Mississippi
now maintains in whole or in part by do
nations from her treasury State uni
versity, an agricultural and mechanical
college for whites and another for the
negroes, an industrial college for white
girls, State normal for negroes, and am
pie free schools for all without reference
to color, thus giving collegiate, industria
and common school education free to hun
dreds of her boys and girls yearly.
am proud also to say that l speak
here today for State whose bonded pay
able indebtedness does not exceed il
round numbers 81 ,0OO,0 900, and though it.
last Legislature made liberal appropria
tions, exceeding those of former years
giving to her colleges $272,534, hospital,
and other charitable institutions $3.50,
9ls, disabled and poor Confederate vet
Grams $l50,000, public free schools 81 900,
600, other worthy objects 1897 ,976, max
ing the handsome yearly total of So, ITO,
42S, exclusive of the 81 100000 appropri
.ated for a new Statehouse.
l am glad, however, to say that tn,
assessment rolls for 1900 show an increas
in property valuation over last assess
ment of nearly twenty-eight millions
and yet with the increased appropriation
aforesaid and a reduction of the tax lev,
for the year, the State has ample mean
with which to meet all expenditures, an,
1t is confidently believed that it will re
ceive from the ordinary sources of rev
enue ample funds, not only for defrayin,
current expenses of the government, bu
for the erection Of our new million-dolla
Statehouse as well, without sale OF tn
bonds authorized by the building act.
As Mississippian l am proud of he
citizenship, and may add that while sh
can claim but few millionaires, and n
large cities, she has what is better an,
more important to the happiness an
well-r0unded success Of any community
pamely, an earnest, intelligent, self-sus
tanning white yeomanry, by whom in tn
main honesty and virtuous manhood
honored and upheld, while trSachery, ty
ranny and dishonesty in all their form
are eschewed and condemned by publ
opinion.
While doting, however, upon the rect
tude of her citizenship, the status of he
social and governmental affairs, an
while true, perhaps, that no other Stat
posses territory richer in resources
more varied in products, more magnif
cent in soil and climate or better adapte
to the diversifcation of all manner of CT
terprises calculated to give to the sectio
. many-sided and powerful development
yet the splendid advantages, commo
alike to several of the Southern States
have not heretofore been properly apprt
ciated and utilized by the application
thereto Of labor and capital.
We are, therefore, very far in the rea
ct the procession Of the States in tn
matter Of industrial development an
progress.
But we come now to that point whic
marks the dividing line between the el
piring century and the new one, whic
new era already begins to look more a
Turing in its hopes and its possibilitie
than the old.
Let this convention by the wisdom {
ats proceedings write it down in histor
that the South, with this convention, b.
gins to profit by the errors of the pas
and that the States, like Mississippi
which have heretofore been the laggard
in industrial and material development
shall soon take their proper places alon
by the side Of their sister States OF Geo
gia and the Carolinas In the mannfactur
Of cotton and other products peculiar I
our soil and climate, and with Tennesse
ksatucky, Kansas, Illinois and Missou