The leader., 1900-01-24
Gov. LONGINO's INAUGURAL
Continued from and page.

Continued from end page.
the people. The law has all the while
been ample and rigorous in its penal
ties for crime: the judges have done
their full duty for the suppression of
mobs, while appeals to public opinion
in this behalf have been made by AZ
least three of the great religious de-
nominations of the State, respectively
in conference, synods and conventions.
and by the press as rule but all
have failed to bring apparent beneficial
results in that regard. Since then
moral persuasion fails to sufficiently
arouse the people to the danger and
enormity of the evil which is yearly
growing, resort seems necessary to
some stringent legal method to arouse
and move public opinion to more
vigorous assertion of its influence in
the premises. would. therefore.
recommend to the legislature the
wisdom and expediency of passing a
law giving to the family of any one
who may be hereafter lynched right
to recover in the chancery court a
fixed sum in damages against the
county wherein the lynching occurred.
Let the amount of said damages be
sufficiently large to engage public
opposition to the payment thereof and
let the right of recovery be predicated
alone upon the fact that the lynching
was done in the county where the re
covery is sought. II is not unusual
that prisoners are taken by mobs from
Jail and from the custody of the off
GERS without resistance and lynched.
! commend to the further serious con
slderation of the legislature the ex-
pediency of providing by law that the
office of sheriff or constable shall be
come vacant, ipse facto, whenever any
prisoner is taken from the jail or the
lawful custody of such officer or his
deputy and mobbed. In my judgment
the time and occasion are here for
some such stringent measure. and it
is to be hoped the legislature will
prove itself equal thereto
STATE FARM.
Mississippi has for a number of
years employed her convicts in farm
ing, from which source she has re-
ceived annually large net incomes of
money. By the employment also of
her own agents to control them and
to direct their labor, she has been
able to protect her prisoners from
undue severity of treatment. and in
both instances has proven the wisdom
of the farming system. The State now
owns several farms giving employment
to an inconsiderable number of her
convicts, but most of them, by far, are
worked on lands belonging to indi-
viduals, which have either been rented
by the board of control or worked on
shares, with profit both to the owners
of said lands and to the State. The
board of control. with Governor Me
Laurin as its president, in its report
to the present legislature. recon-
mended by unanimous vote, am ad-
vised, the purchase by the State of
tract of wild lands to be gradually
cleared by convicts in the Yazoo Mis-
sissippi delta of sufficient acreage to
enable the State ultimately to give
employment to all its prisoners. with
out the necessity of renting.
| commend this matter also to the
careful consideration of the legisla-
ture.
PUBLIC ROADS.
There is no public utility in Missis-
sippi offering benefits to more of her
people than good country roads. And
though it is fact which all will admit
on reflection, that a large part of the
farmers profit on their crops is lost
on account of wear and tear to wagons
and teams and loss of time because of
bad roads: yet, strange as it is, the
subject seems to engage only the
casual attention of the legislature and
people. Liability to indictment is
about the only incentive to road over
seers to keep the highways to which
they are assigned in repair, and OBJ
servation has shown that though the
public roads are usually in bad order
it is fact that punishment under the
law therefor is of rare occurrence
indeed. In my judgment the import