Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1901-06-22

OF MISSISSIPPI are very beHcid any Vu'
Of debt. Many parts OF the state nov
enjoy the blessings Of mixed farming
and fruit culture. under which crops
are marketed during the spring and
summer months, thus furnishing the
cash with which the cotton crop IL
now so largely grown.
The development Of the material re-
sources Of Mississippi seems to me at
least to have been retarded by the
I following causes:
/. Slavery. This created great
family estates. constituting complete
civil communities in themselves, and
thereby making unnecessary, II not also
! impossible, that concert of effort which
so largely, through joint stock com.
panies and the aggregation OF small
( individual contributions into the vast
corporate capital, long since furnished
the North with it's banks, factories
turnpikes, canals, railroads and other
active agencies of commerce, and mas
kept them agrowing.
2. The Reputation by Mississippi
of its bonds in 1841, and again in 1852.
\ OF this your historians say:
There can be no question that the
Reputation of the Union Bank bonds,
4 followed eleven years later by the for
nal reputation of the Planters Bank
/ bonds by the votes of the people, has
proved to have been a most expensive
! luxury to every citizen of Mississippi
engaged in any kind Of business"
"The reputation Of the bonds was
an undeniable blunder, and blunder,
\ according to Talleyrand, is worse
/ than crime" "a History Of Miss
issippi, Second Edition, Lowry & Nc
Cardle, PIP. 292-293. See also p. 338)
8. The four years Of Civil Strife.
4. The ten following years Of Mis-
rule.
5. The general almost universal,
practice among your best born, best
/ educated and best equipped young men
/ of confirming their efforts to the learn
ed professions instead of qualifying
| themselves for and embarking in com
mercial, manufacturing and other dis
| tinctively productive pursuits.
6. The extent to which these highly
gifted and educated young men have
/ settled in the great cities of the North
and the West, and there made fortunes
and regulations which now tie them
to their adopted homes and cut them
off from that Of their birth.
Z. The restrictive policy embodied
! in your Constitution Of 1890, and in
the laws since passed in respect to
corporations.
/ s. The absolute control of all civil
Offices and all political power by one
/ party. ever since the enfranchisement
Of the State from the blighting effects
Of Carpet Bag Rule" in 1876.
Touching this last, you know | am
neither a politician nor a partisan,
4 and yet | can't help saying that while
such domination by the Democratic
party was a necessity, that necessity
ceased with the disfranchisement of
/ the more grossly ignorant elements of
/ the population. Nor can | help think
| ing that there are today, in Mississippi
and throughout the South, thousands
of intelligent, honorable and active
men who would, on strictly National
/ issues, gladly support the Republican
party (under which, after all, the Ma
! tion has prospered and is prospering),
if only they could retain full liberty
I to control their own local affairs and
! their State policies, as to them may
| seem best, without dictation from
| Washington or elsewhere. For this,
! tAi->-. -. rIpe UutH at 1ro -Fo.s'- - -
Senators from South Carolina have
rendered their designations, in order
| to Join issue on wha' is substantially
/ the question here stated.
No State in the Union is more favor
ed than Mississippi in the fertility OF
its soil, in the value of its standing
timber, or, above all, in the quality OF
its men, their almost absolutely pure
American blood and their descent from
those who went to make up the best
of it, What, then, is lacking to the
Material Development of the State?
If 1t had been given me to say few
words of suggestion to the young men
whom you are about to graduate and
send on their journey through life, 1
would have cast them about as follows:
Alike for the sake of the good name
of the State, and from mOtiUes Of en-
Hghtened SeT-intereSt, sec to it that
the stigma of Reputation be remOUed
by making tcith the creditors Of the
state. such honorable settlement as
they may be lrilling to freely accept.
(While on this point, it is due to my
self to say that | do not own, nor do
| know any one who does own, single
bond Of the State of Mississippi, except
ing only the Trustees Of the Peabody
Educational Fund. Moreover, the
Illinois Central Railroad Company and
the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Rail-
road Company are, and have been for
many years, probably ever since they
began operating railroads in the State,
the largest payers of taxes in Mississ-
ippi. 1t will, therefore, be on their
shoulders that the heaviest part of the
burden which l now invite, will fall)
would say: Look fOrtcdrd and not
backward Be mindful Of your otcn
future and that Of yonr children, for
Goth of tChiCh you are responsible, Let
the dead past bury its dead. As Col
Henri WdtterSOn said some tlCO or
three gears ago, at is high time that
the South stopped feeding on Cob
trebS."
Instead of further OUerStocbing the
learned professions, turn your lcell
trained minds to the Development Of
the udSt latent resources Of your OtCR
fdvOred land. Bring to bear upon
commercial, manufacturing. and iChGt
are nOtO called business pursuits, the
iCedHb of Inherited and acquired in
tellectUdl capacity NTH irhich it has
pleased God TO endotU you. Be mindful
that TO you much has been giren and
that Of you mach tpiH be required. Do
not l0rdp your talent in a napkin and
Oury it in the ground Of Sloth and idle
COnteRtmeRt.
| would say with Horace Greeley:
Young man, 90 West bUt / ioould not
add, as he did, and gr0p up icith the
country" No, icould rather add.
Find out iphGt Of good there is in the
West, lphich has igithin a generation
made desert blossom US the rose.
Solue that riddle. bring the secret bdGk
to the far more fdU0reG land in lchich
you had the fortune to be born, and
apply it Nth energy and perseverance.
and doubt not as to the outcome, alike
for yourself and for the State,
And, finally. | would say: Combine
yOur capital ftohich mag not be ia
money but consist of far more potent
and Udludble things, such as education,
character, capacity perseverance and
honesty of purpoSej, Nth the cdpitdi
OF others, and, for their sake and yours
and the good of the State. make conf
mon cause for mutual profit In
Union there is strength" Or as the