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

in 1891 more than double the mile
age which had been built in all the
years preceding 1880, to-wit, 2,47l
miles.
4 The people of Mississippi saw fit,
! in 1890 to adopt a new Constitution,
and have since made laws Hereunder
with respect to railroad and other cor
porations, which are, to put the case
mildly, repellant to capital. AS con-
sequence, we find that in 1899 (the
/ last year for which the Interstate Com
merce Commission .. tie Commission
of the State of Mississippi have pub
| lished figures), there were but 2,788
miles of railroad. The State now ranks
1 twenty eighth in the mileage Of rail
roads in operation, the increase during
( the last nine years, under the changed
policy of the State, being 317 miles, or
/ 1888 per cent, as against 1,343 miles,
or 1917 per cent, in the previous de-
cade Most of the mileage added since
1890, indeed nearly all of it, is now
operated by one or other Of the old
companies.
The Constitution of 1890 prohibited
/ the granting Of legislative charters to
business corporations and required
/ them to be incorporated under general
laws. The effect has been that since
| 1890 only eleven railroad companies
have been so organized; eight of these
seem to have done nothing and the
/ other three have built about twenty
/ five miles apiece.
If you will pardon a word of criti-
/ cism from one who despite his large
| and abiding interest in, is not a citizen
of Mississippi, let me suggest that, in
the making of such laws before the
/ State had obtained all the
railroads and all the banks and
all the factories which it needs.
That such institutions and corpora
tiOns should be regulated by law goes
without saying. The Northern and
Western States have, however, been
prudent enough to obtain their rail
ways, their banks and their factories
before legislating against them. They
have not gone out Of their way to
make regulations which have repealed
capital, and thereby prevented and de-
layed the material development of
their own resources. To her great and
]
adopted all the restrictive legislation
of the older States, which now have
| no special need to invite foreign
capital by encouraging the develop
| ment of corporate enterprises.
That the necessity of attracting for
/ eign capital into the State is now ap-
preciated by your public men is evident
/ from the inaugural address delivered
/ by the present Governor, the Hon. A.
H. LOngino, on January 16, 1900, and
/ from his many public utteranCes and
writings.
From conversations and correspond
| ence with the Governor, l am weu oan-
| yd9GeAdb iii 4h hbB6d del ertWi8fd ta,dn al
terial development of the State. His
recent Good Roads Proclamation" is
in point
That the cost per ton to a railroad,
| of carrying freight diminishes as the
volume increases, is automatic.
The staple crop of Mississippi is cot
ton, of which about 1S5 pounds of lint,
! and say twice as much more, $40
pounds, Of seed, have in the United
States, been, on the average, produced
in each of the last twenty years. This
yields all told, sos pounds per acre.
The staple crop Of Iowa and other
Northern States, is corn, of which
about 25 bushels, weighing Sc pounds,
or in all 400 pounds per acre, are
produced annually.
That is to say, the potentia! tonnage
annually grown per acre in Mississippi
is less than four-tenths Of that grown
per acre in Iowa.
Moreover, in 1890, the area of i'm.
proved land in farms in Iowa was
25,42S,S99 acres, as against 6,S49,39O
acres in Mississippi.
These conditions greatly and per
manently restrict the volume of the
local business of your railroads, the
receipts from which form, as is well
known, the life blood of railroad reyen'
ues.
Traffic in Mississippi is further di
minished by the absence of minerals OF
all kinds. Irrespective of coal hauled
for the company's consumption, the
Illinois Central Railroad last year car
ried as freight for others, 5,593,67t
tons of coal and coke. None of this
consumed, in Mississippi. You will bet
ter appreciate the magnitude of oul
coal tonnage when | say that il
weighed greatly more than twice as
much as did the entire cotton crop OF
the United States, which amounted tc
9,439,559 bales, weighing 2,377315
tons.
A knowledge of the radically diff
ferent conditions surrounding railroad
business in Mississippi, and in the
Northern States, led us. more than
twenty years ago, to promote the di
versifcation of crops by inducing fruit
culture, mixed farming and stock
raising Attention was also given
from the start to developing the lum
ber trade, thereby converting the for
ests, which had numbered the ground
from time immemoHal to mans use
and profit.
Other railroads throughout the State
have done and are doing the same
thing
The results are that wherever
something besides cotton is raised, anc
particularly where standing timber is
converted into lumber and other use
full articles of wooden ware, the towns
and hamlets are thriving roads anC
bridges are built and improved, ant
the people are prospering as never be
fore.
Another thing, which has, within the
= past ten years, happened, to the in
estimable and lasting good of the State
; is the breaking up of the old custom
of planting cotton on credit; that is
. of having the cotton factors of New
. Orleans, Memphis and Mobile, find
or finance for the farmers.
Figure 1t as you may, the charges
made by these gentlemen-includinl
, commissions on buying mules, plowi
and supplies, on selling the crop, ant
the discounts deducted on notes giver
! amounted to well over twenty pei
cent. per annum on the money, or the
|, money value, actually furnished by
the factor to the farmer.
No Northern State has ever stood
or is productive enough to stand, sucf
charge throughout a series of years
| and yet the South generally, and par
tieularly Mississippi after four year:
of war, followed by ten years of mis-
. rule, did, throughout generation
under these circumstances, subsist an(
grow This bears the strongest testi
mony possible to the fertility of thu
soil and the capacity Of the people O.
Mississippi to work, endure and con
quer.
The factors credits began to be gen
orally withdrawn after the panic o.