The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-06
STREAM OF REVENUE
MISSISSIPPI OFFICIALS WHO
 CONTRIBUTE TO TREASURY.
Progress Toward Time When the Masses Will Have No Burden bearing in Support of
 State Government.

Jackson, Miss, Cor, Memphis Commer-
 cial-Appeal.
 If anyone should suggest the possibility of a government that would he self-sus- tainng, or rather self-supperting. without the aid of taxation of the masses. the scheme would doubtless be set down as Utopian and not worth the idle time con- sumed in it's conception; yet Mississippi certainly seems to be making some pro- gress in this direction, as appears from the extraordinary showings of the vart- ous department reports for the biennial period just closed.
 Years ago, when a legislative inves1- gating committee corroborated the wild rumors of inhuman cruelty practiced on the 'convicts and disclosed the chamber of horrors that existed inside the prison walls, it was resolved to keep the con- victs under State control. The present farm system was the result, and the Mis- sissippi penitentiary' has been converted from a debit to a credit and Is now an annual source of revenue to the State, and the various officials employed in the management of that institution are no longer a charge upon the State treasury.
 During the past two years the peniten- tiary has paid into the State treasury, as net revenue. over and above the pri- son expenses, $18,771.7o. During the last fiscal year the amount paid in was only about $700 greater than the year previ- ous, but over AooOo had been paid out for @ new farm.
 The State revenue agent is also self sustaining office and one that has proven an enormous source of revenue to the State during the past two fiscal years. From this source the treasury of Missis- sippi received for the two years $S4S,- 151 30.
 The office of State Land Commissioner has also proven a most remunerative one to the State during the past biennial period. The report of this officer shows that he has collected enough fees to pay the expenses of his department. and that the State treasury has received from his hands the sum of $1S5. 661.3S.
 The report of the Secretary of State is not yet ready for publication. but 1t has been repeatedly published since the new charter fee bill went into effect that the office was yielding a handsome revenue derived from this source, many thousands of dollars in excess of its expenses. When the next legislature meets and the eyes of the provident lawmakers are made to bulge from their sockets at sight of these figures, all sorts of money-gettins i schemes will doubtless enter their heads and the question will naturally suggest itself. if these departments are yielding each revenue to the commonwealth why may not all departments be made to do likewise? The question at first glance appears to be a reasonable one ,only q question of economy and financial in- genuity. And then when in his fond imagination, the provident lawmaker sees stream of gold pouring into the State treasury from all these various sources and sees a vast surplus left over nffAR O ha nfn to and all her affairs are economically and satisfactorily administered. will not his fancy run rampant in these Utopian fields until he sees the sturdy citizens of the commonwealth hastening with happy faces to the treasury vaults, unbent by the burden of taxation. not to swell its store with the tiths of his daily earn ings. but to draw a stipend from his States bountyf