The Bolivar County Democrat. (Rosedale, Miss.) 1887-1969, 1902-11-15
Our Great Stste.

| i ne foiiOWlng extract from an address
delivered by Auditor Cole before party
of Chicago capitalists, at Jackson, this
week, shows the wonderful advancement
of the state in recent years. MIR. Cole
said
Il have been accorded the honor of
presenting some statistics touching The
material and industrial advancement OF
Mississippi for the past three years.
That it il an honor will be shown by tile
facts and figures which I shall represent
and which will prove more eloquent than
any words could use.
"The increase in the assessed value of
the State of Mississippi for three years
is $50, ,713, 217. The total assessed val
uation is $24o, ,9s9, 1875. The state tax
levy is 6 mills, decrease of half mill
since 1900. Railroad mileage increased
in years 2e5 miles.
IA million dollar state house, nearing
completion, has been built and $500, 900
of per cent bonds were called in and
cancelled last year-(6ve years before
they were due, tie state being able to
exercise it's option), without issuing a
single dollar Of the million dollar bonds
authorized by the legislature of 1900.
Appropriations for educational pur-
poses for 1902, as compared with 1899
show an increase of $69e,79s, of which
$500, 1915 was for common schools and
1886, ,223 for colleges. Among her State
colleges Mississippi has both a white
and a colored agricultural and mechani-
cal college. At the white A. & M. col
lege there has recently been established
and is now In successful operation one Of
the most successful textile schools in the
world. Eleemosynary institutions have
received for the same period increased
appropriation of $11O,s99. while pen
sions paid by the state are $126,475
more than they were in 1899.
Thirteen thousand acres Of timber
land in the Yazoo Mississippi delta were
purchased by the state in 1900 for $780,
900; this land is 81 ldually being cleared
by part of the state convcts of whom
there are 1115; the other convicts in the
meantime working on other farms own
ed or leased by the state. Mississippi's
convicts are not only yselfsupporting and
humailely treated, but are covering
money into her treasury besides. This
year the net income from this source
will approximate $1Oo,o 900. When the
body of land just mentioned is in culti-
vation and properly organized, it will,
perhaps; be the finest and most profitable
Farm i'll the country, and will be worth.
not counting improvements, $10O. per
acre.
"The legislature of 1900 established
branch experimental station in the long
leaf piney woods section of the state
where extensive farming is being success
fully inaugurated on the lands from
which sawmlls are cutting the timber.
This station is i'll addition to the exper
mental station at the State Agricultu
raj College, which holds farmers insti-
tutes throughout the stateduring'the col
lege vacation each vear-these Institutes
being provided for by the Legislature.
"The prosperity Of the state govern
ment is but an index to the prosperity of
corporate and private enterprise. I'm
fortunately, Mississippi has no statisti-
clan, and there is no data on which to
predicate the number of new cotton
mills, oil mills, factories, gins or other
industries established within the last
three years, or the capital employed
therein 1t can be officially stated, how
ever that Mississippi has granted with
in the last three years more charters
than ever before in her history for any
similar period and that large proportion
of the concerns chartered are in success
tul operation, paying handsome divi-
dends, while some Of them are doubling
their capacity.
"The number of banks have increased
in the past three years from 92 to 12o,
up to July of this year.
"This does not include national banks,
a number of which have also been estnh-
lished. The capital, surplus, undivided
profits and deposits OF state banks show
phenomenal increases yearly, while The
average dividends paid for the years
1900, 1901 and 1902 are 11.1S, 11.S4
and 1920 per cent respectively"