The leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1895-1905, 1904-04-09
FOR GREA TER MISSISSIPPI
Items Of Industrial Interest GaneJ From All Over the State
Notes and Comments
BY q. E. BLAKEsLEE.

Are there people in your neighbor-
hood who look with disfavor and sus-
picion upon every suggestion for inn
provement and progress? Do they get
out their little hammers and begin to
knock every move to make the coun-
try better and more prosperous? Al.
most every community has them. Lay
off fair sized section of ground and
begin at once to plant them so deep
that nothing can possibly be heard
from them in the future. 1t is pass
ing strange why some men are SO con-
stituted. They can never see good in
anything until after 1t has been tried
and made success of by their more
sensible and to be desired neighbors
Conservative men are still going to
mill with rock in one end of the
sack and blowing with a forked limb.
The men who get there are too often
termed drastic or strenuous by their
phlegmatic neighbors. Then, too, men
who make their life an effort in one
direction are generally called chimer.
ical. The man who sees great and
wonderful changes for the good in q
direction that is beyond the short'
sightedness of his less enthusiastic fell
low-men, is characterized as possess
ing and riding hobby. From just
such characters as are described
above, however, have come the results
that made our nation.
Woodyille organizes a broom fac
tory this week and great preparations
will be made to sweep things clean
down in that section Of the State.
The broom corn will be grown at home
and the trust will be defied when the
price of corn is put beyond all, rea-
son. Every section of Mississippi will
grow the best broom corn, and we
hope to see the day when all our
people will, at least, raise enough
corn to make brooms for home con-
sumption. 1t ought to be a profitable
crop. At the prevailing prices for
broom corn, an acre of ordinary land
will easily produce one hundred dol
lars worth. The care of it is not so
I'complicated and irksome. Not nearly
SO much so as cotton.
The Industrial and immigration de.
partmert of the Illinois Central rail-
way continues to get in it's good work.
The colony of Chicago laborers to To-
cate at Wellman is the result of their
efforts. By putting the advantages Of
our State before the people of the
North and West in the proper light
this department has been largely in
strumental in developing and populat-
ing the territory contiguous to its
lines. Much credit in general way
is due the splendid organization main
tanned by this system and which has
done SO much good work to help the
State, as we'll as in the interests of
the road.
The Yazoo Sentinel has figured out
that the cotton crop of Mississippi
more than all the gold and silver
mined in the United States. Then
this does not take into consideration
the other crops that were raised and
marketed. We have one of the best
States in the Union, and all that is
necessary to make it better is for
every man, woman and child in it to
talk and work for it.
The showing made during the last
month by capital placed in new banks
may be a good one from a bankers
standpoint, but from the general view,
it is not so good. The amount in
vested in banks, if put in manufacture
ing enterprises, would likely have
made the investors as much or bigger
dividends, and would have been worth
many times more to the country in
general. What Mississippi needs
most is more manufactures and the
opening and development of her land.
There are resources here to keep up
ten times, or more, the population
that we have.
Several towns in the State make
cloth from cotton, Water Valley and
West Point make thread to sew it to.
gether WITH Aberdeen makes the but.
tons and Corinth puts it together and
sends it out to the world. This is
not bad showing for Mississippi.
When we can make the crude ma
terial, manufacture it into goods,
make the accessories and put them to-
gether ready for use, we have accom-
P1AoAOo oOkACkA1hS IAdI Observation-Disclosures
can't do. Great is Mississippi.
1t now transpires that the cold spell
CT few days since did not do any
thing like the damage which was at
first reported. While the young crops
were undoubtedly set back some, only
in rare case were they killed. The
fruit was large enough to withstand
a pretty cold spell and weathered the
storm handsomely. The prospect for
fruit and vegetable crop is still good.
When Uncle Sam looks over the re-
ceipts of the various postoffices in his
domain again, he will find old Mis-
sissippi to the front with two candi-
dates for first-class consideration. Re-
ceipts at the Jackson and Vicksburg
offices have gone beyond the mark re-
CURED for first-class offices. They
will be pushed up notch then.
Other offices in the State have made
great gains and will be advanced, but
these are the only two clamoring for
the top of the ladder.
Never before in the history of the
States has there been SO much i'm
provement in the way of municipal
light, water and sewer plants Not a
week passes that some town or city
does not make the break for better
facilities along these lines. Then, too,
innumerable school and other public
buildings are going up. This is in
dicative of new spirit that has taken
hold of our people and augurs well
for them in the future.
Jones county will have fair asso.
citation and will hold its first fair this
fall. While these organizations rarely
make any direct money for the pro-
motors. they prove a great stimulus
to the production of better crops and
the raising Of higher grade of stock.
The benefit is hard to compute, as it
Is a permanent one. If every county
had fair there would be better stock
and more intense farming.
AS an evidence of the wonderful
growth of number of towns in the
southern section of the State, atten>
As<H,a L. Id a.. q