The Tupelo journal., 1905-04-07

continue in the work of getting good
families to come to Mississippi.
Poplarville and Lumberton have
joined forces in the boring of an eight
inch artesian well and the contract is
being advertised. The people of those
thriving towns will have pure drinking
water in bountiful quantities at any
cost.
Greenville is taking on a great deal
of activity in the early spring months
and will do something during the
present year. A moye is on foot to
erect a large fat building, the new
brick plant is in operation, numbers
of residences are going up, a whole
sale dry goods house is being organ
lied and other enterprises in the va
rious stages of naturalization. Green
Vile is in the heart of the richest Sec
ton of the world and there is every
reason why it should be a prosperous
city of fifty thousand souls.
Paul J. Rainey, the Cleveland, Ohio,
mllllOldllC WIN ioo PAOPSAhy
at New Albany, has recently bought a
frame hotel there and will tear 1T
down and erect a modern th~ree-storied
hotel and business block. Mr.. Ralney
some four years since bought a place
at Cotton Plant, just north. of New
Albany, to be used as a summer hunt
ing lodge. He became interested in
the possibilities of large dividends on
investments in the South and built an
oil mill at New Albany. In a short
time he sold this property at a hand
some profit and then built an i'm
proved compress. He also invested in
several manufacturing enterprises at
New Albany and will cap the climax
by building the city a handsome no.
tel. All of these investments are pay
ing Mr.. Rainey satisfactory interest
and he is investing more largely every
year. 1t is a pity that more of the
wonderful possibilities of our great
State were not known by people in the
North and East with money to invest.
The per cent to be made here is large
ly in excess of the best that can be
realized in the older States.
The visit of Mr.. William E. Curtis,
the noted newspaper. correspondent of
Washington, to Mississippi, should
prove an event of unusual interest and
result in good to the South in general.
Mr. Curtis took great pains to learn
of existing conditions and promises
to write them for the powerful syndi-
cate papers that ne represents, just as
he found them. Such visits as these
from responsible men, and the attend
ant publicity, will do much to get the
true condition of affairs down here
before our brethren of the North and
thereby bring about a much better I'M
derstanding and feeling between the
sections.
The reduced showing of deposits in
a large number of Mississippi banks
does not mean that the country is not
so prosperous as formerly, but is or
account of a great deal of cotton being
held and large amounts of capital
being invested in manufacturing.
Large bank deposits do not mean
prosperity for any one except the
banker particularly. 1t would be far
better for Mississippi if the deposits
were invested in legitimate manufac-
turing enterprises to work the crude
material we have into the finished ar
ticle. 1t would be worth far more to
the general prosperity of the State
and its people.
The, city authorities of Laurel are
wrestling with the proposition to pur-
nta-n 4h@ 1tnht nnl u-ntn~ ,h1nnfC Nf
that city with a view to ~cheapening
the cost to users. Such action has
recently been taken by Greenwood,
and a majority OF towns in the State
and under municipal management
with good success. The municipal
ownership idea is gaining ground fast
in the South, not only in towns, but
in cities Of the first class as well.
Memphis is undergoing the same
transformation, as we'll as others. in
the same class. Laurel is growing
fast and it is a difficult matter to force
a private concern to keep step with
it's growth, so the proposition is to
take the plants over and operate them
by the city.
lHS IIilIC Gity il EChtI illdn ID NC
coming active in the building of
churches and two splendid new ones
will go up this summer. This is well
and good. Every community should
be well supplied with churches where
the people can worship according to
the dictates of their consciences, and
comfortable and commodious school
buildings where the youngsters can
be properly fitted for the battles OF
life. Money spent in good public
buildings is not squandered by my
a The first impression a stran-
ger receives from a town comes from
the churches and schools. Better
public buildings are the rule in Mis-.
sissippi now.
The charter for Meridian's half mil.
lion dollar cotton mill has been ap
proved and recorded. Work on the
buildings will mmenc in a short
time and in a few more months the
Queen City of the East" will have
added another immense factory to her
already lengthy list of enterprises.
1t now looks as if Meridian would be
the Lowell of Mississippi in the way
of cotton manufacturing plants. The
mills already there are doing finely
and the citizens are not afraid to risk
their money in another and larger
one.
The negroes of Mississippi are lend.