The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1909-08-13
State Capital Notes
Weekly Budeet OF State News Items Gathered 81 Or Scei.l
Correspondent at Jackson.
Living in His Library.

Living In HIS Library.
In spite of persistent efforts to elliott
expressions and statements from him
concerning public matters and political
issues, the Hon. John Sharp Williams,
the former Democratic minority leader,
is succeeding in his determinations to
keep out of the iimelight until his sena.
torial term commences, nearly two years
hence.
Mr.. Williams is now on his farm neal
Yazoo City, living the life of a country
gentleman, and devoting the major por.
ton of his time to reading several thou
sand volumes of books, pamphlets, maya
lines and treatises of various sorts col
lected during his long period in congress,
and which he was unable to eyen look
at while serving in that body.
Good Showing of Levee Board.
The annual report of the Mississippi
board of leyee commissioners shows that
the work completed in the levee district
for the past year just ended amounted
to 239,654.11, and the work under con.
tract amounts to 1,642,974 cubic yards,
for which a total of $500, O9O.54 will be
paid.
A striking Illustration of the enormous
cost involved in protecting the fertile
Mississippi Delta from overflow is fur.
nished by an interesting table of sta.
~tistics, prepared by Chief Engineer c. H.
West, showing that from 1882 to 1909,
inclusive, a period of twenty-seven years,
the levee board has expended the sum of
$10,077,643.83, apportioned as follows
Construction and extra work, $6,O95,.
'094.12; high water protection, $715,'
244.07; engineering expenses, $205, 65o.61:
salaries and general expenses, $252,-
stills; rights of way, s1,Os1,323.56;
guarding and maintaining ~levees, 1884,
042.s1; interest on bonds and borrowed
money, S ,66s,717.6o.
Institutes Have Good Crowds.
Advices received here from various
parts of the state where the five different
crews of institute conductors, under the
direction of Prof. E. R. Lloyd, of the
Mississippi A. & M. College, are holding
farmers Institutes, are to the effect that
in most of the towns and rural com
munities there have been good crowds of
farmers in attendance.
Very few of these Institutes have been
held in the southwestern section of the
state, where the boil weevil is rampant,
and there has been but little demand for
them there, as compared with those Of
other sections. It is evident that the
farmers there feel that their greatest
problem is this insect, and they prefer
to confne themselves to the experts un
der whom they lave been working all
sumner, in the single effort to learn how
to make cotton in spite of the bug.
States Strong Box.
There was just SO. 81 in cash in the
state treasury vaults and drawers at the
close of business July 81. But this did
not mean the sum total of the cash bal
ance in favor of the state, as there is
in the fifty-odd state repositories, or
some of them, a balance of $3.50 ,264.95.
A week ago the treasury balance was
$~351,205.35, which included $12S.76. in
cash drawer, an outgo of 2 O,94O.40, with
very little by way of income to offset it.
The treasury balance on July 81, 1908,
was $~255,4O9.s5, which is almost $75, 900
less than at the present time, and with
practically the same volume CT expendi-
ture upon which to figure during the bal
ance of the year. While the treasury
balance will fan below s1O0, 900, the bot
tom of the box will not be entirely un.
covered.