The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-07-27
TAX EQUALIzERS
 TO HOLD MEETING Legislative Committee Will Try
 to Adjust Matters PLANS 10 RAISE WHEAT Mississippi Farmers Are Giving More Attention to Grain Crops as
 Relief From the High Price
 of Flour and Wheat.
PLANS 10 RAISE WHEAT

Jackson, Miss, July 26.-(Special )-Col. 1 H. M. Street, speaker of the house of representatives, states that the committee 1 appointed at the last session of the legis- lature charged with the making of sug- l gestions and formulating plans for a more equitable distribution of the bur- den of taxation has been. or will be called shortly to meet in Jackson the first week of September. There are nine other mem bers of this committee, six from the house and three from the senate, and they are expected to agree on a plan by which the taxes paid by the various sections of the state may be equalized
 Speaker Street has written to the sev- eral members of the committee, assign ing special subjects for them to study up i on and report to the meeting. The law yers on the committee are requested to advise the committee as to the consti- tutionality of the movement that is pro- posed.
 Under the terms of the resolution the committee is given ten days in which to deliberate and prepare the report to be submitted to the legislature-but the term of the meeting may be extended, if necessary.
 The trouble is that some sections of the state claim they are paying more than their share of the taxes that go to support the state government, and get ting back less than fair division in the way of school appropriations, etc, and that their representation in the legis- lature is not what it should be since their populationJ has increased so very largely since the present apportionment was arranged.
 The high price of flour has put Missis- sippi farmers in the notion of planting and raising wheat, and the chances are that more of that great cereal will be planted next fall than In any one year since before the war between the states, when wheat was a staple crop on most farms in this section, and flour mills were to be found in every neighborhood where there was good water power. Now there is not one. In one mail last week Commissioner of Agriculture Blakeslee received three letters making inquiry as to where good seed wheat could be had, and these three letters came from as many points of the compass, thus showing that
  tion or county.
 If ex-President Roosevelt has no pie ture of the family of MT. Frank Sallis of Itawamba county, Mississippi, in his valuable collection, the governor of the state of Mississippi. should see that he gets one directly he returns from the wilds of Africa, even though he has to order out the National Guard to get | it.
 The crime of race suicide will never be laid to the door of MT. and Mrs. Sallis, for they have certainly followed out the Bible injunction as to popu- lating the earth.
 A few days, or weeks since, Mrs. Sal lis presented her husband with four bouncing boys, and it Is stated that they are all doing nicely, the mother is getting along as well as could be expected and the old man has recov- cred from the sh ock.
 This was the hardest shock he ever received, but he has had others almost as bad. At the first visitation of the stork to the Sallis home. the size of the then little family was increased by two boys. A year and half later the bird flew that way again and left three more sons to MT. and Mrs. Sallis. so that this third visitation, when four were brought, means that the Sallis family has been increased by nine sons within very few years.
 The press of the state is very busi- ly engaged just now in telling the leg. islature what should be done with the old state capitol. The subject is one on which thousands og columns have been written and great deal of hot air expended during the past 10 or 12 years The press inaugurated the movement that crystalized into the magnificent new capitol, and since that was taken possession of has been ad- vising as to what should be done with the old one.
 There Is a very strong demand that the old pile around which clusters so much of the history of Mississippi be cost a pretty penny to repair 1t and re- store 1t to what 1t once was for the reason that 1t has never been taken care of. However, 1t looks to many like a great waste of good material as we'll as downright sacrilege to de- stroy it when the state Is needing more house room right now and is crowded to death in the new building. It may be that spirit of commercial ism will down sentiment, but senti- mentality has always been one of Mis- sissippi's long suits, and there is going to be a hot fight against those who would sell the historic old building and the site.