Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1914-01-16
Special Message
or
Gov. +. Brewer
TO THE
Legislature
On Matters Pertaining
to the enitentiary
Investigation.
A Complete and Exhaustive
Review of the Matter from
Its Inception, Contain
ing Facts and Figures
of Great Interest to
All the People.
of the Legislature:

Gentlemen of the Legislature:
The penitentiary of our State, hav-
ing grown to such enormous proper
lions and demanding SO much thought
and consideration, in view of the fact
that its expense of operation and prod
ucts sold reach such enormous fig
ures, deem it proper for me to treat
the subject in this special message to
you
During the session of 1912, when
trying to ascertain what would be
necessary to meet the appropriations
made by you. / took into my calcula-
tions the affairs of the penitentiary
and found that for the last several
years the expenses had been increas-
ing while the profits for the products
had been decreasing until it had
reached the place in the year preced-
ing my inauguration, that this institu-
ton had become burden to the State
rather than a source of profit. / dis
covered that on cotton seed alone, in
the year of 1909, there was an average
OF $40 pounds of seed per bale ac-
counted for. This, of course, was aft
or the planting seed had been taken
out and other such seed as were used
on the plantation for fertilizer, etc.
In 1910, found that the seed ac-
counted for had dropped to SS6 pounds
per bale and that in 1911 it had
dropped to $50 pounds per bale. In
other words, it occurred to me that If
this business were permitted to go ON
as 1t seemed to be drifting that it
would be but one more year until the
amount of seed coming from a bale
would be less than the amount Of lint
contained in the bale.
also found that the expenses OF
the penitentiary had been rapidly in
creasing. For instance, during the
year 1910 the expenses of operation
amounted to sS6,O11.S9, while in 1911
the expenses had increased, l mean
operating expenses, not land purchas-
enormous sum of 1892, 20S.S4; SO it oc-
Cured to me as practical business
man that this general state of condi-
tions warranted the looking into the
affairs of the penitentiary. So. as
soon as the session of 1912 was over
and I had an opportunity to begin
looking into the matter, ! saw that it
would be an enormous undertaking
and would necessarily involve consid-
cradle expense, but undertook it, and
am proud to say that after the in
vestigation was begun that the ex-
penses of operation were decreased
and the revenue wonderfully increas-
ed, that is to say, the total amount of
cotton and seed sold by the peniten-
tiary for 1911 amounted to $780,
5000, while the cotton and cotton
seed for the year 1912 from the pen
itentiary farms amounted to $780,
304 80. And I will state in this con-
nection that the figures before given
included all the cotton and seed OF
the crop Of 1911 and the trustees had
withheld from the crop of 1912 SGT
bales Of cotton until after the first Of
September, 1913, which does not APP
pear in these figures. So you see that
the cotton and seed of the year 1912
II correctly reported and If it had
been sold before September, 1913,
would have shown considerably more
than one-haIf million dollars. and the
net profits arising from the crops OF
1912 amounted to $354,309.4S against
what was deficit for the preceding
year.
And | now desire to discuss with
you what, In my opinion, brought
about this enormous loss to the State
In the handling OF this. the most inn
portant institution in financial way
that is owned by the State.
In the first place. learned upor
investigation that the Secretary II
charge Of the office Of the peniten
tiary had embezzled quite a consider
able sum of money; in the next place
found that the law had not been com
plled with which provides that this
products OF the penitentiary should
be sold by the Board of Trustees ant
the money collected by them and Inn
mediately paid into the State Treas
49, and If this law had been com