The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1921-12-30
EATON EXPLAINS
WHY OUR STATE
GOES BACKWARD
PROMINENT GuLFPoRT LAWYER
MAKES MAsTERLY ADDRESS
BEFORE BANKERS.
SPEECH FEATURES MEETING
Says We Cannot Hope to Make Prog
ress While Every Form of Capt.
talized Industry is Being Per-
secuted in Court.
Mr. Eaton's Address.

.
Mr.. Eaton was the first speaker OF
the meeting, and his address was de
cidedly the feature of the day because
OF the array OF facts presented His
address in fun was as follows:
At a time when the study of the
] best minds or all nations and OF every
section OF each nation is given towards
a solution of the problems of rehabili.
tation and business revival, it is we'll
for those OF us who are interested IN
the development OF our own state 10
give some study 10 our local condi-
tions.
There is ample material for study
in the census reports of 1920 compar-
ed with the census reports OF the pre-
ceding decade, not only of our own
state, but of other southern states. The
three elements contributing to the
business well-being CT any state are it's
population, its agriculture and it's man
ufacturing activities.
The first disclosure is in connection
with our population We all recall dis
appointment experienced by each par
ticular town in Mississippi when the
census reports were being given out
and when ii was appearing that every
/ town, practically without exception.
was receiving notice Of a population
not only smaller than it had expected
but in. many instances smaller than
/ the 1910 report In many towns re-
counts were demanded and were ac-
tually had, but the recounts did not
change in any material way the totals.
Finally the whole story came out, and
we were informed that our state had
lost in population between 1910 and
1920 approximately $500 people. We
were then told that this loss in popu-
lation was due to the emigration OF
the negroes, and we were given to a
bit of reinsurance over the hope that
after all we had suffered no real loss
In the valuable part of our population
At length the complete reports were
tabuated, and it now appears that our
loss in population is both substantial
and material There was loss in ne.
gro population of, in round numbers,
5000. The gain in the white popuia.
tion was, in round numbers, $1,000, but
this gain is not at all hopeful. The
census discloses that between the
ages of twenty and forty-five the
white population OF Mississippi in 1920
was smaller than in 1910. This means
that substantially all the increase in
the white population of the state was
under twenty years of age. In other
words, the increase was children
children which the state is educating
at large expense, children that are be-
ing fitted for useful, active life, but
children who will, if the present ten
dency continues, leave the state be-
tween the ages of twenty and forty-five |
years and will give to other states the
wealth of service and opportunity they |
are taking away from Mississippi.
Farming Goes. Backward.
similar story is found in the study |
Of agriculture In 1909 Mississippi |
had 2,2S1 farms that it had in 1919, |
while the general total Of agricultural |
products in volume in 1919 was sub |
stantially less than in 1909. We should |
remember that 1909 was a year OF de- |
preston. The panic at the end OF |
1907 and at the beginning of 1908 had |
caused a business depression all over |
the entire country, and farming activi- |
ties were at the lowest point between |
1900 and 1920. On the contrary, 1919 /
represents the peak OF production not |
only in agricultural products taking the |
nation as. a whole, but in the prices |
received for these products. With al.
this impetus to increase production,
our own state produced in quantity |
less in 1919 than it did in 1909. 1t is
a much higher value than
those of 1909, but this increase of price |
was due TO nothing local to Mississip-
pi 1t was due to the aftermath of |
war, to shortage caused by the war,
and the terrific initiation succeeding
the war. The terrible year of 1920,
ruinous slump in farm prod
uct values, has brought us to a much
more depressing state than we have
had since the low cotton year 1898. II
Even in 1919 before this slump thare Il
were $500 more farm mortgages In |
than in 1909. Another dis
Is, as you probably already know, that II
the production OF corn and cotton is
10 vastly in excess of all other agri-
cultural products as to leave little else
In some localities truck growing is i'm
portant but taken as a whole its
values are not very great They are
much below the value of the hay crop,
which in itself is much below the value
Of sorghum. The summary is that the
agricultural products OF the state are
still as they have always been-cotton
and corn, with cotton largely in the
ascendance. /,