The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1921-12-30

amounts OF deposits. The amount
shown by the book today as a deposit
may of course be the proceeds of a
note and may all be borrowed capital.
Still, under the laws of Mississippi, It
would be taxable, and this particular
man declines to have his operating
capital in a Mississippi bank, becaus sc
some day he is looking for the state
to bring into public view the deposits
of every bank and to levy against ev-
cry depositor the customary back tax
assessment.
While this condition is prevailing in
Mississippi, the state of Louisiana in
It's recent constitutional convention
specifically exempted from all taxation
money placed on deposit in Louisiana
banks. l might mention another. case
now pending where the state in attack
ing the sale of lands granted TO it by
Congress for the benfeit of state educa-
tiOnal institutions. The land was sol1
many years ago, and the state has
been receiving taxes from its owners
ever since, but it would now cancel
the title retain the taxes, and leave
the investor his losses as a memory.
Fire Insurance Suits.
l do not pretend to speak of the
merits of the recent fire insurance
case. I do not know what the merits
are. But out of that litigation some
distressing facts have become clear.
The average citizen of the state knows
little about the insurance companies
carrying his risks at this time If he
has been fortunate enough TO get any
secure insurance at all, and he is pay
ing for his insurance fully as much If
not more than he paid before the suit
was begun. Not only that, but a great
many policies are being placed with
the same insurance companies that
have left this state and at greater
premiums than existed before they left
this state, and if loss occurs the IN
sured cannot recover or bring his case
in the courts of his own state but must
go TO other states where the insurance
companies can be brought into court.
We know that the Supreme Court of
the United States has held that the
companies may be regulated by law.
We know that our Legislature if there
has been an evil that was being prac-
ticed by the insurance companies,
could have provided laws regulating
these companies and vouchsafed to
the public insurance at reasonable
rates. but this was not done and today,
as a result of this policy of the state.
we are experiencing greater difficulty
in securing insurance than we ever
had before; we are paying more for
it. and it is being placed in companies
about which we know little or nothing.
Not long ago one of the vice-presi-
dents of one of the largest banks in
New York said to me that the state of
Mississippi could never expect to in
terest outside capital or secure an in
dustrial development by the aid of out
side capital so long as it found pleas
ure in the boast that the Illinois Cen
trail Railroad Company had built the
beautiful and costly new capitol IL
may be said as a fact that the business
world which knows Mississippi and
Mississippi conditions is afraid of tha
integrity Of the state and fears for The
security of an investment loca
within the state. So long as this con
dition prevails we viii continue TO be
where we now are-at the foot of the
list in manufacturing enterprises
newer of wood and a drawer Of water,
creating raw products only and seeing
them carried to other states for manu-
facture and seeing developed in other
states the tremendous wealth and the
population of which a friendly and ia
vorable policy might have created
here. Five years ago a banquet was
given in my town at which one of the
speakers was the editor of one Of the
leading daily papers of the Souths
greatest city. Speaking of Mississippi
and its advantages, he closed with this
statement: Litigation is your great
popular pastime. your kingly sport
and your state reserves for itself a
place at the head of the list"
If we cannot reverse this order and
II we cannot extend to man simply
a cordial greeting, we shall commence
to see, as census after census unfolds
the truth, the continuation of the
tragic story written during the past
ten years.