The vidette. (Iuka, Tishomingo County, Miss.) 1912-1967, 1922-01-12

s197, 100000. in which the price Of
raw materials amounted to approx
mately S96,000,000.00, leaving total
value created by manufacturing pro-
cesses of 100000, 100000. There is not
a Southern state which does not have
in it some city or manufacturing cen
ter which produces more in the way or
manufacturing value than the entire
state of Mississippi, and except for the
Carolinas, the Southern states in man.
activities are far below the
Eastern the Middle Northern and the
Middle Western states.
Manufacturing Drops Off.
But a study of our manufacturing
enterprises is q little more astonishing
still. Lumber and lumber products,
including planning mill products,
amount to so per cent of our total
manufactures, while the manufacture
ing of cotton seed into oil and by
products amounts to 20 per cent. These
two commodities represent heavy ton
mage, where the cost of transportation
nomically compelled to be in the vicin-
ity of their production. Since these
two commodities alone represent 70
per cent OF our manufacturing wealth
we are forced 10 conclude that, II they
were not so bulky and their transport
tation not so expensive they would,
like all other things grown in Missis.
sippi or consumed in Mississippi, be
manufactured elsewhere. 1t is inter-
esting to note that in this state, where
cotton is overwhelmingly it's greatest
asset, the total value of manufactured
cotton goods for 1919 was in round
numbers $S000.000.00 "a smal.er
amount than was paid by MISSISSIPPI
plans as income tax to the Federal
government for the same year. TIL sc
are a score of towns in the Carolinas
in either of which there Is a greater
production in value of cotton goods
than in the whole of Mississippi and
even during the terrific demand caused
by the great world war, Mississippi
factories in 1919 manufactured 2000,-
600 pounds of cotton less than in 1909,
which year exceeded 1914 by almost
another million pounds
Possibly the best indication of -
manufacturing strength of a state il
to be found in the horsepower devoted
to that purpose. By this test Missis-
slppi had in 1919 more than 5000
horsepower less than in 1909, which
year exceeded 1914 by 10000. In other
words the worlds need could not
bring Mississippi, in the peak year of
1919 in manufacturing industries, up
to the year of 1909, and the year 1903
as normal year was vastly in excess
of 1914, another normal year.
The disquieting disclosures from all
these reports is that in the ten-year
period from 1909 to 1919 Mississippi
has lost in population, in agricultural
development, and in manufacturing
enterprises. 1t is time for us to in
guire, why do these losses occur? What
is there in Mississippi that has caused
such a condition so different from that
of every other Southern state? The
main answer, l think, is the almost to-
tai lack of substantial enterprises in
the state. There were in the state, as
shown by the census report, in 1919,
an average number of wage earners
for the year of $3.50, of which mum.
Der more than 65 per cent was employ
ed in saw mills. This means that the
wage-earning class of Mississippi Is
practically negligible, and it means
that there is no local market in Mis-
sissippi for truck growing or poultry
raising. An incident has been related
at each of the meetings full of tragedy
of our lot, but typical as to every COM
munity in the state. In meeting near
Bonneville during the summer, on re-
turning to town the speaker met
farmer with load of as fine water
melons as could be grown, returning
home because he had no market for
them in his town, carrying them back
probably because the sanitary officers
in Bonneville would not permit them
to be thrown away on the streets This
Is picture Of the whole agricultural
life in Mississippi, Practically the en-
tire states population is producing the
same agricultural products at the same
time, because in the state there are no
Geld storage houses and so few cali.
neries that nothing in the way of small
agricultural products can be preserved.
II we had highly developed industrial
life such as is developing in every
other Southern state there would be in
each community large population OF
wage earners, consumers who would
afford a constant and steady market
TO the farmers of every community for
all small products Of the farm and
garden, value almost equal to the sub.
stantial crops. This value would bo
a surplus value. 1t would give ready
money to the farmers and would do
more toward enhancing the business
Of agriculture and toward making farm
life happy and content than any other
agency which can be devised.
Profit Goes Elsewhere.
II we had these manufacturing in
dustries the state would not be losing
its population. We can find little COM
fort, as | stated before, from the fact
that our negro population is less than
in 1900, because conditions that
brought the exodus Of the negroes
have likewise brought about the exc
dus Of the white population between
the ages of twenty and forty-five AS
other parts of the nation develop in.
dustrially, the demand for labor In.
rreases; as the demand for labor in
creases, the price paid for this labor