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


ai;gr "a moving to the profitable mar /
l;Ass and il IS idle fer us TO think that
IN their moving we are increasing ef-
ficiency. These negroes have gone
into the industrial life of the North
and East. where they are receiving
greater wages than they received in
but they are aiding in the
of goods which we in Mls-
sissippi are buying, and we are conse-
quently paying fer whatever increase
In wages they are earning and what
ever loss in efficiency may have result
ed from their removal. In other words,
instead of using the products of their
handiwork in Mississippi at the price
prevailing in Mississippi, we are buy
ing that product from the North and
East at the prices prevailing in the
North and East, and whatever profit
there is 10 the manufacturer leaves
Mississippi and goes to those states
Identically the same thing is taking
away our white population. The Amer.
lean boy and girl who have worked
hard and secured an education are
looking about for the most profitable
field to engage their own talents. They
find Mississippi without cities. They
find it without any manufacturing cen
ters and without any manufactured
product except lumber and cottonsesd.
They find an agricultural situation that
IS minyiting. In other words. they see
little TO appeal to them to give to the
state that educated them the product
of their own brain and energy, and so
they, too, are flowing away, not to be-
come laborers or wage earners, but
to become the captaias of industry in
other states.
Why then should we not have and
why do we not have manufacturing
development in Mississippi compar-
able with that at least of adjacent
Southern states? 1t must be due to
one OF three things-either to a lack
OF natural advantages, or to Il lack of
intelligent management and labor in
the state, or the attitude of the state
itself. We believe that in natural i'd
vantages there is as much in Missis-
sippi to appeal to the business world
as in any state. Our climate is good,
our soil is productive, our people con
genial and the opportunities for the
development of electric and motive
mower are superb. | do not therefore
tlirA VIC are handicapped at least Sc
riously, by natural disadvantages.
Neither do / think we are lacking in
such intelligence as is required Sue
cessfully to manage and operate indus
tries and industrial affairs. If in these
two things we are sufficient, ii must
follow that there is something in the
attitude of the state that is preventing
its industrial development and the at
titude of the state in my opinion is the
exact reason for our present situation.
This attitude is not found in the
eagerness with which each community
stands ready and anxious to invite into
its midst any kind of industry that of.
fers employment to its labor and "a
market to its farmers. This attitude
is to be found in deeper causes, and
these causes are the laws that have
been enacted and the manner in which
they have been enforced for the last
thirty years.
The Revenue Raids.
About thirty years ago. just at the
time when the fee system in Missis-
sippi was abolished, our legislature es-
tablished the office of revenue agent,
at the time primarily to enforce the
collection of taxes on a fee basis
Gradually this power has been extend
ed, and today the revenue agent is au
thorized, in addition to back taxes, ap-
parently to bring any kind of suit that
can be brought in the name of the
state to recover any penalties or fines
that may be due the state, and to re-
ceive as his compensation twenty per
cent of whatever he RECEIVERS. In other
words, the name and the credit and
the power of the state have been
lodged in this particular officer, with
the injunction to proceed to the col
lection of every penalty that can be
collected in the name of the state.
Not only this, but our Legislature for
the same period of time has been sys
tematically enacting laws so oppres.
siye and burdensome that well dc.
veloped and general industrial life is
impossible. This legislation began in
the enactment of laws taking away
| from industrial concerns common law
defenses and subjecting them in all
cases of accidents or injuries practi
cally to the payment Of whatever sun
a jury might award. Not long ago the
representative Of the largest industrial
Indemnity insurance company operat
ing in the state told me that the pre-
NUNS for indemnity insurance were
higher than i'll any state in the Union
We know, Of course, that the industry
that is protected must bear this cost
and to the extent that this cost in Mis-
sissippi exceeds the cost in other states
to that extent would industry in Mis-
sissippi be handicapped in competing
in the open market with industries 10
Gated i'll other states.
Out Of these conditions have arise1
vast flood of litigation of such seri
Gus and hazardous proportions as tt
keep industry afraid of our state, il
there were no other reasons, but it ii
not my purpose to discuss this brancf
of the subject today. l merely throw
in this thought because know it to be
one Of the weights we are carrying.
| Antitrust Nonense.
The serious menace comes from the
state itself and from the laws which