562 



MISSISSIPPI. 



by a State board of inquiry to such as it shall 

 select from those certified to it by county 

 boards of inquiry as needing assistance. Re- 

 fusal to pay the poll-tax was made a misde- 

 meanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment. 

 In accordance with the recommendation of the 

 Governor, it was enacted that the trial of mis- 

 demeanors may be assigned by the grand jury 

 to justices of the peace, by directing them on 

 information to inquire into them. This will 

 relieve the State circuit courts of a large num- 

 ber of small cases which hitherto have occu- 

 pied much of their time at great expense to 

 the State and to the exclusion of more im- 

 portant business. The State tax for 1888-'89 

 was fixed at 3 mills for the general fund, and 

 -J mill for the payment of interest on the bonds 

 of 1886. A resolution for submitting to the 

 people the question of calling a constitutional 

 convention passed both Houses, but was vetoed 

 by the Governor. An attempt to pass the bill 

 over the veto failed to secure the necessary 

 two-third vote in the Senate, the vote standing 

 19 to 16 in its favor. Other acts passed at the 

 session were as follow : 



Kepealing the act of 1886 imposing a tax upon com- 

 mercial travelers. 



To provide for obtaining and publishing reports of 

 banking institutions doing business in the State. 



To abolish the present boards of trustees of the sev- 

 eral charitable institutions of the State, and to provide 

 for the appointment of new boards. 



Providing for the assessment and collection of past 

 due and unpaid taxes on railroads that have escaped 

 payment thereof. 



Authorizing the State Board of Health to purchase 

 and distribute vaccine virus free to regular practicing 

 physicians during 1888, and every three years there- 

 after. 



To provide for the prevention and suppression of 

 contagious and infectious diseases amon? live-stock. 



Accepting the provision of the act of Congress con- 

 templating the establishment of agricultural experi- 

 ment stations in the several States. 



Apportioning to the counties the number of free 

 students allowed each at the State Agricultural and 

 Mechanical College and at the Industrial Institute and 

 College. 



To prohibit and prevent the sale of liquor to minors. 

 _ To punish false pretenses in obtaining the registra- 

 tion of cattle and other animals. 



To prevent purchasers of cotton from deducting two 

 or any number of pounds, known as scalage, from the 

 actual weight. 



Appointing commissioners to readjust the bound- 

 ary-line between the State and Arkansas. 



Authorizing the payment of salaries to superintend- 

 ents of education in certain counties. 



Authorizing the Board of Mississippi Levee Com- 

 missioners to issue $200,000 of its bonds. 



To remove obstructions to free navigation of the 

 Big Black river. 



Setting apart a portion of the Capitol grounds as a 

 site for a monument to the Confederate di-ad. 



Authorizing the city of Natchez to issue bonds not 

 exceeding $100,000 for public improvements. 



Revoking the charters of corporations thnt have not 

 organized or shall not organize within one year from 

 the date of this enactment. 



Finances. The receipts from all sources for 

 the year 1887 amounted to $1,069,568.38, of 

 which the sum of $215,782 was realized from 

 the sale of bonds, leaving as the total receipts 



from usual sources $853,786.38. The disburse- 

 ments on all accounts for the same time were 

 $1,029,638.06. Deducting from this money 

 borrowed and returned with interest, the dis- 

 bursements on ordinary accounts for 1887 were 

 $844,575.42, the receipts on usual accounts 

 thus exceeding the disbursements by $9,210.- 

 06. The Treasurer gives the entire indebted- 

 ness of the State on Jan. 1, 1888, at $3,752,- 

 904.01, of which the sum of $1,083,266.40 is a 

 floating debt, paying no interest. This part of 

 the debt was increased during 1886 and 1887 

 by $317,560.17. A part of this deficiency is 

 due to the diminution of revenue by reason of 

 the operation of the local-option law, by which, 

 from 1883 to 1887, there was an aggregate de- 

 crease in the receipts from liquor licenses to 

 the amount of $178,795.88, an average of $35,- 

 759.13 per annum. Another cause was the 

 low tax-rate that was in force up to 1887. The 

 Legislature in 1886 raised the rate from 2| to 

 3 mills, and in the present year from 3 to 3| 

 mills, for general purposes. 



Charities. At the Jackson Insane Asylum, at 

 the close of the fiscal year, there were 459 

 patients ; at the East Mississippi Asylum, 230 ; 

 and at the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, 76. 

 These institutions are supported by a liberal 

 annual appropriation from the State. 



Conviets. A special report was made to the 

 Lower House of the Legislature in February by 

 a committee appointed to examine the prison 

 system of the State. Of the lease system gen- 

 erally, and of the treatment of prisoners by 

 the lessees, the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad 

 Company, the report says : 



The system of leasing convicts to individuals or 

 corporations, to be worked by them for profit, simply 

 restores a state of servitude worse than slavery, in 

 this, that it is without any of the safeguards resulting 

 from ownership of the slave ; and if the leasing sys- 

 tem is objectionable, that of sub-leasing is doubly so. 

 The treatment of convicts under sub-lessees we find to 

 have been generally harsh, if not positively cruel, and 

 this is shown by the evidence taken by the Board of 

 Control. The average number of convicts for 1886 

 and 1887 was 738 ; of these 67 died in 1886, showing 

 a death-rate of 9'08 per cent. The number of deaths 

 in 1887 was 114, a death-rate of 15-44 per cent. Sta- 

 tistics also show that the average death-rate for six 

 years among the negroes is more than double that of 

 whites, and, as there is no special reason why negroes 

 should die faster than whites, the fact is significant 

 of different and worse treatment suffered by them. 

 We find that the condition of convicts is improved 

 since they were remanded to the immediate control 

 of the railroad company and placed under the super- 

 vision of the State Board of Control and the superin- 

 tendent. Within the Penitentiary we find, after dili- 

 gent inquiry, no cause of complaint. The walls are 

 the refuge for all cases of chronic disease, and for en- 

 feebled and disabled convicts, and the death-rate is 

 very low under the circumstances. In 1886 there were 

 treated in the walls 567 convicts, of whom 12 died. 

 This is a death-rate of about 2 per cent. In 1887 

 there were treated 671 convicts, of whom 16 died, a 

 death-rate of 2'03 per cent. These deaths are in- 

 cluded in the aggregate number of deaths for the two 

 years, and, if the rate in the walls is deducted from 

 the average death-rate, we find the death-rate in the 

 camps for 1886 about 7 per cent., and in 1887 12'4 per 

 cent. Such a low rate in the general hospital of the 



