LOUISIANA. 



337 



was valued at $25,000. The sixty-third commence- 

 ment of the college was held June 27. 



Railroads. A decision was given in March in 

 the State Supreme Court in favor of the State 

 against the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 

 which reversed the decision of the lower court, 

 and held that under its charter as a common car- 

 rier it may not carry on a storage business, for 

 which it had built great warehouses in New Or- 

 leans. 



The report of the State Board of Appraisers 

 gives the mileage of railroads in the State in 1900 

 at 2,123 of main track and 744 of sidings, branch 

 tracks, and double tracks, not including street 

 railroads, which are assessed only in the localities 

 where they exist. 



Militia. Since the war with Spain the militia 

 has been reorganized, and in June the Seventeenth 

 Company of infantry was mustered in, completing 

 the number deemed necessary by the military 

 authorities. The State National Guard is com- 

 posed of 17 companies of infantry, 10 companies 

 or batteries of artillery, 1 troop of cavalry, and 

 5 divisions of naval militia, comprising altogether 

 a force of about 2,000 men. 



Banks. The condition of the national banks 

 in the State, June 29, was reported : Loans and 

 iscounts, $3,697,049; stocks, securities, etc., $112,- 

 943; gold coin, $66,188; total specie, $321,712. 

 Jnited States certificates deposit for legal tender 

 otes, $402,358; individual deposits, $4,210,222; 

 verage reserve held, 25.87 per cent. 



Including savings banks, there are 57 State 

 banks, 8 of which are in New Orleans. 



In September, 1900, the capital of all the State 

 banks and savings banks amounted to $3,820,210. 



The last returns of the condition of the State 

 hanks, dated June 30, 1900, show that the re- 

 iorted surplus and undivided profits amounted 

 o $1,548,320.13, against $1,386,530.31 on Sept. 30, 

 1899, a gain of $161,789.82. The average rate of 

 "iscount on stock paid by the State banks outside 

 f New Orleans for the year 1899 is more than 

 10 per cent.; this, added to the surplus and un- 

 "ivided profits gained in the same time, shows 

 something over 16 per cent, as the net profits of 

 these institutions. 



Insurance. In a suit of the city of New 

 Orleans against the Liverpool and London and 

 "lobe Insurance Company, the State Supreme 

 'ourt decided in May that the foreign company 



ust pay a license of $2,400 for the privilege of 



inducting its business in the city during the 

 ear 1899, with 2 per cent, a month interest from 

 'arch of that year. If it could be shown that 



municipal license had been paid by the company 



any other town or towns in the State, based on 

 Temiums there collected or receipts there received, 

 he city of New Orleans could not afterward claim 



include such premiums or receipts in the aggre- 

 ate amount upon which it demanded a license, 

 even though the returns of such premiums col- 

 lected elsewhere had been made to the principal 

 office of the company in New Orleans. The com- 

 pany had contended that it was liable only for 

 tax on the business with in the city. 



Products and Industries. The cotton crop 

 is given as 625,000 bales ; the consumption in mills 

 of the State, 16,420 bales; there are 6 mills, of 

 which 4 were in operation. The sugar crop was 

 small, as it has been for two or three years; it was 

 estimated at 250,000 long tons. 



The timber business has made progress, as shown 

 by the Auditor's report. In 1900 there were 229 

 licensed sawmills, against 202 in 1899. The cot- 

 ton-seed-oil mills have increased from 28 to 41. 



The Governor's message says of the rice indus- 

 VOL. XL. 22 A 



try : " It has assumed colossal proportions on the 

 shores of the Mississippi, but more particularly 

 in south Louisiana, where great irrigation canals 

 have been made and mammoth pumping plants 

 and rice mills established. Those canals are made 

 by throwing up levees from 10 to 50 feet apart, 

 into which the water is pumped from streams. 

 The canals are navigable by small boats. They 

 range from 2 to 20 miles in length, watering from 

 1,000 to 20,000 acres. The capital invested will 

 soon approximate $3,500,000, showing a total 

 length of 300 miles of main canals and 500 miles 

 of laterals, capable of watering 200,000 acres. 

 No less than 14 rice mills have been erected in 

 this territory, and several more are in course of 

 construction. Rice irrigation is also carried on 

 from wells." 



Lawlessness. A series of bloody disturbances 

 occurred in New Orleans in July. The trouble 

 began when, at the request of some frightened 

 colored women, two policemen attempted to arrest 

 two colored men. One of the colored men not only 

 shot one of the policemen, but retreated to one 

 house after another with his Winchester rifle and 

 shot several others who attempted to arrest or 

 shoot him. He was conquered at last only by 

 setting fire to the house in which he was con- 

 cealed. Meanwhile a mob of boys, very young 

 men, and hoodlums had seized the occasion to go 

 through the streets and kill or maltreat peaceable 

 negroes of both sexes. A colored schoolhouse in 

 which the negroes were reported to have stored 

 ammunition was burned by the mob. The total 

 casualties resulting from this affair were reported 

 as 11 persons killed, 3 mortally wounded, and 28 

 seriously injured. 



Four suspected negro burglars, all ex-convicts, 

 were taken from jail at Ponchatoula, Sept. 20, 

 and hanged. 



A negro ex-convict and cattle thief was terribly 

 whipped by whitecappers near Lake Charles, 

 May 12. 



On June 23 a man was lynched near Spring- 

 field for the murder and robbery of an aged woman. 



A negro who shot and seriously wounded a rail- 

 road conductor was lynched near Plaquemine, 

 Oct. 19. 



A negro who had made threats against the 

 lives of two men was lynched, June 9, at Devall. 



For attempted criminal assault a negro was 

 lynched at Lena, May 12, and one at Whitehall, 

 Aug. 27. 



A negro who confessed a murder was hanged by 

 a mob, about Aug. 30, at Cheneyville. 



April 20, in Livingston Parish, a party of 6 or 

 8 white men rode up to a negro's house and fired 

 into the dwelling, wounding one of the occupants. 

 They then rode on to the next house and fired 

 a second volley, killing a negro boy. Four young 

 men of the party were arrested. The shooting is 

 said to have been without cause. 



A lumber company attempted to work a new 

 sawmill at Tioga with mixed labor, but the whites 

 began shooting at the negroes to force them to 

 leave, as they have been compelled to do at many 

 of the other mills on the line of the Iron Mountain 

 Railroad. 



A dispatch of Aug. 15 said: "The commission 

 appointed by the second white mass meeting in 

 Cheneyville, La., to regulate the negroes of that 

 neighborhood w T ent to work yesterday. The reso- 

 lutions adopted ordered the negroes to give way on 

 the sidewalk to white people and also prohibited 

 them from gathering at the railroad depot. A 

 young negro jumped on a railroad train yesterday 

 and got in the way of some white passengers. It 

 was decided by the commission to discipline him. 





