'Cbe Conservative *
so far as I have been able to discover ,
was the first to pass an act "to extend
and incorporate" a railroad company of
another state within its own borders.
Mississippi did this in its very first
charter , which was granted before the
Ohickasaw Indians had ceded their
lands in the northern part of the state ,
including that on which the university
stands. On December 20 , 1881 , the first
native-born governor of Mississippi ,
Gerard O. Brandon , approved the "act
to extend and incorporate the West
Feliciana railroad company of the state
of Louisiana , within the state of Missis
sippi. " This gave the assent of the
state to all and each of the provisions
contained in the Louisiana act incorpo
rating the WestFelioiana railroad com
pany , adopted , ratified and enacted it
into a law of Mississippi , and provided
that said act should thereafter be in
full force and effect , as well within as
without the state , "as an act incorpo
rating a company for the purpose of
erecting a railroad from , the town of St.
Francisville , in the state of Louisiana ,
to the town of Woodville , in the county
of Wilkinson. "
The West Feliciana was the first rail
road authorized by the state of Missis
sippi , and , if I mistake not , the first interstate
ter-state railroad ever chartered or built.
It was conceived and carried to a suc
cessful establishment by Mr. Edward
MoGee , one of the original settlers of
the state , who had gone thither during
the territorial government , and whose
descendants are still living in and about
Woodville. It is today operated as part
of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley
railroad.
The granting to corporations of other
states the right to extend their railroads
into and through its borders , and of al
lowing them to exercise , in the state
charter powers similar to those grantee
by such other states , has throughoui
been the settled policy of Mississippi.
The adoption of this , or some like
policy equally characterized by broad
minded statesmanship , was a necessity
arising from the physical fact that it is
at New Orleans in Louisiana , at Mem
phis in Tennessee , and at Mobile in Ala
bama , that the cotton and the lumber
grown in Mississippi must find markets
and that it is chiefly through those cities
in other states that the people of Missis
sippi must draw their supplies.
In this way , the New Orleans , Jack
son and Great Northern railroad , which
had been begun under a charter granted
by the state of Louisiana , was coutinuec
from the boundary of that state to am
beyond Canton , with authority from the
state of Mississippi to proceed north
eastwardly through Aberdeen , to the
Alabama line , in the' direction of Nash
ville , Tennessee. The like thing ha
been done in several instances since the
civil war , and was done in the case o
the railroad formerly known as th
Georgia Pacific , which is now operated
by the Southern Railway Company , and
extends clear across the state in an east
and west direction , from the Alabama
ino near Columbus , to the Mississippi
river at Greenville.
Liberality in Railroad Charters.
It is doubtful if any state in the
union has granted more , or more liberal ,
charters to railways than has Mississippi.
Dhrough the kindness of a friend , who
iaa examined the session laws for me , I
am able to say that :
From 1881 to 1840 Mississippi char
tered at least erailroad
twenty-thre com
panies.
From 1841 to 1850 Mississippi char
tered at least seventeen railroad com
panies.
From 1851 to I860 Mississippi char
tered at least thirty railroad companies.
During the throes of the civil strife it
incorporated one in 1868 , and in the ten
years from 1861 to 1870 fifteen railroad
companies were chartered.
From 1871 to 1880 Mississippi char
tered at least railroad
forty-nine com
panies.
From 1881 to 1890 Mississipi chartered
at least sixty-nine railroad companies.
Here we have the granting of 203 sepa
rate charters , and my friend tells me
this does not by any means represent
the total.
The liberal policy of the state resultec
in their being , in operation therein , in
1860 , some 862 miles of railway. With
insignificant exceptions , these formec
parts of inter-state railroads leading to
New Orleans , Memphis or Mobile. In
respect to the number of miles of rail
road in operation , Mississippi then
ranked thirteenth among the states of
the union. The civil war , and subse
quent misrule , necessarily had a repres
sive "effect , and in 1880 we find only
1,127 miles of railroad in operation.
Under the leadership of such jurists
and statesmen as Judge Wylie P. Har
ris , Col. L. Q. O. Lamar , Gen. E. O
Woltholl , Gov. John M. Stone , Gov
Robert Lowry , each of whom I am
proud to have known , with others well
known to you , the strong and wise men
of your state had , in 1876 , restored or
der , re-established civil government am
a respect for vested rights. They , and
men like them , were at the head of af
fairs in 1882. At the biennial legislative
session held in that year , sixteen rail
road charters were granted , and in 1884
twenty-two. Many , if not all , of them
contained very liberal provisions as to
the fixing of rates , and most of them in
effect granted exemptions from taxation
for various but limited terms of years
Those wise , public-spirited men realized
as never before or- since , that capital
which Mississippi lacked and lacks to
day , is by nature inert , and that those
having the control or custody of it are
to the last degree timid. They saw
with unerring vision , that in order to
.raw capital to Mississippi from , the
tforth and the East , and from Europe ,
t was not only necessary to give the us
ual assurances for the sanctity of vested
uterests , but also to do something more
by way of inducement. It is not sur
prising to note that the liberal charters
granted in 1882 and 1884 resulted in
; here being within the state in 1890 ,
more than double the mileage which had
) een built in all the years preceding
1880 , to-wit , 2,471 miles.
The people of Mississippi saw fit , in
1890 , to adopt a new constitution , and
lave since made laws thereunder with
respect to railroad and other corpora-
ions , which are , to put the case mildly ,
repellent to capital. As a consequence ,
we find that in 1899 ( the last year for
which the Interstate Commerce Com
mission or the commission of
; he state of Mississippi have
published figures ) , there were but 2,788
miles of railroad. The state now ranks
twenty-eighth in the mileage of rail
roads in operation , the increase during
the last nine years , under the changed
policy of the state , being 817 miles , or
12.88 per cent. , as against 1,848 miles , or
119.17 per cent. , in the previous decade.
Most of the mileage added since 1890 ,
indeed nearly all of it , is now operated
by one or the other of the old companies.
The constitution of 1890 prohibited
the granting of legislative charters to
business corporations and required them
to be incorporated under general laws.
The effect has been that since 1890 only
eleven railroad companies have been so
organized ; eight of these seem to have
done nothing and the other three have
built about twenty-five miles apiece.
Legislation Against Railroads and Capital.
If you will pardon a word of criti
cism from one who , despite his large
and abiding interest in , is not a citizen
of , Mississipilet me suggest that , in the
making of such laws , before the state
had obtained all the railroads and all
the banks and all the factories which it
needs , a costly error has been com
mitted. That such institutions and cor
porations should be regulated by law
goes without saying. The Northern and
Western states have , however , been
prudent enough to obtain their railways ,
their bonks and their factories before
legislating against them. They have
not gone out of their way to make regu
lations which have repelled capital , and
thereby prevented and delayed the ma
terial development of their own re
sources. To her great and lasting loss
Mississippi seems to have adopted all the
restrictive legislation of the older states ,
which now have no special need to in
vite foreign capital by encouraging the
development of corporate enterprises.
That the necessity of attracting for
eign capital into the state is now appre
ciated by your public men is evident
from the inaugural address delivered by