Although the total payable debt of the State has increased from $830,750 in amount and $45,507.50 in interest charges in 1876 to $1,105,780.41 in amount and $53,421 in interest charges in 1897, this increase is seen to be a proportionate decrease when all the facts are considered.
The obligations, amounting to $876,256.57 in principal and interest, handed down from reconstruction times have all been paid. During the past 22 years $6,755,706.57 has been appropriated and actually paid to common schools, as opposed to $1,323,765.62 appropriated and $327,742.25 paid during the six years preceding 1876.
During the "Modern Period" the State University at Oxford, the Alcorn University, the Normal Schools at Holly Springs and Tugaloo have been liberally supported. The A. & M. College has been established, built, equipped and supported at an aggregate expense of $697,909.95. The Industrial Institute and College has been built and supported at a cost of $329,735.99.
Higher education has been liberally supported, eleemosynary institutions established and equipped, and the Confederate pension fund largely increased.
Yet these extraordinary expenditures have only meant an addition of $282,943.91 in principal and interest to the State's payable indebtedness. This fact alone gives character to the administration of the State's finances, and bodes well for a wise use of the commonwealth's taxing power in the future.
FOOTNOTES:
[65] Lowrey and McCardle: Hist. Miss., p. 71.
[66] Miss. Laws, 1799, pp. 121-133.
[67] For provisions, Cf. Digest of the statutes of M. T., 1816, pp. 415-424.