1940: Mississippi

Area and Population.

The state of Mississippi lies in the eastern south-central section of the United States. Comprising 46,860 sq. mi., its maximum width is approximately 190 miles from east to west, and its maximum length 330 miles from north to south. The population, according to the 1940 census, is 2,183,796, of whom about 50 per cent are Negroes. The total represents a gain of 8.7 per cent over the 1930 figure of 2,009,821. Mississippi has a relatively small urban population. There are 13 cities with a population of 10,000 or above, but only one of these has a population in excess of 50,000. Jackson, the state's capital, is the largest city in Mississippi, with a 1940 population of 62,107. Meridian, 35,481; Vicksburg, 24,460; Hattiesburg, 21,026; and Laurel, 20,598, rank next in size.

Education.

During the 1938-39 school session there were 843,000 inhabitants of school age in Mississippi. Of the 608,730 enrolled pupils, 50.7 per cent were white pupils; and 49.3 per cent, Negro students. Of the total number, 536,209 pupils were in the elementary schools; and 72,521 students in high schools. Of the high school students, 86.7 per cent were white, and 13.3 per cent Negro.

During the same school session there were in operation in Mississippi 4,412 elementary schools and 675 high schools. The state's expenditure on education for the school year 1938-39 amounted to $13,640,000. The average teacher's salary was about $500.

The 1940 session of the State Legislature provided for the distribution of free textbooks to pupils in the elementary schools of the state. The books were purchased by the State Text Book Commission and were distributed in all grades from the first through the eighth.

Agriculture.

Mississippi is primarily an agricultural state, but due to many recently developed resources the number of its industries is steadily increasing. The size of the average farm in Mississippi is approximately sixty acres. The average farm income for 1939 was estimated at $500.

Industry.

According to the Mississippi State Tax Commission, there were 1,244 manufacturing concerns paying taxes in Mississippi in 1939, and the sales value of the products manufactured by them in that year amounted to $156,290,384, compared with $139,324,407 in the preceding year. In 1939, sawmills and planing mills led in the value of their manufactured products, with lumber and timber products ranking first. Oil processing mills ranked second, cotton mills third, bottled drinks fourth, cheese and dairy products fifth, bakeries sixth, feed mills seventh and naval stores eighth.

Not only has there been an increase in the number of home corporations and concerns engaged in manufacturing within the state, but many outside manufacturing concerns, which have branches or subsidiaries in Mississippi, have been recently expanding their facilities and their operations. That Mississippi has splendid opportunities for manufacturing industries is further evidenced by the fact that new branch plants have in recent months been established within the state by corporations with nationally known reputations. Other plants, smaller in size, are beginning operation in various sections of the state. It was only during the past few years that large-scale dairy processing plants were located in Mississippi; and that many knitting mills, with headquarters in the North and in the East, first established themselves in Mississippi, in order to take advantage of cheapness of labor and nearness to raw materials.

Mineral Products.

The amount of natural gas, the state's chief mineral resource, produced in 1939, totaling 15,233,000 M. cu. ft., represented a 7 per cent rise over the already increased production for 1938, of 13,656,000 M. cu. ft. with a value of $3,210,000. It is feared however that the supply is becoming exhausted.

Finance.

The state budget represented an increase of 3.87 per cent over that for the previous biennium. Most of the increase was appropriated for increasing the welfare functions of the state, for the purchase of free text books, and for Homestead Exemption Reimbursements.

State Officers.

Governor, Paul B. Johnson; Lieutenant Governor, Dennis Murphree; Secretary of State, Walker Wood; State Treasurer, Lewis S. May; State Auditor, J. M. Causey; Attorney General, Greek L. Rice; Superintendent of Education, J. S. Vandiver.

United States Senators:

Byron Patton Harrison, Theodore G. Bilbo.