Show mississippi INDUSTRY Q 77 gi y t ak nt I 1 al MI y Q I 1 aw 1 aa 31 JA at V nv 1 4 U N WA A Z 1 P the smith still plies his trade in mississippi how machinery Is transforming this once agricultural state prepared by national geographic society washington D C service are coming M to agricultural mississippi after a m orning morning tour of industrial du jackson you scrape from your shoe soles layers of cottonseed oil pungent creosote and clayey all caked hard with dried mud from a petroleum well being dug by special appropriation of the state legislature twice daily the red and silver streamline rebel train flashes through the state past ox teams plodding along sunken roads new myriad windowed garment factories negroes driving ramshackle buckboards and glides beneath airplanes that are heading into the capitals spacious four way airport over in natchez girls in lavender hoop skirt gowns trimmed with rare old lace sidle into automobiles to drive annual pilgrimage week visitors to antebellum ante bellum homes straight from the pages of so red the rose up the delta a sprightly gentleman of eighty two years calls his chauffeur to take you in his car to a 2 log cabin still standing on the plantation of acres of cotton corn pecans and hay he and his uncle built the cabin only 65 years ago after they had cleared the land and floated the timbers timber s in from the surrounding forest and the chimney brick from the river dock 10 miles distant jackson Is spacious and busy busy mod moann jackson illustrates the transformation this city is no upstart it has been the state capital since 1822 stately home with wisteria growing over columned por and with crape myrtle on the lawns line wide avenues barber shops still are spacious forums of political argument where a southern colonel may doff his broad brimmed hat in courtly salutation without toppling over a coat rack rooms in hotels office buildings and homes knew not the builder who estimates costs in cubic from sidewalks beneath rusty tin roofs you look across the street toward shop fronts with onyx like tiles burnished metal and neon lights one tall office building with cu bastic floors and chromium elevator doors rises knife edged to carve an otherwise gracious skyline just opposite a colonial type home now painted green and occupied by the salvation army As recently as 1920 century old jackson still had only people by 1930 it counted more than twice that number in 1937 a local census estimated nearly a rate of growth rivaling that of los angeles the citizens disclaim any boom ibon the increase they assert with reason is the normal result of several job I 1 obvious causes one impetus was the discovery only seven years ago of natural gas which now flows from nearly wells in the city limits much of it into pipe lines that radiate all over the state another change was pu putting eting through high power transmission lines nes the state had none until 1925 and the consequent encourage lent of factories in jackson as well as in many other places roads and cottonseed oil OH most important factor perhaps 11 the e road which i building program lever 1 gives centrally y situated jackson an ver wider wingspread as a shop I 1 ping point and controverts contro verts the old taunt that mississippi has three big cities mobile new orleans and memphis early among jacksons industries naturally enough were cottonseed oil mills in the musty archives of the squat old state capitol are antebellum ante bellum laws which prohibited gin owners from polluting streams with cottonseed or dumping it inside town and c city ity limits no need for enforcing such laws law S now when for every pound bale of cotton the planter may sell an average of pounds of seed for about 18 all around jacksons hoop skirts as someone aptly called the outlying industrial belt tall circular warehouses with conical metal tops rise like the houses ol of kents hop growing districts each seed house stores tons tong or s so 0 of cottonseed which awaits the tha mechanical alchemy that will convert its parts into horse collars salad dressing blotting paper cheese crackers house roofing and an amazing variety of other products the seeds pour first into huge machines which whirl shake screen and pull out all the dirt and foreign particles the clean seed goes to dewinters delin where the lint fibey is is removed and collected to help heir make felt absorbent cotton mattresses and even underwear the kernels or meats emerge from a steam jacketed cooker into hydraulic presses which squeeze out the oil that will be used to pads sardines make butter substitutes soap and cooking oils the cakes remaining in the po powerful gerful hydraulic presses are removed and broken up to feed cattle and rejuvenate the soil not hot cakes wrapped in hair negroes stripped to the waist deftly handle the literal hot cakes wrapping them for the presses into mats made of human hair from china which best withstands the high temperatures the odor from the presses is like that of hot buttered toast at lanct t time ir ne you see the workers dip theia bread into the dripping oil and ea the oil spread sl slices ices with evident relish enter a bathroom an ocean liner and you encounter sip ip pi composition board stroll along atlantic cites boardwalk or gc aboard some british man of wai and your feet tread the states yel low pine planks contract a cold in m london australia or argentina and prescription is apt to confair your Mis mississippi sissi pine oil extracted from PP stumps buy gasoline as you toul italy or japan and it may have beer bleached by a distinctive product from the state some people call provincial A plant at jackson hauls in eacel week some tons of benton tte mined in smith county the soft clay sleek as an alligator i porous belly product of ash a sh from eruptions of bygone geologic times is dumped from car to colv conveyor convey oi belt mixed into a slurry and treat ed with acids A glass bottle w works at jacksel mississippi as i 8 be best S t illustrates tor for customer of ma many ny states and eig eign in lands tons of old bottles from every piled high in the yard to ti where are to crush belts moving be carried on with san then to be mixed ers arz from Arkan arkansas sast salt cake fron fron from ohio barium chile lime colorado feldspar from missouri and sele montana from arsenic make enough canada to from gium to fo supply one to bottles every day each white family in the stata state |