MISSISSIPPI: Toward the 20th Century

REMEMBER: 1) THE 20TH CENTURY

INDUSTRIALIST WILL NOT INVEST MUCH OF HIS MONEY IN A 19TH CENTURY

STATE; 2) IS MISSISSIPPI CONDEMNED

ALWAYS TO BE 20 YEARS BEHIND THE PARADE OF PROGRESS?

Beneath those blunt words—part of a quarter-page advertisement spread through the newspapers in Mississippi's capital city of Jackson one day last week—was the signature of Mississippi's Governor James Plemmon Coleman. With something of a jolt, Mississippians realized that capable, 43-year-old J. P. Coleman, who had worked surprising modernizing reforms during his first year in office without open legislative battles with the state's mossbacks (TIME, March 3), was set to fight right...