The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1901-09-07
State Press on Treasurer stowers.

| f-s stS"SmSr Showers.
Vicksburg Herald: Governor
Longino has done the right thing
in suspending State Treasurer
EStowers. He should have done
this on the 18TH inst. The. Herald
pronounced such action impero-
tive the day the treasury was pub
lished as shy over a hundred
Thousand dollars. But tho right
thing having been done. and no
harm entailcd BY delay and hesi-
fancy, no more is to be said of il.
If there were any doubts of the
lrlghtfulness of this suspension
before, the publication of the trea-
surer's letter to the Governor.
published today, remover them.
No one, can read this without
the conviction that the law
against lending out the State
funds has been habituaIly viola.
ted. And while claiming the war
rant Of law for so doing, he DIS
credits the claim in refusing to
name his banks Of deposit for fear
they will bo proceeded against un-
der the law. In the light of his
letter the public can only accept
Mr.. Showers assurance of honest
motives, BY adiudging him the
weakling Of designing men. This
will win pity, but not immunity
from such penalties as the law
prescribes.
~
Natcbez Democrat: After a
careful consideration of the facts
and a close reading of the letter
written by Treasurer Showers, one
can but say that In removing the
treasurer and appointing Mr.. Geo
w. Carlisle, Governor Longino
has adopted the proper course
and the people of Mississippi who
believe in supporting the law Of
their State will,express their APP
proval. OF course some of the
friends of Mr.. Showers will declare
that the peposed official commit
ted no wrong; he did not make
way with the States funds, but
these forget the fact that on Au-
gust 15, he was short $107, 1922
and under the law of the State, it
rested with Governor Longino
toinvoke the law on him. All
things considered, the Governor
gave Mr.. Showers full and ample
time to restore the missing money
We have Mr.. Showers statement
that the money was in the banks,
but he does not name the bank.
This does not look well. He said
the money was in the banks, but
his books did not showit If they
had there would have been no
shortage
Biloxi Herald: The entire epi-
sode is Indicative of the fact that
too little care is exercised in the
choosing Of State officers, lnclud-
ing the highest in the State, and
it is to be hoped that hereafter
more judgment and deliberation
will be exercised in their selection
and that men will not be called
upon to fill the high places where
State interests are involved, where
they are even expected of being in
any manner incompetent, incapa-
bic orunftted fo.' the places to
which they aspire. 1t would. be
just as bad for the State to suffer
from incompetency IN Office as
fromcriminality, and such exigen
cies should be most scrupulously
guarded against. 1t is not our
purpose to unjustlY structure any
body in this matter, but there
does seem good cause to call at
tention to the laches of both the
gentlemen who are under discus
sion. The treasurer appears to
have been most careless in the
management of the affairs of his
most important position and the
Governor was equally dereIict in
not following the specific duties of
bis Office as they are laid down in
the State statutes.
Z
X Meridian Star: The Clarion
Ledger publishes copy of the
bond of State Treasurer Showers.
On the list of names as securities
we find those of w. v. Sullivan
aud Phil al. Rush. The former
is on the bond for ten thousand
dollars and the latter for fifteeu
thousand. They are BY far the
two larest securities on the obli-
cation which Mr.. Showers gave to
the State when he took charge
of the public money. Mr..
Sullivan Is engaged in various.
banking enterprises and Mr.. Rush
lis bunker and frequently ven
Ituros into other dea 8 1t was stat.
ed quite freely in jackson at the
last convention that candidates
/ for State treasurer were discourag-
ed by suasion aud Itler means