Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-04-23
TIE Shame of Missouri.


ing everybody to its borders to cele-
brate the centennial of the Louisiana
purchase, stands, today, before the
world, Inundated and besmirched by
the disclosures of the wholesale cor
ruption among its public servants. 1t
is a record of shame which has seldom
been eoualled Half score of num-
bers of the st. Louis city government
are in Jail or on the way there; at
least five members of the Legislature
are under indictment for selling their
votes; the lieutenant governor is flu
gitive from justice, and the whole Off
cial body is honeycombed with boodling
and bribery on a colossal scale.
Missouri has been under Democratic
control for so years. Every COVER
nor elected during that period has been
a Democrat and every Legislature has
had a Democratic majority, except one
branch in the Legislature of 1895,
which had a small Republican majority.
The state has been uniformly gerry
wandered, so that while the Republic
cans cast about 46 per cent. of the vote
they have been able to elect only ii
per cent. of the congressman. ST.
Louis was for a long time a Republic
ture passed what is known as the Mes
hit election law, which places the cleo
tons of that city under the con-
troll of n board appointed by the DEM
ocratic governor and permits any
amount of fraud on the ballot boxes the
Democrats choose to perpetrate. Since
then st. Louis has regularly gone Dem.
ocratic.
The corruptions now being exposed
are probably no worse than those that
have existed in past years. The only
difference is that the details of this
years boodling has come to light. The
story of the present scandal is thus
told by the correspondent of the Phil
adelphia Press. Two years ago what
is known as the anti-alum baking
powder trust procured the passage of a
law through the Missouri Legislature
forbidding the use of alum in food
compounds. This naturally interfered
with the profits of the alum baking
powder combine and when the Legis-
lot iS h1n
that an effort was to be made to re-
peal the anti-alum clause of the pres
ent law. 1t was alum against anti
alum, and If stories are correct both
sides Were ready to offer induce
ments." Apparently the anti-alum side
bid the higher, and, as told it is anti
alum $1,000 bills that are now flashing"
i'm the air and making things uncom-
Portable for the bribers and the bribed.
This is the story as related in the
hotels and on the street corners. And
the grand juries of st. Louis and JEFF
ferson City appear to have enough ev-
idence in support of it to frame in
dictments and Lieutenant Governor
Lee fears the truth enough to go into
hiding. BY his own confession an at
tempt was made to bride Mr.. Lee
when the session of the Legislature
began, and a $1,000 bill was sent him,
but he said nothing about it until the
exposure came, although he saw al
most daily the briber circulating among
the members and abundant rumors of
corruption must have reached his ears.
A queer sense of official honor, truly,
for the lieutenant governor of state.
And then ex-governor and now United
States Senator Stone is trying to eX-
plain why he was so earnestly on the
anti alum side and worked Jointly
with the notorious lobbyist who did
the bribing. Some of the guilty will be
punished but most will escape. The
state is dishonored and it's honest peo-
PIE hang their heads in shame at the
fl uits of the Democratic rule they have
submitted to so long.