The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1912-03-30
REPORT OF HANCOCK
Co. GRAND JURY.
To Hon. ]. I. Ballenger, Special Judge
of the March term of the Circuit

4
Court
We, the Grand Jury, appointed by
your Honor at the beginning of this,
the March, term of the Circuit Court,
beg to make this, our final, report:
After listening to the able charge OF
the Court, we retired to the investiga-
| tion of the conditions existing in our
county. In the outset, we desire to say
that the people of Hancock county are
| to be congratulated on the absence OF
the more serious crimes in their county,
and we are glad to say that the county
has been free from serious crimes of
violence such as murder and assaults
with deadly weapons. In fact, we have
found no indictments for crimes of this
sort.
We beg to report that we have exam
ined 121 witnesses and have found II
true bills. Our Investigation has been
as thorough and conscientious as we
could make it, being animated with
desire to discover and report all viola
tions of the law; and, while we have
not found great number OF indict-
ments, our efforts have been, neverthe-
less, jealous to enforce the law. There
is one form of lawlessness we believe
to be prevalent in our county, and that
is the unlawful sale of intoxicating
liquors. Repeated indications of the
existence of this evil have been pre-
sented to us, and we have sought to get
at the truth On this point we were
greatly handicapped by the unwilling
ness of Witnesses to testify concern
ing the purchase of whiskey. In our
opinion, the unlawful sale of liquor
does more to encourage the existence
and commission of perjury than any
other influence that operates in COM
munity. A false sense of honor and
loyalty to the seller of intoxicating
liquor seems to prevent the purchaser
from testifying against him. This is to
be deplored and should be sufficient of
itself to enlist the support of all citi-
zens to suppress the unlawful sale of
| liquor. In instances where we have
had proper evidence we have found
true bills against the offenders, but we
realize that there exist in this county
other violators of this law, whom we
have not been able to indict.
A great part of our time has been
devoted to the working of the public
roads under the system adopted in our
county for the past several months.
We give it as our frank and unhesitat-
ing opinion that the county of Han
cock has been defrauded of large sums
of money by dishonest employees of
the county working on the public
roads. It seems that there was no
proper form of inspection for accounts
presented to the Board of Supervisors
for payment on account of work on
these roads. And we find from In
spection of the records of the Board
of Supervisors that large sums of
money have been paid on reports
which were incorrect on their face and
which contained gross and willful mis-
statements of the money which the
county owed We find that foremen
employed by the county on the roads
padded their accounts and wrongfullv
obtained large sums of money on such
fraudulent reports. We deplore the
existence OF system which makes
such frauds possible. In proper cases
we have found indictments, and, in ad-
dition to these indictments, we desire
to say that the whole system has been
mismanaged, resulting, in our opinion,
inagreat financial loss to the county of
Hancock. We are also informed that
the county property is used for pri-
vate purposes, which is wrong and
should be Investigated.
We think that in the future the Board
OF Supervisors should not in any case
turn over the money due laborers to
any person other than the laborers
themselves. Warrants should be drawn
to the employees themselves and given
to them in person. In the past, the
whole payroll seems to have been
turned over to foremen of gangs, and,
while the laborers seem to have OBJ
tanned from these foremen the money
due them, yet the county has been de-
frauded by virtue of the payrolls, and
reports have been padded, and the fore
men seem to have put the difference
in their pockets. We do not intend by
these expressions to condemn all per-
sons connected with the working of
the public roads, but the instances of
fraud and mismanagement have been
so glaring as TO deserve an expression
of disapproval of this grand jury.
We are Of the opinion that the adop-
ton of the system of letting the pub
lie roads out on contracts would yield
better results to the county. Under
the present system too many important
matters are left to the discretion and re-
sponsibility OF individuals who are no
bonded and obligated to the faithful
performance of their duties. Necessa-
lriIy, in our opinion, the Board of SUI
pervisors cannot, when the amount of
pay which they receive and the limited
scope OF their authority is taken into
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