The Tupelo journal., 1913-10-24

members on the board of trustees OF
the state penitentiary, the largest fin
ancial institution in the state, so as
to give G.. C. Smith, chairman in that
board, control. The governor met this
with such positive veto from the execu-
tive department that CONSERVATION
reigned in the camp. 1t was known
that the ~penitentiary, for the year 1911,
just preceding his induction into office,
had been operated at a loss, when
in truth and in fact it ought to have
made in the neighborhood of half a
million dollars net. He Immediately
set to work in a systematic manner to
ascertain where the shortage was and
who was to blame, and Immediately he
was sued by the officers of the peniten-
tiary for fabulous amounts. for libel,
and threatened with physical attack
but right and left crooks began to come
up before him and confessed they had
gotten their share. There was no i'm
munity offered. Soon the president OF
the board of trustees, the highest Off
Ger of the department, was indicted,
tried and convicted of a most glazing
fraud on the state. Another M OF
the hoard of trustees was indicted for
malfeasance in Office and judgment re-
moved him. One of the sergeants on
one of the state farms was convicted
and sentenced to the ~penitentiary; the
assistant sergeant convicted and sent
to the farm; a prominent planter living
near one of the farms was convicted
and fined heavily; and the secretary OF
the ~penitentiary, who belonged to a
long line of honored descendants, plead
ed guilty that the governor had found
him with a great amount of the
swag and he. too is wearing the stripes
and has changed his name for a num-
Der.
The trail led to the sale and purchase
of the states cotton, most of which had
been bought by a firm of Memphis,
Tenn, known as Boyce & Company.
composed of C. r. Boyce and G. L.
Wilkinson, and the governor said,
fraudulently sold or purchased. Near
~ all this cotton for five years, pur-
chased by Boyce & Company, had been
shipped to Manchester, England, and
when the governor left the state and
straightway went to Manchester, the re
was great quaking in the boots of the
whole penltentiary crowd.
Immediately the story was started
that he was over there tor the purpose
of selling the lands Of the delta. a por-
ton of the state, to an English syndi-
cate; there being a great prejudice in
the state against the selling of land to
English syndicates, but it was soon
found that the governor sold an
acrs of land to an English man. Then
they whispered it ABOUT that he had
gone for the purpose of revivifying the
old repudiated bonds of Mississippi, and
with the view of saddling a big debt
upon the state. but this was so rldlcu-
ulous and absurd that sensible people
would not take the dope. They next
announced that he was there for the
purpose Of selling the Wesson Mills,
but the owners of that mill soon settled
that controversy by announcing the
governor had never had anything to do
with selling the mill. Then they be-
gan industriously circulating the story
that he had a fair maiden with him.
with: the view of brea king him down
and rendering him powerless to cope
with the grafters and other law-break-
ers of the state. They accused him of
pushing his penitentiary probe for po-
litical purposes, but the record shows
that wherever his trail led to any mans
crookedness, the governor sent for an
officer and had him arrested. 1t didn't
make any difference with the governor
what his previous or anticipated poll
tics might be. Among those who were
caught in the net were some of his best
friends and political supporters.
Prior to his induction into office
there had been a young man by the
name of Blount holding the office of
circuit clerk and afterwards deputy
sheriff in Yalobusha county in the
state, and some question has arisen
about his accounts being short. Know
ing that the governor would be a man
of an inquiring disposition somebody
got excited and, a few nights before
his Inauguration, the court house in the
city of Water Valley, in said county,
was destroyed by an ~incendiary fire.
However, the records were preserved,
as there was a military company sta
toned there at the time, and they sue
--zJ1l -. .oft;n~ tho roocrIc o,.k -