Mound City Misbehavior

Last July, while St. Louisans were perspiring through one of their hottest recorded summers, the resourceful Post-Dispatch startled them out of their discomfort by beginning a series of sensational registration fraud exposures. Day by day the newspaper printed pictures of many a vacant lot, unoccupied building, bawdy house, saloon and cheap hotel listed on the Election Board's "revised and corrected" election rolls as domiciles of phantom voters. Soon private citizens, civic organizations, hungry Republicans turned out of office four years ago in the New Deal landslide, set up a loud clamor, began to ask why 1,338 official canvassers hired by the Election Board and paid $16,000 did not find these apparent irregularities which were uncovered by a handful of newshawks. It now became clear why the number of registered voters in the Mound City in June had swelled to 394,774, an all-time record.

At once the Grand Jury swung into action on this gross case of electoral misbehavior. In a fortnight 32 minor Election Board officials were under indictment for fraud, wilful neglect of duty. Censured but not indicted were the four members of the Bi-Partisan Election Board, composed of two Democrats and two Republicans picked by Democratic Governor Guy Brasfield Park. Last week, with the Post-Dispatch still doling out its apparently inexhaustible store of election fraud evidence, Governor Park felt it would be unwise to withhold official action longer, called in Jefferson City correspondents, announced he had removed his St. Louis Election Board for the "betterment of the public service," appointed a new board.

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