SOUTH DAKOTA: Peterson Accused

Arrested on a charge of misprision of felony last fortnight was Vermont’s Governor Charles Manley Smith. His dereliction was failing to report a bookkeeper’s embezzlement of $250,000 from Rutland’s Marble Savings Bank, of which he is president (TIME, Dec. 14). Last week another state executive found himself in far hotter water than Governor Smith when the U. S. Comptroller of the Currency found the accounts of Centerville, S. Dak.’s First National Bank short $170,000, closed it. Promptly arrested on a Federal warrant charging embezzlement and misapplication of funds was the bank’s president. South Dakota’s Lieutenant Governor Robert Peterson. This week in Pierre the State Legislature was to meet in special session. Lieutenant Governor Peterson, a Democrat, planned to attend, not preside over the Senate, as he has since 1934, and to turn in his resignation.