Brothers & Governors

Brothers & Governors

One sunny day last week police clubs whacked about bumptious heads on the streets of New Orleans. At Hammond, 42 mi. away, three men shot out a political argument; the loser was killed, the winners wounded. In Jefferson Parish shotguns bristled about a barn where citizens were forced to "vote right or else--" behind transparent cheesecloth. Louisiana was holding a Democratic primary which was equivalent to a regular election.

One of five candidates for Lieutenant Governor was Earl Long, brother of redheaded, hard-bitten Huey Pierce Long, simultaneously Governor and U. S. Senator. But between the Brothers Long is intense political animosity. Earl was running on a ticket pledged to turn Huey out of his political dictatorship of Louisiana. He was badly beaten and Brother Huey was happy. What made him happy though, was not his brother's inconspicuous defeat but rather his own success in picking the State's next Governor.

So intense is Louisiana partisanship that Governor Long dared not relinquish his State office to take his Senate seat lest his enemies seize and destroy his political organization. His hope was to continue his rule from Washington. Therefore, to be his successor at Baton Rouge he picked Oscar Kelly Allen, 49, red-faced, grey-haired chairman of the State Highway Commission and lifelong Long man. A country boy who taught school, ran a saw mill, took up politics, Mr. Allen hunts duck, fishes, says little, likes to stay at home. A Long boast: "I can sell anybody anything." During the primary campaign Governor Long took the stump for Mr. Allen, made good his boast by selling his candidate to Louisiana's voters over four ineffectual opponents.

With his man elected, Huey Long was ready to change from Governor to Senator. In a private car he journeyed to Washington while Dr. Paul Cyr and Alvin O. King bickered over who was to be acting Governor of Louisiana. King won, was sworn in as Governor, while Cyr sneered: "usurper!" Senator Long took ten rooms at the Mayflower Hotel, received the Press in lavender pajamas and declared: "I'm a small fish here perhaps but I'm the kingfish to the people of Louisiana." He smoked his way into the Senate, announced himself "ready for business."

In Mississippi, next door to Louisiana, Martin Sennett ("Sure Mike") Conner was being installed the same day as Governor. So bitter was the political enmity between him and Theodore Gilmore Bilbo, retiring Governor, that they refused to ride to the State Capitol for the ceremonies in the same automobile.

In New Jersey, also on the same day, Arthur Harry Moore's inauguration as Governor barely escaped tragedy when a photographer's flashlight bulb exploded almost in the new executive's face as he was taking the oath of office.

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