Evening star., 1934-01-01
The Political Mill
By C.. Could Lincoln.

the opposite opinion. The Long roao-
the Huey p. Long roads about TO
| take a turn for the worse SO far as the
Long political machine Is concerned II
appears. The senior Senator from
Louisiana, who was elected to the
Timer House of Congress first in 1887
has been making Governors ana oeh-
| ators and members of the House Gown
| in Louisiana and mayors ana Juogee
| and what not by the might OF MS
machine-and because the people were
disgusted with the old machine BUY
| it looks very much as though ne nAu
| bitten off too much, he and his Gov
! arnor oscar K Allen, when they un-
dertook to elect Representative irohi
the sixth Louisiana district to MI Tue
vacancy in the House caused by Tie
death of the late Representative BonVaf
r Kemp. Mrs. Kemp, widow OF rep
resentatiYe Kemp, was the Selectioh o.
| the Long faction, and she was "elecIeu
i at an election held December D, al
though only 5,129 votes were cast Ior
her, with some of the parishes IN tlie
district practically in revolt against tiis
so-called election. When the nouSe
meets Wednesday, Mrs. Kemp wiz ~
on hand with her credentials, sisheu
by the Long Governor.
| 4
" Sanders. ir.. also elected" Rep
resentatiye in the sixth Louisiana as
trict at an election called by the voters
themselves for December 27, Bhen ne
received l4.e24 votes to 95. will be Oh
| hand to contest the seating OF Mrs,
| Kemp And the House Will have 10
mass on the merits OF the case.
casual reading of the facts in the case
leads to the belief that Mrs. Kemp haH
little chance of being seated. What WIZ
happen to Mr.. Sanders Is aho'nei
| question. .o;ro1v
The charge is made, and seemingly
well made, that the nomination OF ME-
Kemp was not In accordance WIN tlle
State laws governing primary elecIloiis ilso
| It does not seem possible the houSe
| could possibly hold that she was nom
mated under the law, although nothing
is absolutely certain until the house
acts, The primary law demands q
I PROCLAMATION by the Governor 81 Gays
| prior to any general election. This goes
I for elections to fill vacancies as wen as
for the regular elections OF members oL
Congress every two years. Inc idM
further states that all nominations sildiI
| be made by primary elections 1heIe -
/ another provision of law "hich saSs
| that whenever a special election ha3
been called to fill vacancy, the coiiI-
mittee having authority TO call prnhaiS
elections for nominations shah haHe - ~,
authority To fix the date of the primary,
provided that It shall be not less than
10 davs after the special election
Mr. Kemp had been dead five months
and more when Gov. Allen on November
/ 81 issued a proclamation calling an
/ election for December 5. This proVloeo
an interval of less than 10 days between
the issue of the proclamation Tor Inc Ihe
| election and the date OF election lIs
District Democratic Committee was
called to meet In New Orleans, OUTSIDE
the sixth district but in the ofhces OF
the State Central Committee on De-
cember 27. and a dozen OF them turned
up for the meeting, which was helo lour
or five hours after kilograms had oeen
sent out that a meeting was 70 oe ii+iu +be
District Committee members present 10
nominate Mrs. Kemp, by committee &C
| ton and without any primary on the
ground that a primary would be IN NO
iation of the law, which states that
urinary must be held at least 10 Gays
prior to the election
y
Judge George K. Favrot of the Nine
teenth Judicial District Court of LoulSi-
ana in a decision making absolute an
/ Injunction sought by citizens of the
sixth district TO restrain the secretary
of state from printing the ballots for
the election called by Gov Allen. SAID
with reference to the extraordinary &C
tion of the Governor and the COM
mittee:
! IF 1t was impossible to hold prl-
mary, why was it impossible? II the
| time was too short. it was made so
bv the Governor. If it was impossible
to hold a primary, 1t was made so by
the Governor. The situation OF which
the committee seeks to take advantage
was created by act of the Governor. and
the conclusion is irresistible that 1t was
so created that the committee might
have an excuse to carry out its part OF
a predetermined plan to deny to the
white Democrats of the sixth congress
sional district the right to select their
nominee
The plain truth Of the matter ap-
pears to be that the Long faction was
afraid to have a primary held. lest a
candidate of their faction be defeated.
So this expedient was adopted. Il
seems incredible that the House Itself
will let the Long people get away with
this kind OF political job After Mr
Kemp's death last June, Mrs. Kemp an
nounced her candidacy, and several
other Democrats also announced they
would make the race. The Governor
did nothing about calling a special cleo
tion, although he was repeatedly re-
uuested to do so. On November "a Gov
Allen made a statement which seems in
keeping with the rest OF his course, in
which he said:
Il intend to call an election in the
sixth district and TO I'LL vacancies in
other Offices in the State when it will be
of any benefit to the people or when II
may be convenient. Just now the news
papers are busy telling us that the
President and his special boards are
running the country, and that We have
less than no use for a Congress. Why
are they c1amoring for another Con
gresham so hard if that is true?
There can be nothing so very urgent
for another member of Congress from
Louisiana to serve just a few months
when the present Congress is ma
> jority over 100 Democratic. The regu-
lar congressional election for them all
will occur in the coming Summer
Three days later the Governor issued
the call for the election. under the cir
cumstances already related. Mrs. Kemp
has come to Washington insisting that
she does not belong to any faction,
Long or otherwise The "Kingflsh'
himself is now reported to be keeping
hands off the contest which is to come
before the House. But the people OF
the sixth Louisiana district take a very
different view of the candidacy of Mrs.
Kemp.
The 'KingfiSh" has had tough time
Of it in Louisiana ever since some one
smashed him in Long Island club
house last Summer. His present term
in the Senate runs until January 3,
1887, just three years of, and he has
to stand for reelection in the Fall OF
1886, unless for one reason OF another
his term should be terminated earlier
A Senate campaign investigating com