Evening star., 1934-09-09
Machine Guns and
Militia Backed
Long Drive.
NEW LAWS ARMED
HUEY'S FORCES
Control of City Main
Issue in Tuesdays
Election.
BY oRLAND KAY ARMSTRONG.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
IN NEW ORLEANS-great, gay
city of the South-New Or
leans, city of the Madri Gras
and powerful center of cot
ton and commerce-there exists
a situation that on Tuesday may
still reach a climax of roaring
guns and tragic bloodshed.
And it may not. Years from
now some light opera composer
may picture in rhyme and mel
ody the comedy of a Louisiana
'Kingf1sh" who executes his
orders by calling out the Army
to take charge of voting booths
and public buildings and to train
machine guns on the City Hall.
What a hilarious opera-buffe
that may make some day-if
Tuesday passes without the
black and stark tragedy which
the nervous discharge of a sin
gle gun might start.
What will happen Tuesday
when Louisiana, now the realm
of Dictator Huey P. Long, holds
its primary election? Will the
embattled city officials of New
Orleans, led by Mayor T. S..
WalmSley, whom Huey speaks of
in derision as "turkeyhead," de-
eide to outnumber, outwit and
perhaps outshoot the National
Guard and the special State Po-
lice under the Kingf1sh?
New Orleans is waiting-tense,
anxious, fearful. Waiting-with
as fierce a political splitting and
f1aring as ever set fire to per-
sonal and public hatreds.
Try to Figure 1t Out.
You have to spend a while in the
proud Crescent City and talk to both
partiSanS and neutrals to get any
thing like a proper perspective. And
then you are likely to go Slightly daft
trying to figure out how it all could
happen in the United States of Amer
lea anyhow.
You go back up to the City Hall
to see again for yourself. National
Guardsmen of the State on one side
of the narrow street, in the building
which houses the State regislation
office City policemen on the other
side, in front of the Grecian- -columned
City Hall
In the State registration Office there
are five windows which face the City
Hall, and all day long there solemnly
sits in each window, gun close at
hand, National Guardsman. Other
Guardsmen sit with sawed-of shot
guns across their laps, guarding the
doorways
They are the armed forces of the
Kingf1sh, and they are there to safe
guard the registration books listing
the voters of New Orleans. Senator
Huey Long, their commander-but
wait, we are forgetting Gov. Oscar K.
Allen, whom the constitution and laws
of Louisiana say is the commander of
the National Guard and Chief Execu-
tive of the State. But in Louisiana
they say that Long is Governor in
fact, though not in title, that Allen is
the Kingf1sh's 'yeS" man, and Huey's
errand boy. Even Longs brother,
called before a Senate committee last
year, said that Gov. Allen would not
permit his wife to go to movie with
out Longs advice and consent!
That's nothing!" snorts an aristo-
cratic employe of the city, whose
name goes back into dim New Orleans
history. Look at the laws against
New orleans which Huey Long had
the Legislature pass and the Governor
sign during the special session this
Summer"
You already have taken a look, and
you realize that Long reached out for
more power than any man ever eXer-
cised in any State beforehand that
the State Legislature and the Gov
ernor gave 1t to him. But you can't
decide how the people Of a State
would give any man that much power
Does Huey simply have them fooled or
do they eat out of his hand because
they like it?
I'll explain it," shouts a Long
leader. Longs going to give Turkey
head Walmsley and his bunch of
lying, thieving grafters the licking of
their lives in this election! He's run
ming vice and crime out of New Or
leans, that's what"
War in the Air.
You turn on the radio, music.
Then-"Ladies and gentlemen, a po-
litical speech by the Honorable Francis
Williams, running for reelection as
public service commissioner"
MY friends, I'm here to tell you
that Huey Long, the bogus friend OF
the people, the spurious 'Kingflsh,
the hollow dictator, has reached the
end of his rope 1t was mere child's
play to buy the Senators and Repre-
sentatives he needed to pass the laws
to take our liberties away, but he
can't bluff hundred thousand intelli-
gent and courageous men and women
of New Orleans He hasn't the cour-
age nor mentality to oppreSS us any
longer. His Belshazzar feast is COM
ing to an end on September IL" anc
so on.
You 90 to see Earle j. Christenberry
former private secretary to the king
fish" and now editor of HueyS publ
cation, THE American Progress" anc
he informs you that Long is saving
Louisiana from the disgraces of the
Walmsley administration in New Or
leans. AS evidence, Mr.. Christenberr,
gives you half dozen copies of hi
paper. and YOU read that; Legislature
routs lottery and vice. Fifty-yeal