Back in the Saddle Again

All through the hot morning they streamed into Baton Rouge--wool-hatted farmers, "Cajuns" with whiskey on their hips, gamblers, cattlemen, oilmen, old folks and bobby-soxers. They came by train, bus, automobile and even on yachts. The Longs were coming back into power: Huey's greying, gravel-voiced brother Earl was being inaugurated governor of Louisiana.

Barrels of ice water awaited the thirsty on the Louisiana State University campus. At L.S.U. stadium, where 10,000 assembled to watch the inaugural ceremonies, there was free food & drink for all--200,000 hot dogs, a quarter of a million buns, 8,000 gallons of buttermilk, a quarter of a million bottles of root beer, Coke and "red soda pop."

When Governor Earl arrived on the wooden stadium stage, 211 newly appointed colonels were on hand to applaud him. Said the governor: "If anybody else wants to be a colonel, just let me know." When a 19-gun salute banged out in his honor he cracked: "I hope nobody got shot." The crowd roared. It cheered again when he paraphrased brother Huey: "I hope to see this a state where every man is a king and every lady a queen, but no one is wearing the crown."

Earl did his best to prove a post-election brag: "We'll improve on everything Huey did." The entertainment went on & on. There was a baseball game, swimming exhibition and music by countless bands. There was also some unscheduled entertainment. Children dropped buttermilk cartons from the top of the stadium and one woman was conked by a falling whiskey bottle.

Earl held a reception at the governor's mansion, beamed and shook hundreds of hands. He topped off the evening by leading the grand march at an inaugural ball. His day of triumph produced only one painful incident. He had been reminded again that Louisiana's voters loved brother Huey's 29-year-old son, Russell, better than they loved him. When Russell, a slightly sharper-featured replica of his snub-faced father, made a short speech, he got the biggest cheer of the afternoon.

Three days after the inauguration, Louisiana's 72-year-old Senator John H. Overton--who had refused to back Earl in the election--died in Bethesda Naval Hospital. His vacant Senate seat gave the Longs an easy and unexpected means of strengthening their political hold on Louisiana. Governor Earl prepared to appoint a friend--probably a Monroe oil millionaire named William C. Feazel--on condition that the appointee would not run for the office after the interim term expired. In November, having achieved the Senate's 30-year minimum age, Nephew Russell would run, with every chance of election.

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