producers could not 'secure justice or
equity from the courts of the land, so
that they must needs rely upon the
chief magistrate of the state to exercise
the supreme executive power . . . .'
Governor Murray is said to have
called forth the militia a score of
times during his term of office: to
prevent the foreclosure of farm mort-
gages, to enforce a bank holiday, to
deliver from jail one committed for
non-payment of alimony, to take
charge of ticket sales at the football
game between the state's two institu-
tions of higher learning, and for simi-
lar veighty causes.
"Occasionally the governor declares
'martial law' as a trump card in some
contest with political rivals. In 1935
Governor Johnson of South Carolina
tried to get rid of the highway com-
missioners by declaring them to be
insurgents — only to be restrained by
the State supreme court. Governor
Quinn of Rhode Island, seeking to tap
the strength of a political opponent
who was also proprietor of the Nar-
ragansett Race Track, established
'martial law' over the track. When
Senator Huey Long was at war with
Mayor Walmsley for control of the
New Orleans police board, Governor
Alien, acting from the Senator's hotel
suite, obligingly called the troops and
instituted an extraordinary regime
which he described by the alliterative
title of 'partial martial law.' In 1934,
Governor Rivers of Georgia pro-
claimed 'martial law' around the high-
way department's building as a device
for excluding the chairman whom he
had already been enjoined from
removing, and later expanded his
proclamation to protect his military
agents from punishment for their
contempt — all of which was brought
to naught by the state supreme and
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federal district courts.
"Military control by state au-
thorities during labor disputes has
seldom been administered with, an
even hand. Generally, the strikers are
branded as insurgents, and the open
shop is enforced .... [T]here have
been instances where a governor has
thrown the troops on the workers'
side. Thus . . . Governor Olson of
Minnesota, after a protracted truck
strike in 1934, prevented the move-
ment of trucks owned by employers
who would not accept a compromise
recommended by the federal concilia-
tors. In injunction procedures the
federal courts declined to interfere.
Later when the . . . Company was
struck, the governor prevented the
owner from operating with strike
breakers. The district court . . .
granted an injunction.
". . . [W]e have had two instances
where a governor has declared 'mar-
tial law' as a direct attack upon the
operations of the United States Gov-
ernment. In 1938, Governor
Kruschele of Iowa sought by this
method to drive out an NLRB ex-
aminer inquiring into a dispute . . . ,
but the Board declined to be
ousted .... Governor Phillips of
Oklahoma proclaimed 'martial law' at
the site of the Grand River Dam,
which the United States had financed
by grant and loan, with a view to
stopping construction until the United
States would pay the governor's claim
for the flooding of roads within the
dam area. The Federal Government
took the orderly course of securing an
injunction ag-ainst the high-handed
military interference." (Footnotes
omitted)
The above catalogue of uses and
bizarre misuses of the militia must be
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