ANOTHER VOICE

Anyone who at present is a lawyer in Oklahoma will have the chance of a lifetime to make a name for himself. For anyone who can straighten out the muddle of injunctions and appeals and cross-restraining orders in that state deserves a place in the Hall of Fame. The tangle is far too intricate for the lay reader, but one thing is clear. Governor Walton's appeal to force has not been successful, due entirely to the temper of the people of Oklahoma.

When the governor martialed his shock troops and the legislature replied by enlisting sheriffs and sheriffs' posses in its behalf, the rest of the country may well have begun to wonder who was and who was not in power in Oklahoma. The question has had a pretty clear answer in the special election on Tuesday. By a large majority the people of Oklahoma delivered Governor Walton the rebuke which he deserved. Since it is hardly conceivable that such a great proportion of the people should be Klansmen, one can assume that sympathy with the Ku Klux had little influence in the voting. Nor is it too much for one to assume that the question of a special legislative session was not the primum mobile. The prime object of the people was to tell Governor Walton what they thought of his martial law and his high-handed assumption of power.

Supporters of the governor have bound themselves with a host of estimates which they have attempted to juggle into a position favorable to him Through intimidation by the Klan and the sheriffs of the enemy some 275,000, they judge, have been frightened out of voting against the special session. With some thirteen hundred precincts still to be heard from, it is possible that some of the 275,000 may have bucked up enough courage to vote after all, perhaps not always in the governor's favor.

Governor Walton may prove in the courts that the election was invalid because not sufficiently advertised. That is beside the point at present. The fact, however, that he did not surround the polls with his regiments shows that he has had one thing proven to him: the people of Oklahoma infinitely prefer legal proceedings to martial violence.