TWO GOVERNORS

Evening Star, Issue 26001, 16 January 1947, Page 7

TWO GOVERNORS

UNPRECEDENTED POSITION IN GEORGIA DEFIANCE AND BAWLING (Rec. 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, Jan. 15. In a move unprecedented for over 60 years, the .Georgia Legislature elected Mr Herman Talmadge as. Governor, although the present Governor, Mr Ellis Arnall, has refused to surrender office. . As a result Georgia- may have two Governors, both trying to wield executive authority. ■Mr Talmadge is. a son of, Eugene Talmadge, who died on December 21 after winning a bitter contest in November for re-election to the Governorship. Mr Herman Talmadge was hot a candidate in the election, but he. supported his father’s white supremacy programme. Talmadge’s election by the Legislature .was. the climax to a tumultuous 16 hours’ session.

Immediately afterwards Mr Arnall announced that he would not recognise the action as legal. Mr Arnall,described Mr Herman Talmadge as a “pretender,” and asserted that hi® ' successor .could only be Mr M. E. Thompson, who had been elected Lieu-tenant-Governor in November.

Mr Talmadge then visited Mi* Arnall and asked him to siirrender office immediately.: Mr Arnall refused, whereupon Mr Talmadge announced that he would establish the'office of Governor where he pleased. Before Mr Talmadge left a brawl broke, out in Mr Arnall s outer office, .where the door bad been broken down by Mr Talriiadge’s men. The former bodyguard of the late Eugene Talmadge severely beat up one of Mr Arnall’s.aides.