LOUISIANA: Lonesome Man

One of the loneliest men in Louisiana last week was New Orleans’ Mayor Robert Sidney Maestri. Gone were most of his henchmen, gone were most of his pals. Some 200 had been indicted by U. S. and Parish (County) Grand Juries, charged with sundry tricks of fraud, graft, income-tax evasion. Three had killed themselves. In U. S. courts five had pleaded guilty, five more had been tried and convicted. Among the head men of the Maestri machine (which once was Huey Long’s), only Maestri himself and Huey’s loud little brother, Governor Earl Long, were left untouched. And Earl was not much company. He was busy trying to convince Louisiana voters, just before a Democratic run-off primary this week, that that smell of corruption in the air was no reason to turn him out of the governorship and install Lawyer Sam Houston Jones.

With the hard acumen which made him a multimillionaire, Bob Maestri still ran New Orleans last week, and what was left of his State organization. And Louisianans still wondered how long he would be immune. Assistant U. S. Attorney General Oetje John Rogge had his eye on Mr. Maestri and his sources of income. In addition to being the biggest realty owner in New Orleans, Boss Maestri was a part owner of an oil company. From July 1935 to August 1936, Mr. Maestri was also the State official in charge of regulating Louisiana oil production. One of his imprisoned henchmen afterwards had the same job. During these two tenures, declared Mr. Rogge last week, 3,111,511 barrels of oil were illegally produced, and Mr. Maestri’s profits from his company, one of the violators, amounted to $1,157,161. But, John Rogge regretfully added, there was nothing the U. S. could do about it; any violations were of State laws. About all that Prosecutor Rogge could do was to drop a broad hint to Louisiana’s next Attorney General to put lonesome Mr. Maestri with Mr. Maestri’s friends.