Editing Huey Long (section)

===Increased tensions in Louisiana===
[[File:Huey Long 1935 LOC hec 39385.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Huey Long standing in a doorway smiling|Long after giving a successful five-hour filibuster, about two weeks before his death]]
By 1935, Long's consolidation of power led to talk of armed opposition from his enemies in Louisiana. Opponents increasingly invoked the memory of the [[Battle of Liberty Place]] (1874), in which the [[White League]] staged an uprising against Louisiana's Reconstruction-era government. In January 1935, an anti-Long paramilitary organization called the Square Deal Association was formed. Its members included former governors [[John M. Parker]] and [[Ruffin Pleasant]] and New Orleans Mayor [[T. Semmes Walmsley]].<ref name="Brinkley 2011 p. 29"/><ref name="Hair 1996 pp. 298">[[#Hair|Hair (1996)]], pp. 298–300.</ref> Standard Oil threatened to leave the state when Long finally passed the five-cent-per-barrel oil tax for which he had been impeached in 1929. Concerned Standard Oil employees formed a Square Deal association in Baton Rouge, organizing themselves in militia companies and demanding "direct action".<ref name="Kane112112">[[#Kane|Kane (1971)]], pp. 112–13.</ref>

On January 25, 1935, these Square Dealers, now armed, seized the [[East Baton Rouge Parish]] courthouse. Long had Governor Allen execute emergency measures in Baton Rouge: he called in the [[Louisiana Army National Guard|National Guard]], declared martial law, banned public gatherings of two or more persons, and forbade the publication of criticism of state officials. The Square Dealers left the courthouse, but there was a brief armed skirmish at the [[Baton Rouge Airport]]. Tear gas and live ammunition were fired; one person was wounded, but there were no fatalities.<ref name="Hair 1996 pp. 298"/><ref name="Kane112112"/><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Mathy|first1=Gabriel|last2=Ziebarth|first2=Nicolas|date=March 2017|title=How Much Does Political Uncertainty Matter? The Case of Louisiana under Huey Long|journal=[[The Journal of Economic History]]|volume=77|issue=1|pages=90–126|doi=10.1017/S002205071700002X|doi-access=free}}</ref> At a legal hearing, an alleged spy within the Square Dealers testified they were conspiring to assassinate Long.<ref name="warrennyt">{{cite news|last=Warren|first=Robert Penn|author-link=Robert Penn Warren|date=May 31, 1981|title=In the Time of 'All the King's Men'|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/31/books/in-the-time-of-all-the-king-s-men.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=September 4, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108173512/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/31/books/in-the-time-of-all-the-king-s-men.html|archive-date=January 8, 2020|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In summer 1935, Long called two special legislative sessions in Louisiana; bills were passed in rapid-fire succession without being read or discussed. The new laws further centralized Long's control over the state by creating new Long-appointed state agencies: a state bond and tax board holding sole authority to approve loans to local governments, a new state printing board which could withhold "official printer" status from uncooperative newspapers, a new board of election supervisors which would appoint all poll watchers, and a State Board of Censors. They stripped away the remaining powers of the [[mayor of New Orleans]]. Long boasted he had "taken over every board and commission in New Orleans except the [[Community Chest (organization)|Community Chest]] and the [[American Red Cross|Red Cross]]".<ref>[[#Bergal|Bergal (2007)]], p. 102.</ref> A September 7 special session passed 42 bills. The most extreme, likely aimed at Roosevelt and his federal agents, authorized Louisiana to fine and imprison anyone who infringed on the powers reserved to the state in the [[Tenth Amendment]] to the [[United States Constitution]].<ref name="Brinkley249">[[#Brinkley|Brinkley (1983) [1982]]], p. 249.</ref>