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Line 25: − '''Huey Pierce Long, Jr.''' (August 30, 1893 – September 10, 1935), nicknamed '''Kingfish,''' was a powerful [[far-left]] American politician in the 1920s and 1930s who built a ruthless [[Democratic Party|Democratic]] machine in [[Louisiana]] as governor (1928–32) and U.S. Senator (1932–35). His base was among angry poor whites, both [[Protestants]] and [[Roman Catholic]]s (called "[[Rednecks]]" by the middle class enemies of Long).+ + + + − A left-wing [[populist]] who fought the rich and promised "Every Man a King," he was preparing to run for president—either in [[United States presidential election, 1940|1940]] when [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] was expected to retire, or perhaps to challenge FDR's reelection in [[United States presidential election, 1936|1936]] in alliance with radio's influential Catholic priest Father [[Charles Coughlin]]. However, Long was assassinated in 1935 by the young physician Carl Weiss, the son-in-law of a political enemy, Louisiana 16th Judicial District Judge [[Benjamin Pavy]].+ − Although called a "[[fascist]]", Long shunned ideology of all sorts, and his dictatorship by patronage, far from being alien, was the apogee of what many American machine politicians have attempted. Pernicious and impracticable as was his leftist Share-Our-Wealth plan, its objective of plenty for all was as intrinsically American as was the title "Kingfish." Debate remains as to whether he was a dictator, [[demagogue]], messiah or populist; a friend of [[Republicanism|American values]] or an enemy?+ + − ==Early career==+ − − After finishing the three-year program at Tulane Law School in less than one year, he was admitted to the bar of Louisiana in 1914. He practiced law in Shreveport for the next few years, having secured deferment from military service during [[World War I]].+ + − + + + − ==Governor==+ − In the 1924 primary for governor, which was dominated by religious issues focusing on the activities of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]<ref>Although the Klan is best known for its actions against blacks, they also have a long hatred of Catholics as many of their members claim membership in non-mainline Protestant churches. Louisiana was -- and still is -- religiously divided between the predominantly Protestant north and the predominantly Catholic south.</ref>, Long ran third in a three-man race. − The Klan collapsed in the late 1920s, so that the 1928 contest revolved around those economic and class issues on which Huey's strength rested.+ + − + + − In Louisiana, Huey Long symbolized the rise to political power of lower-class whites. State government had been previously dominated by business interests and the New Orleans political machines. Going beyond mere symbolic gratification, Long pleased his followers by securing many material benefits, including free textbooks for all children in the public and private (religious) schools, construction of a network of free roads and bridges, increased expenditures for public education, and elimination of the [[poll tax]], which was an effort by Southern Whites to block Blacks from voting. + + − Many Southern demagogues attacked the African Americans (who were not allowed to vote); this was called "playing the race card." Long never played that card, and made sure that blacks received a share of the benefits. At the same time, the level of taxation was increased markedly, much of the increase being borne by consumers directly through sales taxes. Long built a virtual personal dictatorship in Louisiana—the first (and last) in any American state—through the partisan administration of benefits, punitive actions against his opponents, and manipulation of the election laws. In 1934 he ordered state police to confront the New Orleans Democratic Party because Mayor T. Semmes Walmsley had a formidable opposition machine. Long drew back and no shots were fired. In 1934 he reorganized the legislature to put control in the hands of his allies. He transformed local government by giving the governor power to appoint local judges, election officials and tax assessors.+ − Despite not openly being a racial demagogue, Long nevertheless was a racist who opposed anti-lynching legislation. In an interview with Roy Wilkins when asked about the Costigan-Wagner bill and the Franklinton lynching, he said:<ref>[https://spartacus-educational.com/USAcostiganwagner.htm Costigan-Wagner Act]. ''Spartacus Educational''. Retrieved April 21, 2021.</ref>+ − {{quotebox|You mean down in Washington parish? Oh, that? That one slipped up on us. Too bad, but those slips will happen. You know while I was governor there were no lynchings and since this man (Governor Allen) has been in he hasn't had any. (There have been 7 lynchings in Louisiana in the last two years.) This one slipped up. I can't do nothing about it. No sir. Can't do the dead n**** no good. Why, if I tried to go after those lynchers it might cause a hundred more n*****s to be killed. You wouldn't want that, would you?}} − + + − ==Senator==+ − [[File:HueyLong3.jpg|right|280px|thumb|Senator Long in Washington D.C.]]+ − − While serving as Senator, Huey Long originally supported the [[New Deal]] program, but later he recanted his support for it. He wanted [[Franklin Roosevelt|President Roosevelt]] to implement a "Share Our Wealth" program in which no American could have a personal fortune of more than $5,000,000, receive an income of greater than $1,000,000, or receive an inheritance of over $5,000,000. Any money earned after this would be divvied up and supposedly families would receive $2,000 to $2,500. His plan attracted significant support from the nation; it was estimated that he would get 10 percent the popular vote in the 1936 election against [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and [[Moderate Republican]] [[Alf Landon]]. + − Senator Long broke with President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in August 1933, conducted several spectacular filibusters against [[New Deal]] measures, and developed his own rival program --"Share Our Wealth"—by which poverty would be eliminated by confiscating the wealth of the rich and redistributing it equally to everyone. Long, relying on rapidly growing [[membership]] in his "Share Our Wealth" clubs and his large radio audience on [[NBC]], was in position to run for the presidency in 1936 or 1940.<ref>The Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith (1898-1976) was Long's national organizer; in the late 1930s Smith became a prominent enemy of Jews, but he was not openly anti-Semitic during his time with Long. Glen Jeansonne, "Gerald L. K. Smith: from Wisconsin Roots to National Notoriety." ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' 2002-03 86(2): 18-29. Issn: 0043-6534 [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/pdf/wmh_winter02_jeansonne.pdf Fulltext online]</ref>+ − == Death ==+ − On Sept. 8, 1935, Long was shot and fatally wounded, presumably by Dr. Carl A. Weiss, Jr., in the state capitol at Baton Rouge. Long's bodyguards killed the assassin on the spot; Long himself died on September 10. Although Dr. Weiss was a member of a prominent anti-Long family, his motive probably was personal, not political; he believed that Long had sullied his family's honor. − Huey Long's book, ''My First Days in the White House'', was published posthumously.+ − ==Legacy==+ − Huey Long made important innovations in campaign technique, including sound trucks and radio commercials. His more lasting contribution was to the state of Louisiana rather than to the nation. He created a public works program unprecedented in the South, with a plethora of roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and state buildings. The Huey P. Long Bridge, located in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, is named in his honor.+ − [[File:HueyLong2.jpg|right|270px|thumb|Long shortly before his assassination]] − − Boisterous, scurrilous, and profane in speech; ruthless, violent, and unprincipled in action, the Kingfish was widely denounced in middle class circles and Democratic Party as a sinister ignoramus and buffoon. Dumb he was not; he showed disciplined intellectual performance of the highest order and was probably emotionally sincere in championing the cause of the underdog. His temperamental antagonism toward the socially privileged led to his ostentatious defiance of every propriety, knowing it was a sure-fire method of attracting the kind of alienated supporters he wanted. + − He won in politics because of forcefulness and originality, and his perception that the governmental practices of Louisiana had become obsolete. He kept most of his promises and built roads, bridges, schools (including LSU) and other improvements which Louisiana needed. Flagrantly corrupt, he was primarily a coalition builder who used corruption to buy supporters. His improvement program was administered with relative efficiency. His success was in proportion to the weakness and confusion of his enemies, who were chiefly petty office-seekers, more decorous, but scarcely more ethical, than he. He was essentially a spokesman of a long-standing agrarian discontent that was much amplified and extended by the social and economic conditions of the great depression period. + + − Southern historian T. Harry Williams, the leading expert on Long, has a mixed evaluation that is mostly positive. Williams argues that Long stands without a rival as the greatest of Southern mass leaders. He asked the Southern United States to turn its gaze from "n*****" devils and take a long, hard look at itself. He asked people to forget the past, the glorious past and the sad past, and address themselves to the present. There is something wrong here, he said, and we can fix it up ourselves. Bluntly, forcibly, even crudely, he injected an element of realism into Southern politics. As Williams notes, not without reason did one of his unfavorable critics say that Long was the first Southerner since Calhoun to have an original idea, the first to extend the boundaries of political thought. Above all, Williams argues, he gave the Southern masses hope. He did some foolish things and some wrong things. There is a tragedy in the story, and perhaps it is not entirely his fault that he did not become the South's peerless Progressive. Perhaps the lesson of Long, says Williams, is that if in a democracy needed changes are denied too long by an interested minority, the changes, when they come, will come with a measure of repression and revenge. Perhaps the gravest indictment that can be made of Southern politics in recent times is that the urge for reform had to be accomplished by pressures that left in leaders like Long a degree of cynicism about the democratic process.<ref>T. Harry Williams, "The Gentleman from Louisiana: Demagogue or Democrat." ''Journal of Southern History'' 1960 26(1): 3-21.</ref> + − ===Long in American literature===+ − [[File:Canthappenhere.jpg|right|230px|thumb|Theatre poster for Lewis' ''It Can't Happen Here'']]+ − Political historians, and—especially—novelists have explored the strange dictatorship Long created. Long has been considered a demagogue by some, and at times referred to himself that way.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mHyeAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA261 Plain Folk of the South Revisited]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IAk7iu1WHnYC&pg=PA396 The Kingfish and His Realm: The Life and Times of Huey P. Long]</ref> Sinclair Lewis's ''It Can’t Happen Here'' (1935), by a Nobel-Prize winning novelist, portrayed a genuine American dictator on the [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] model.<ref>[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html See the full text at]</ref> Starting in 1936 the [[WPA]], a New Deal agency, performed the theatre version across the country. Written with the express purpose of hurting Long's chances in the 1936 election, Lewis's novel outfits President Berzelius Windrip with a private militia, concentration camps, and a chief of staff who sounds like Nazi propagandist [[Joseph Goebbels]]. Lewis also outfits Windrip with a racist ideology completely alien to Long and a ''Main Street'' conservatism he also never embraced. Ultimately, Windrip is a venal and cynical showman who plays to the conformist resentments Lewis diagnosed in ''Main Street'' and ''Babbitt.'' Perry (2004) argues that the key weakness of the novel is not that he decks out American politicians with sinister European touches, but that he finally conceives of fascism and totalitarianism in terms of traditional American political models rather than seeing them as introducing a new kind of society and a new kind of regime. Windrip is less a Nazi than a con-man-plus-Rotarian, a manipulator who knows how to appeal to people's desperation, but neither he nor his followers are in the grip of the kind of world-transforming ideology like Hitler's [[National Socialism]]. + − Hamilton Basso wrote two novels looking at Long, ''Cinnamon Seed'' (1934) and ''Sun in Capricorn'' (1942). Basso was a slashingly witty critic of the moonlight and magnolia romanticism of the Old South that dominated the Southern mind before 1920. Like many proponents of a New South, he wanted modernizers to take over. ''Cinnamon Seed'''s Harry Brand incorporates more details from the historical Huey Long than any other fictional portrayal does, and much of the novel is so lightly fictionalized that only a single letter separates the characters and places from their real-life counterparts.<ref>For example Basso uses "Tillson" instead of "Wilson", "Janders" rather than "Sanders", "Gwinn Parish" for "Winn Parish".</ref> Brand is a representative of the grasping and vulgar kind of new leadership which has rightly understood that the values of the Old South are played out but has replaced them with nothing but ambition and cunning. He is a greedy climber, not a demonic leader of the masses, and in fact he is ultimately not much more than an obnoxious and sticky-fingered lout, the kind who spits tobacco juice on the marble floors of his predecessors and pockets the ashtrays. In portraying his Long figure this way, Basso finds himself between the stools, critical of the spent aristocrats who cannot imagine a modern South, but disgusted also by the figures who represent the wrong kind of newness, the kind of modern South that comes to be if its development is left to default.<ref>Perry (2004)</ref> + − [[John Dos Passos]]’s ''Number One'' (1943) looks not at the politics of mass brutality whipped up by manipulative demagogues, but at the gradual ebbing away of Long's idealist convictions under the pressure of a thousand expedient compromises and betrayals in the name of institutional necessity.<ref>Perry (2004)</ref> + − [[Robert Penn Warren]]’s Pulitzer prize-winning ''All the King’s Men'' (1946) is the centerpiece of American political fiction. Warren’s spellbinding Willie Stark, almost as much philosopher as politician, bears the least resemblance to Long though for almost six decades Stark has been Long’s best-known fictional embodiment as a novel and well-received 1949 movie (it won three Oscars, including best picture and best actor as Broderick Crawford played the Long role.).<ref>Perry (2004); Bloom (1987)</ref> + + − The novelists portray Long's rise to power as a justifiable popular reaction against the selfish policies pursued by the dominant economic interests prior to 1928. They speculate the degree his extremism reflected an overreaction to his enemies, or sprang inevitably from [[class conflict]] in the state. They all try to explain why Long enjoyed majority support in Louisiana, both during and after his lifetime.+ + + + − ==See also== − *[[James Carville]] − *[[Hilda Phelps Hammond]] − *[[Earl Long]] − *[[Russell Long]] − *[[Speedy Long]] − *[[Gillis Long]] − *[[James A. Noe]] − *[[James Monroe Smith]] − ==Bibliography== − * Bloom, Harold. ''Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men'' (1987) [http://www.questia.com/read/98795137 online edition] − * Boulard, Garry. ''Huey Long: His Life in Photos, Drawings, and Cartoons.'' Gretna, La.: Pelican, 2003. 127 pp. − * Boulard, Garry. ''Huey Long Invades New Orleans: The Siege of a City, 1934-36.'' Gretna, La.: Pelican, 1998. 277 pp. − * Brinkley, Alan. ''Voices of Protest: Huey Long, Father Coughlin, & the Great Depression'' (1982), 348pp ; argues Long was a Jeffersonian trying protect the traditionalistic yeoman farmer from the modernizing encroachments of the rich elites; [https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Protest-Father-Coughlin-Depression/dp/0394716280/ref=sr_1_1/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192360492&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search] − * Burt, John. "Thirteen Ways of Kooking at a Kingfish." ''The Mississippi Quarterly'' 58#3-4 (2005) pp 795+. [http://www.questia.com/read/5019470837 online edition] − * Cortner, Richard C. ''The Kingfish and the Constitution: Huey Long, the First Amendment, and the Emergence of Modern Press Freedom in America.'' Greenwood, 1996. 196 pp. [http://www.questia.com/read/27209334 online edition] − * Gunn, Joshua. "Hystericizing Huey: Emotional Appeals, Desire, and the Psychodynamics of Demagoguery." ''Western Journal of Communication'' 21#1 (2007) pp. 1+. [http://www.questia.com/read/5020919367 online edition] − * Haas, Edward F., ed. ''The Age of the Longs: Louisiana, 1928-1960.'' (Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Series, vol. 8.) [[Lafayette]], Louisiana: Center for Louisiana Studies, 2001. 527 pp. − * Hair, William Ivy. ''The Kingfish and His Realm: The Life and Times of Huey P. Long'' (1991) 406pp, standard scholarly biography; less favorable than Williams − * Howard, Perry H. ''Political Tendencies in Louisiana'' (1971), by political scientist [http://www.questia.com/read/101976098 online edition] − * Jeansonne, Glen. ''Messiah of the Masses: Huey P. Long and the Great Depression.'' 1993. 204 pp. short, scholarly and very hostile − * Jeansonne, Glen, ed. ''Huey at 100: Centennial Essays on Huey P. Long.'' Ruston, La.: McGinty, 1995. 237 pp. − * [[Harnett Kane|Kane, Harnett T.]] ''Louisiana Hayride: The American Rehearsal for Dictatorship, 1928-1940'' (1949) 476 pp. journalistic and sensational (Williams is better) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=76760264 online edition] − * Perry, Keith Ronald. ''The Kingfish in Fiction: Huey P. Long and the Modern American Novel'' (2004) 224pp [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0807129429/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4827826-5463040#reader-link excerpt and text search] − * Potter, David M. "Long, Huey Pierce, (Aug. 30, 1893 - Sept. 10, 1935),' ''Dictionary of American Biography'' Supp 1 (1964) − * Sanson, Jerry P., "'What he did and what he promised to do': Huey Long and the Horizons of Louisiana Politics," ''Louisiana History,'' 47 (Summer 2006), 261–76. − * Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., ''The Age of Roosevelt'', vol 3: ''The Politics of Upheaval'' (1960), chapter on Long − * Sindler, Alan P. ''Huey Long's Louisiana: State Politics 1928-1940'' (1956) by political scientist − * Steinberg, Alfred. ''The Bosses: Frank Hague, James Curley, Ed Crump, Huey Long, Gene Talmadge, Tom Pendergast - The Story of the Ruthless Men who Forged the American Political Machines that Dominated the Twenties and Thirties.'' 1972. 379 pp. − * Williams, T. Harry. "The Gentleman from Louisiana: Demagogue or Democrat." ''The Journal of Southern'' History 26 (1960): 3-21. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-4642(196002)26%3A1%3C3%3ATGFLDO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Q in JSTOR] − * Williams, T. Harry. ''Huey Long'' (1969); 949pp; Pulitzer Prize; the standard scholarly biography; generally favorable [https://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0394747909/ref=sib_dp_bod_cr/103-4827826-5463040?ie=UTF8&p=S007#reader-link excerpt and text search] − * PBS, Ken Burns's 1987 documentary − ===Primary sources=== − * Long, Huey P. ''Kingfish to America: Share Our Wealth.'' edited by Henry M. Christman; (1985). 143 pp. − ====notes==== − {{reflist}} − + − [[Category:United States Political Scandals]]+ − [[Category:New Deal]]+ − [[Category:Liberals]] − [[Category:Leftists]] − [[Category:Progressivism]] − − [[Category:Corruption]]+
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Huey Pierce Long Jr. , nicknamed the "Kingfish", is an American politician, serving as a Senator from the State of Louisiana, and is leader of the populist America First Party. An outspoken populist, Long is best known for his Share Our Wealth program, and its motto "Every Man A King", that proposes new wealth redistribution measures aimed at revitalizing the working class in America.
History
Early life
Long was born on 30 August 1893, in Winnfield, Louisiana, the seat of Winn Parish, a rural community in the north-central part of the state. He was the son of Huey Pierce Long, Sr. and was the seventh of nine children in a farm-owning middle-class family. He attended local schools, where he was an excellent student and was said to have a photographic memory. In 1908, Long circulated a petition asking that the principal of Winn Parish be fired. He was then expelled from school. After Long's mother died, his father remarried.
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Long won a debating scholarship to Louisiana State University, but he was unable to afford the textbooks required for attendance. Instead, he spent the next four years as a traveling salesman, selling books, canned goods and patent medicines, as well as working as an auctioneer. When sales jobs grew scarce during the Weltkrieg, Long attended seminary classes at Oklahoma Baptist University at the urging of his mother, a devout Baptist. However, he concluded he was not suited to preaching.
Long was born in Winnfield north of [[Alexandria, Louisiana|Alexandria]], Louisiana, in the piney woods region that had a strong [[Populist]] heritage. His father, a farmer, owned a medium-size farm, lived plainly but comfortably but managed to send six children to college. The family background was culturally meager and was most strongly marked by pious [[Southern Baptist]] evangelicalism and by a Populist animosity toward the wealth and sophistication of the planter class and of "evil" New Orleans. Huey became a salesman after completing his public schooling and married [[Rose McConnell Long|Rose McConnell]] in 1912. There was something of the confidence man about Long at every stage of his career. As a traveling salesman, whether promoting a cooking shortening called "Cottolene" by staging somewhat fixed baking contests (one of which was won by his future wife), or selling a patent-medicine nostrum called "The Wine of Cardui," Long sometimes seems a figure out of Southwestern humor, a kind of second cousin to Mark Twain's Duke and Dauphin.
Legal Career
Long briefly attended the University of Oklahoma School of Law in Norman, Oklahoma, and later Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. In 1915, he convinced a board to let him take the bar exam after only a year at Tulane. He passed and began private practice in Winnfield. Later in Shreveport, he spent 10 years representing small plaintiffs against large businesses, including workers' compensation cases. He often said proudly that he never took a case against a poor man. Long won fame by taking on the powerful Standard Oil Company, which he sued for unfair business practices. Over the course of his career, Long continued to challenge Standard Oil's influence in state politics and charged the company with exploiting the state's vast oil and gas resources.
In 1918, Long narrowly won election to the Third District seat on the three-member Railroad Commission (renamed Public Service Commission after 1921). Both as member and as chairman (1922–1926), Long gained fame by his vocal battles with "the interests" which, he asserted, controlled state government, e.g., the [[Standard Oil Company]], telephone companies, and other public utilities.
Political Career
Initial steps
In 1918 Long was elected to the Louisiana Railroad Commission at the age of twenty-five on an anti-Standard Oil platform. His campaign for the Railroad Commission used techniques he would perfect later in his political career: heavy use of printed circulars and posters, an exhausting schedule of personal campaign stops throughout rural Louisiana, and vehement attacks on his opponents. He used his position on the commission to enhance his populist reputation as an opponent of large oil and utility companies, fighting against rate increases and pipeline monopolies.
As chairman of the Public Service Commission in 1922, Long won a lawsuit against the Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Company for unfair rate increases, resulting in cash refunds of $440,000 to 80,000 overcharged customers. Long successfully argued the case on appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, prompting Chief Justice William Howard Taft to describe Long as one of the best legal minds he had ever encountered.
Election of 1924
Long ran for governor of Louisiana in the election of 1924, attacking Parker, Standard Oil and the established political hierarchy both local and state-wide. In that campaign, he became one of the first Southern politicians to use radio addresses and sound trucks. Long also began wearing a distinctive white linen suit. He came in third, due perhaps in part to his unwillingness to take a stand either for or against the Ku Klux Klan, whose prominence in Louisiana had become the primary issue of the campaign. Despite that, he was reelected to the Public Service Commission.
Long secured an easy victory in the gubernatorial primary in 1928, defeated the opposition's attempt to impeach him in 1929, and midway in his term of office (1930) won his race for the U.S. Senate. However, just as he had promised, he did not take his senate seat until January 1932, by which time his hand-picked candidate, Oscar K. Allen, had won the Democratic nomination for governor. Senator Long maintained his control over Louisiana state government until his death in 1935.
Election of 1928
Long spent the intervening four years building his reputation and his political organization, including supporting Catholic candidates to build support in south Louisiana, which was heavily Catholic due to its French and Spanish heritage. In 1928 he again ran for governor, campaigning with the slogan, "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown", a phrase adopted from populist presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan. Long's attacks on the utilities industry and corporate privileges were enormously popular, as was his depiction of the wealthy as "parasites" who grabbed more than their fair share of the public wealth while marginalizing the poor. Long won in 1928 by tapping into the class resentment of rural Louisianans and proposing government services far more expansive than anything in Louisiana history.
Governor, 1928-1932
Once in office as governor Long moved quickly to consolidate his power, firing hundreds of opponents in the state bureaucracy, at all ranks from cabinet-level heads of departments and board members to rank-and-file civil servants and state road workers. Like previous governors, he filled the vacancies with patronage appointments from his own network of political supporters. Every state employee who depended on Long for a job was expected to pay a portion of his or her salary directly into Long’s political war-chest. These funds were kept in a famous locked "deduct box" to be used at Long's discretion for political purposes.
Once his control over the state’s political apparatus was strengthened, Long pushed a number of bills through the 1929 session of the Louisiana State Legislature to fulfill campaign promises. These included a free textbook program for schoolchildren, support of night courses for adult literacy and a supply of cheap natural gas for the city of New Orleans.
Long began an unprecedented public works program, building roads, bridges, hospitals and educational institutions. His bills met opposition from many legislators, citizens, and the media, but Long used aggressive tactics to ensure passage of the legislation he favored. He would show up unannounced on the floor of both the House and Senate or in House committees, corralling reluctant representatives and state senators and bullying opponents. These tactics were unprecedented, but they resulted in the passage of most of Long’s legislative agenda. By delivering on his campaign promises, Long achieved hero status among some of the state's rural poor population. Since the state’s newspapers were financed by the opposition, in March 1930 Long founded his own paper, the Louisiana Progress, which he used to broadcast achievements and denounce his enemies. To receive lucrative state contracts, companies were first expected to buy advertisements in Long's newspaper.
The basis of Long's deceitful excuses have been used decades afterwards by leftists who justify laws permitting [[abortion]].
1930: Defeat in the Legislature, campaign for U.S. Senate
In the 1930 legislative session, Long proposed another major road-building initiative as well as construction of a new capitol building in Baton Rouge. The State Legislature defeated the bond issue necessary to build the roads, and his other initiatives failed as well. Long responded by suddenly announcing his intention to run for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary of 9 September 1930. He portrayed his campaign as a referendum on his programs: if he won he would take it as a sign that the public supported his programs over the opposition of the legislature, and if he lost he promised to resign. Long defeated incumbent Senator Joseph E. Ransdell by 149,640 (57.3 percent) to 111,451 (42.7 percent). Despite having been elected to the Senate for the 1931 session, Long intended to fill out his term as governor until 1932.
1930-1932: Renewed strength
Having won the overwhelming support of the Louisiana electorate, Long returned to pushing his legislative program with renewed strength. Bargaining from an advantageous position, Long entered an agreement with his longtime New Orleans rivals: they would support his legislation and his candidates in future elections in return for his supporting a bridge over the Mississippi River, an airport for New Orleans, and money for infrastructure improvements in the city. This support enabled Long to pass an increase in the gasoline tax, new school spending, a bill to finance the construction of a new Louisiana State Capitol and a $75 million bond for road construction. Including the Airline Highway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Long's road network gave Louisiana some of the most modern roads in the country and helped form the state's highway system. Long's opponents charged that Long had concentrated political power in his own hands to the point where he had become a virtual dictator of the state.
Long challenged incumbent Senator Joseph Ransdell for his seat in the [[United States Senate]] and won. However, his Senate term began in 1931, but his term as governor did not expire until May 1932. Long continued as governor until his hand chosen successor, O.K. Allen was elected.
As governor, Long became an ardent supporter of Louisiana State University (LSU), the state's primary public university in Baton Rouge. He greatly increased LSU funding and expanded its enrollment from 1,600 to 4,000. Long instituted work-scholarship programs that enabled poor students to attend LSU, and he established the LSU Medical School in New Orleans. He also intervened in the university's affairs, choosing its president.
In October 1931, Lieutenant Governor Cyr, by then an avowed enemy of Long, argued that the Senator-elect could no longer remain governor. Cyr declared himself to be the legitimate governor. In response Long surrounded the state capitol with state National Guard troops and fended off the illegal "coup d'état". Long went to the Louisiana Supreme Court to have Cyr ousted as Lieutenant Governor. He argued that the office of Lieutenant Governor was vacant because Cyr had resigned when he attempted to assume the governorship. His suit was successful. Under the state constitution, Senate president and Long ally Alvin Olin King became Lieutenant Governor.
Long chose his childhood friend Oscar Kelly Allen as the candidate to succeed him in the election of 1932 on a "Complete the Work" ticket. With the support of Long's own voter base, Allen won easily. With his loyal succession assured, Long finally resigned as governor and took his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932.
Long in the Senate, 1932-36
Senator Long
Long arrived in Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932, although he was absent for more than half the days in the 1932 session. With the backdrop of the Great Depression, he made characteristically fiery speeches which denounced the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. He also criticized the leaders of both the Democratic and the Republican party for failing to address the crisis adequately. In the presidential election of 1932, Long attempted to run as the Democratic Nominee for president, but he failed to win the nomination. When the Democrats lost the 1932 election to the Republicans led by President Herbert Hoover, Long publicly denounced the Democratic party.
He set in motion two durable factions within the dominant Louisiana Democratic party--"pro-Long" and "anti-Long," each diverging meaningfully in terms of policies and voter support. A family dynasty emerged: his brother [[Earl Long]] was elected lieutenant-governor in 1936, governor in 1948 and 1956. Typically anti-Longite candidates would promise to continue popular social services delivered in Long's administration and criticized Longite corruption without directly attacking Long himself. Huey's son [[Russell Long]] was a U.S. senator from 1948 to 1987. As chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Russell Long shaped the nation's tax laws in a conservative fashion, with hardly any trace of his father's populism
Hoover considered Long a radical demagogue and privately said of Long that along with General Douglas MacArthur, "He was one of the two most dangerous men in America". In June 1933, in an effort to undermine Long's political dominance, Hoover cut Long out of consultation on the distribution of federal funds or patronage in Louisiana. To discredit Long and damage his support base, in 1934 Hoover had Long’s finances investigated by the Internal Revenue Service. Though they failed to link Long to any illegality, some of Long’s lieutenants were charged with income tax evasion, but only one had been convicted by now.
The America First Union Party and the 1936 Presidential Election
Long continued to maintain effective control of Louisiana while he was a senator, blurring the boundary between federal and state politics. Though he had no constitutional authority to do so, Long continued to draft and press bills through the Louisiana State Legislature, which remained in the hands of his allies. The program included new consumer taxes, elimination of the poll tax, a homestead exemption, and increases in the number of state employees.
In 1934, Long announced the creation of the America First Party and announced his candidature for the 1936 Presidential Election. At the same time Long passed what he called "a tax on lying" and a 2% tax on newspaper advertising revenue. He created the Bureau of Criminal Identification, a special force of plainclothes police answerable only to the governor. Charismatic and immensely popular for his social reform programs and willingness to take forceful action, Long was accused by his opponents of dictatorial tendencies for his near-total control of the state government. However, these accusations couldn't stop his party from achieving growing support in the depressed agricultural regions of the South and Mid-West.
Political beliefs
Share Our Wealth
Long was a staunch opponent of the Federal Reserve Bank. As an alternative, Long proposed federal legislation capping personal fortunes, income and inheritances. He used radio broadcasts and his own national newspaper, the American Progress, previously called Louisiana Progress, to promote his ideas and accomplishments before a national audience. In 1934, he unveiled an economic plan he called "Share Our Wealth". Long argued there was enough wealth in the country for every individual to enjoy a comfortable standard of living, but that it was unfairly concentrated in the hands of a few millionaire bankers, businessmen and industrialists.
Long proposed a new progressive tax code designed to limit the size of personal fortunes. The new tax code would tax the first million dollars of wealth at zero. The second million dollars of wealth would be taxed at 1%. The third million at 2%; the fourth million at 4%; the fifth million at 8%; the sixth million at 16%; the seventh million at 32%; the eighth million at 64%; and the remainder at 100%. Income tax rates would be at 100% for all incomes over $1 million. The resulting funds would be used to guarantee every family a basic household grant of $5,000 and a minimum annual income of $2,000-3,000 (or one-third the average family income). Long supplemented his plan with proposals for free primary and college education, old-age pensions, veterans' benefits, federal assistance to farmers, public works projects, and limiting the work week to thirty hours.
Denying that his program was socialistic, Long stated that his ideological inspiration for the plan came not from Syndicalism but from the Bible and the Declaration of Independence. "Syndicalism? Hell no!" he said, "This plan is the only defense this country’s got against Syndicalism". In 1934, Long held a public debate with Norman Thomas, the leader of the Socialist Party of America and a supporter of the Combined Syndicates of America, on the merits of Share Our Wealth versus socialism.
"Every Man a King"
Long created the Share Our Wealth program in 1934, with the motto "Every Man a King" proposing new socialist wealth redistribution measures in the form of a net asset tax on corporations and individuals to curb the poverty and crime resulting from the Great Depression. To stimulate the economy, Long advocated federal spending on public works, public education, old-age pensions and other social programs. He was an ardent critic of the Federal Reserve System's policies to reduce lending.
With the Senate unwilling to support his proposals, in February 1934 Long formed a national political organization, the Share Our Wealth Society. A network of local clubs led by national organizer Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith, the Share Our Wealth Society was intended to operate outside of and in opposition to the Democratic and Republican Parties and the Hoover administration. By 1935, the society had over 7.5 million members in 27,000 clubs across the country. Long's Senate office received an average of 60,000 letters a week.
Personal Life
In 1913, Huey Long married Rose McConnell. She was a stenographer who had won a baking contest which he promoted to sell "Cottolene," one of the most popular of the early vegetable shortenings to come on the market. The Longs had a daughter, also named Rose, and two sons, Russell and Palmer.
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[[Category:Louisiana People]]
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[[Category:Democratic Party]]
[[Category:America First Party]]
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[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
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[[Category:Authoritarian Democracy]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:The South]]
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[[Category:Democratic Governors]]
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