Long Shot

   Welcome to Friday with Chairman Joe.

    Today in 1893, Huey P. Long was born in Winnfield, Louisisana. Long was a "man of the people" who took from the rich to give to the poor. Known as "The Kingfish," he often used dictatorial nethods to help the rich do their part.
   Long's home town in north central Louisiana was one of the poorest places in a very poor state. Long grew up sharing the resentment of his neighbors towards the urban elites who ran the state. In those days there were only 300 miles of paved road in the entire state and only three major  bridges. The state's illiteracy rate of 25% was the highest in the nation and a poll tax kept many poor whites from voting, while the blacks were totally disenfranchised.
   In high school, Long started a secret society to try to let the students run the school. This led to his expulsion. He got revenge by convincing  the townspeople to sign a petition which resulted in the principal being fired. Long won a debating scholarship to Louisiana State University but was unable to attend because books and living expenses were not covered by the scholarship.
   He worked a few years as a salesman and auctioneer and even tried a Baptist  seminary before turning to the law.  He borrowed $100 from his brother to attend law school in Oklahoma, but lost most of it gambling. He was arrested for causing a disturbance at a brothel, but charges were dropped when he was able to prove he had been at a play with his girlfriend.
   In 1914 he studied law at Tulane University for a year, concentrating on classes that would help him pass the bar. The next year he received his license to practice law.  He returned to his home area and specialized in defending the poor against big businesses.
   In 1918 he was elected to the Louisiana Railroad Commission and used this office as a base to establish his reputation as a fighter for the plain people against the oligarchies. In 1924 he was elected governor of Louisiana  and began distributing free textbooks to schoolchildren and building  roads and toll-free bridges. He paid for his projects by taxing oil extracted in the state, a tax fiercely opposed by the oil companies.
   The allies of the oil companies in the legislature tried to impeach Long, but he was able to prevent this by paying bribes to the right people. The other side was also using bribes according to historians. During the impeachment proceedings, Long received death threats and began surrounding himself with armed bodyguards.
   In 1932 Long was elected to the U.S. Senate. At first he was an ally of Franklin Roosevelt in his fight to reverse the effects of the Great Depression, but eventually broke with Roosevelt because he thought Roosevelt was compromising with Wall Street. Long decided to fight Roosevelt for the 1936 Democratic nomination. He knew he would lose the nomination, but according to historians, he planned to form a third party which would throw the election to the Republican candidate. Long expected that the depression would worsen under a Republican, and he himself would be in a good position to be elected president in 1940.
   But there was trouble back in Long's power base in Louisiana. Long travelled to Baton Rouge to remove a judge who was obstructing bills Long favored. As Long was leaving the state house on the evening of September 8, 1935 he was shot in the abdomen by the judge's son-in-law. Long's bodyguards filled the air with bullets. The assassin died immediately. Long died two days later. FDR's men all breathed a long sigh of relief.

In the moonlight, Long's shadow gives the finger to his enemies, so they say.