Incredible Kingfish

With election day less than six weeks off, the Democratic presidential campaign bowled into October more smoothly than any since 1916. The prospect of party victory, rarely brighter, supplied most of the motive power. Day after day on his western tour Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with speeches widely acclaimed as making sense, held the front pages of the nation. Close beside him at every turn could be seen the rosy bald spot of his astute manager, National Chairman James Aloysius Farley whose purpose, like that of a good boxer, is to keep the Republicans constantly on the defensive, force the fighting. William Gibbs McAdoo who pulled the Roosevelt nomination out of William Randolph Hearst's hat at Chicago ostentatiously joined the Governor's party as it entered California, planted himself close to the nominee as friend and counselor. Hovering in the California background were Publishers Hearst and Bernarr Macfadden whose newspaper and magazine support has notably helped Governor Roosevelt to reach his "forgotten man."*

Helpmates. The Roosevelt campaign was by no means being carried along by the nominee alone. Already on the stump or itching to take it was an assorted chorus of vociferous henchmen the like of which was nowhere to be seen on the G. 0. P. battlefront. That no Republican was alert enough to bunch these Democratic helpmates--by no means the cream of the party--and point with alarm to them as the ''men behind Roosevelt," was viewed as a reflection upon the intelligence of the Hoover managers.

Last week Boston's booming Mayor Curley was loudly debating issues with a onetime Republican Governor of Kentucky in Omaha while Kentucky's homespun Senator Barkley raced to Wheeling to open the West Virginia drive. From the American Legion Convention at Portland frock-coated Josephus Daniels orated his way eastward by easy stages. In last week's Satevepost the one-time Secretary of the Navy wrote glowingly of his wartime subordinate, "Franklin Roosevelt As I Know Him." Waashing-ton's chubby Senator Dill was all set to carry the Roosevelt power issue up & down the Pacific coast. As soon as he finished junketing through Indian reservations, Montana's vociferous Senator Wheeler would, as headquarters expressed it, "be available for a speaking tour." At McCook, Neb. sad-eyed Senator Norris, insurgent Republican, dabbed paint on his home while awaiting a visit from Governor Roosevelt in whose behalf he will later campaign from Ohio to California. In New Orleans curly-headed, loose-jawed, incredible Senator Huey Pierce ("Kingfish") Long champed impatiently to take to the hustings and raise his strident voice.

"Roosevelt Cannot Lose." Like most converts, Huey Long was primed to make more sound for the Democratic nominee than most of the original Roosevelt men. Last January he told Washington newsmen: "Governor Roosevelt wouldn't have a chance with us. He failed with Cox and that should end him." But when he took his hand-picked delegation from Louisiana to Chicago in June, Senator Long had warmed up to the up-warming Roosevelt candidacy. A contest developed against seating the Long delegates. The Senator refused to submit his case to a subcommittee with a few women members.* "No bunch of damned skirts," he snorted, "is going to decide anything affecting me." When the women denounced him as no gentleman, he sent an airplane to Louisiana for his wife, paraded her up & down on his arm "to show these damned skirts I know how to treat a lady." When the Roosevelt forces finally seated the Long contingent, the ''Kingfish," all in white, leaped to his chair, yipped & yowled lustily for himself. After the convention he announced: "With Roosevelt our party cannot lose."

Salesman. A frequent boast of this onetime lard drummer is: "I can sell anybody anything." He "sold" himself as Governor and Senator to the Louisiana electorate. He "sold" them Oscar Kelly ("O. K.") Allen as his successor in the governorship. He "sold" them Representative John Overton as Senator. He "sold" Mrs. Hattie Caraway as Senator to the voters of Arkansas after proclaiming: "I'm here to get a bunch of pot-bellied politicians off this little woman's neck." Now he is ready to join in "selling" Governor Roosevelt to the nation. He may well emerge as the Southern Democrat closest to the White House during the next four years--a national "kingfish."

After he had replaced Senator Broussard with his henchman Overton in last fortnight's primary, Huey Long attended a New Orleans dinner and announced: "I'm leaving State politics for good. I've done all I can for Louisiana; now I want to help the rest of the country. ... If I thought this was going to be just another tweedledee-tweedledum campaign, I'd stay out. But the liberal element is running all over the world and they'll soon be in power in America. When they are, we'll put an end to multimillionaires and bring back prosperity."

Bossed Governor. Packing a revolver in his pocket (he hates fist fights), he climbed into his limousine in front of his $60,000 Audubon Drive home, set out for Baton Rouge. There he marched into Governor Allen's office in the skyscraping State Capitol on the river bluff, sat down in Governor Allen's chair, began to give Governor Allen his political orders. Governor Allen is thoroughly accustomed to being thus bossed. One day during the last legislative session, Senator Long called out roughly: "Oscar, go get me those goddam bills we was talking about." Governor Allen, embarrassed by the presence of others, pretended not to hear. Huey Long howled: "Goddam you, Oscar, don't you stall around with me! I can break you as easy as I made you! Get those goddam bills and get 'em on the jump." Governor Allen got them on the jump.

After turning Louisiana over to Governor Allen, Senator Long was again delayed in getting on the national stump. Senator-reject Broussard had started a court contest against his successful opponent. Huey Long, smart lawyer who took a three-year course at Tulane in one, decided to postpone his departure until after the court hearing Oct. 5. Then, he said, he would "tell 'em plenty."

Pointing with Pride. During his four-year rule in Louisiana energetic Huey Long has made a public record to which his partisans point with pride. He reduced property assessments 20%. He distributed 600,000 free school books. At his free night schools 175,000 illiterates over 21 learned to read & write. From a third-class institution Louisiana State University has moved up to an A-1 rating. Its enrollment has been increased from 1,800 to 5,000. Louisianans can now attend it for as little as $20 per month. Senator Long is responsible for 2,500 mi. of new paved roads, 6,000 mi. of new gravel roads. He built the $5,000,000 State Capitol, the $150,000 executive mansion, the State University's $1,500,000 School of Medicine at New Orleans. Thanks to him, twelve new bridges are about to span Louisiana rivers; the contract for a Mississippi bridge at New Orleans has been signed. The R. F. C. last week lent $13,000,000 to build them. Charity hospitalization in New Orleans has been increased from 1,800 to 3,800 patients per day and bus excursions arranged to carry the rural sick in town. Insane patients, taken out of locked beds and handcuffs, have been treated with modern methods. As Governor, Senator Long doubled the capacity of the State cotton warehouse at New Orleans, effected a cut from $1.60 to 26-c- in the insurance rate on public dock property.

Viewing with Alarm. These accomplishments have not silenced many a Louisianan who views the Long record with utmost alarm. The "Kingfish's" critics point out that he has raised the State's indebtedness from $11,000,000 to more than $100,000,000. The public payrolls have been loaded down with his fawning followers. Under him New Orleans has slipped from second to fifth among U. S. ports. Prisons are so overcrowded that last week Governor Allen had to release hundreds of offenders to save money. The gasoline tax has been upped from 2-c- to 6-c-. A 4-c- tax is imposed on 15-c- cigarets. Last week Senator Long ordered 100 highway police to stop tax-dodgers from smuggling gasoline and cigarets into the State, warned them not to molest liquor 'leggers. Soft drinks, life insurance premiums, electricity and corporate capitalization are also heavily taxed. Enemies of Huey Long vehemently declare that his tax program has definitely hurt Louisiana business, driven new industries from the State.

Politics & the Poor. Senator Long was born poor 39 years ago on a farm in northern Louisiana. When he married Rose McConnell, winner of a baking contest he staged as salesman, he borrowed from her $10 to pay the preacher. For days he has subsisted on bread & water. He knows the sting of poverty and now, for all his loud silk pajamas, $100 suits and jeweled finery, he has politically never allowed himself to forget it. His entire public appeal is as what he once was--a poor hillbilly. For years Louisiana has been familiar with his ranting campaigns against what he calls "entrenched wealth." The State has less than 20 millionaires with only one vote apiece. Most of them suffered in impotent silence but Henry Hardtner, Alexandria lumber and oil man. publicly declared: "I'll never invest another cent in Louisiana while that lying crook is in power."

Not until Huey Long took his Senate seat last winter did the country at large hear his economic program. It was simple: no man is to have an income of more than $1,000,000 per year; no beneficiary is to inherit more than $5,000,000. Incomes and inheritances are to be limited by Federal taxation. For that program in the next Congress Huey Long will control three votes--his own, Senator Overton's and Mrs. Caraway's--which is more than any Wall Streeter claims.

No Fool. "There may be smarter men than me but they ain't in Louisiana." Huey Long likes to brag. His enemies will agree that he is no fool but they will also contend that his smartness is far from admirable. An incredible cross between Iowa's Brookhart, New York City's Jimmy Walker and Chicago's Big Bill Thompson, Democrat Long has developed a political technique in which he is too intelligent to believe himself. Impervious to insult, he knows the trick of playing politics in its rawest, crudest form and he plays it with a vim, dash and audacity that stagger men with public sensibilities.

The night the Legislature passed his drop-a-crop cotton bill, he sent out for a cotton nightshirt. Near midnight he had himself photographed in it signing the bill. ''Now I can take this damned thing off!" he exploded afterwards as he climbed back into his silk pajamas.

When the Coolidges, westbound, visited New Orleans in 1930 the onetime President asked: "What part of Louisiana are you from. Governor?"

"I'm a hillbilly like yourself."

The hills are a good place to come from," opined the Vermonter.

"Are the Hoovers good housekeepers?" asked Governor Long.

"I guess they are," Citizen Coolidge replied.

"Well, when I was elected I found the Governor's Mansion in such rotten shape I had to tear it down and rebuild. It started a hell of a row. When I'm elected President I don't want to have to rebuild the White House."

* The Hearst Cosmopolitan this month printed a drawing of Mrs. Roosevelt with rosebud lips opposite a most unflattering portrait of Lou Henry Hoover, both by able Portraitist James Montgomery Flagg. Macfadden's touching Babies Just Babies, edited by Mrs. Roosevelt, was born last week.

*As Governor, Huey Long, despite a Statewide uproar, allowed a murderess to go to the gallows.

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