TAPE #003 Page 1 of 10 F;1; ! G
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') 1""~" TAPE #003 Page 1 of 10 f;1; _ ! G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1 Mr. Litton graduated from the LSU Law School in 1942, having been president of Phi Delta phi Legal Fraternity, associate editor of Law Review, and the first LSU student named to the Order of the Coif. During a period of thirty-four years, Mr. Litton served in numerous important governmental capacities, including executive counsel to the governor, chairman of the ~ state board of tax appeals, first assistant attorney general, and legal advisor to the legislature. Q. Mr. Litton, your career in state government has closely involved you with the administrations of this state through several governors, dating back to the time of Huey Long. Would youqive us your recollections of the high points in these administrations? A. Thank you, Mrs. Pierce. My recollection of the governors of Louisiana dates back even prior to 1930, which was some 50 years ago. However, in 1930, I entered LSU, and at that time, Huey P. Long was governor. He had been elected in 1928. I recall that on a number of occasions, I played golf at the Westdale Country Club, which is now called Webb Memorial Country Club, I believe, and I saw Huey Long playing golf, accompanied, generally by some twelve to fifteen bodyguards who were on both sides of him, as he putted or drove. Enough has been written about Huey Long that it would probably be superfluous for us here at this time to go into any details concerning him. However, history will undoubtedly recall that Huey Long was one of the most powerful and one of the most brilliant governors in Louisiana history. Unfortunately, he was as dictatorial as he was brilliant. Huey Long was elected to the United States Senate in 1931. He did not take his oath of office until a number of months after his election, because he did not want his lieutenant governor, Dr. Paul Cyr, from the New TAPE #003 Page 2 of 10 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1 Iberia-Jeannerette area, who was the lieutenant governor, to be able to take over the governor's office. Dr. Cyr took the oath as gove+nor and attempted to establish the office of governor at the corner of Lafayette and Main Street in a building known as the Louisianne Hotel, and the Supreme Court eventually held that upon taking the oath prematurely, Dr. Cyr had also given up his office' of lieutenant governor, and was neither governor n~ lieutenant governor! This promoted Alvin King, from Lake Charles, who was president pro tem of the Senate, to the office of governor, where he served until Governor O. K. Allert took office in 1932. In the election prior to Governor Allen's taking office, Huey P. Long was in complete control of the state of Louisiana. Allen had been an old friend of Huey in Winfield, had beautiful white hair, and was rather stout. He was a lifelong friend of Huey, had an excellent disposition, and was quite easy going. During the period from 1932 to 1935, while Allen was governor, and Huey P. Long was united States senator, Huey Long would come to Baton Rouge whenever the Legislature was in session, or any other important event was to take place, and sit in Governor Allen's chair in the governor's office and run the state of Louisiana, even though he was United States senator. While attending LSU, I was working as a janitor for $5.00 a week, at the time that O. K. Allen took office, and the first of the month after he took office, which was June 1, 1933, excuse me, June 1, 1932, I received my firing papers. At that time, I was quite naive, and I didn't realize that they fired everybody, even janitors, when a new governor took office. However, I was able to bring enougn political pressure to bear to retain tha.t excellent position. Governor Allen died in 1935, and was suceeded as governor by James A. Noe, who had also been president pro tem of the Senate. Governor Noe served from 1935 until Richard W. Leche took office in 1936. Huey P. Long was TARE #003 Page 3 of 10 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1 assassinated on September 8,1935. The 1936 state elections, or electioneering, were just about to begin. Huey's brother, Earl K. Long, was anxious to run for governor, but the group in charge of the Huey P. Long machine selected Richard W. Leche as the candidate for governor. Leche was judge of the Orleans court of appeals. Earl , Long was selected to run for lieutenant governor. The campaign was based on a "Complete the Work" program. Huey's picture was on all the political signs along with Dick Leche and Earl Long. During the campaign, Earl was the real crowd-gatherer, and the crowd-pleaser. Governor Leche was an extremely large man, approximately six feet, two inches tall, weighed about two hundred and sixty pounds. He was quite easy going, and was inclined to be influenced too much by those around him. The Leche-Long ticket was elected in 1936 by more than a two-to-one margin. Long received almost 400,000 votes for lieutenant governor. Governor Leche made peace with Franklin Roosevelt, President Franklin Roosevelt, with whom Huey had stayed at odds, and he restored the flow of federal funds and patronage to our state. He repealed the law under which Huey had put public school teachers' teaching jobs under the control of the governor and the politicians, and enacted the Teacher Tenure law. During the Leche administration, LSU had numerous buildings under construction, including Leche Hall, which was patterned after the United States Supreme Court building, which was the Law School, and Smith Hall, a girls' dormitory named for LSU President James Monroe Smith. Rumors spread everywhere of deducts and kickbacks on state projects. Federal investigators swarmed into the state. In June of 1939, President Smith of LSU notified Governor Leche that he had forged LSU bonds which he used as security to borrow $500,000 from three banks, and had lost the money on the wheat market. Smith left Baton TAPE #003 Page 4 of 10 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1 Rouge in the middle of the night, and was later located and arrested in northern Canada. He faced federal and state charges, and many other officials and politicians in Louisiana were arrested and charged. Governor Leche soon resigned, allegedly on account of illness. In a portion of his statement regarding his illness and its complications, at the ~ time of his resignation, he said "As to what they are, well, just say 'general complications,' I suppose," Some 250 indictments were returned, resulting from activities during the Louisiana scandals. Governor Leche and President Smith and several others went to prison. Four prominent officials under indictment committed suicide. Earl Long was sworn in as governor in the Mansion on the evening of Leche's resignation. There were eleven months remaining in Leche's term. Investigators and headlines and investigations continued during that entire eleven months. Governor Long announced for governor on July 4, 1939 for a full term to begin in 1940. He said that he wanted the guilty caught and punished, but it wasn't that unusual for a politician to turn up crooked. He cited people throughout the United States, including a New York Supreme Court judge, a New Mexico WPA director, the secretary of a Baptist church drive, and even one of the disciples of Jesus Christ! Earl Long's principal opponents in the 1940 election were attorney Sam Houston Jones of Lake Charles, and oilman James A. Noe of Monroe. Jones was an ally, excuse me, Jones was from Merryville, and a prominent attorney in Lake Charles. Jimmy Noe was an ally of Huey P. Long, and he had served as gov ernor for some four months after the death of Governor o. K. Allen in 1935. Sam Jones was posessed of a keen and scholarly mind; he was an extremely effective orator and writer, a student of Louisiana law and Louisiana history. During the campaign, Earl Long referred to Sam Jones as "Old High-Hat, Sweet- Smelling, Silk-Stocking Jones." Page 5 of 10 TAPE #003 G. DUPRE LITTON Tape 1 Another candidate for governor in the 1939-40 election was James H. Morrison of Hammond. Mr. Morrison later became a congressman from the sixth congressional district. Morrison led a convict circus parade throughout the state during the campaign, drawing enormous crowds. His crowd for a parade in New Orleans was estimated at 100,000. In the parade were cages " for each politician in convict stripes. One cage for former Governor Leche, one for former LSU President James Monroe Smith, one for Mayor Robert S. Maestri of New Orleans, and cages for all of the other politicians during the Leche regime. The vote in the first primary was Long, 226,385; Jones, 154,836; Noe, 116,564; and Morrison, 48,243. This placed Long and Jones in the runoff, and Noe, who had been a close associate of the Longs, endorsed Jones. In a bitter financial campaign, during the second primary, the official vote was Jones, 284,437; Long, 265,403. Jones was a rather small man; his followers were too gung-ho in believing that all of the opposition was crooked and should be prosecuted. Jones later found out that all of the political...sQe.k-s 5(\: j'l.A4&S, were not on one side.