THE PASSING OF HUEY LONG ]. T. SALTER AST swnmer, as I visited the capitol of Cuba, I noticed a guard L inside the doorway who hastily searched each person that entered, for firearms. I thought of this when I first heard that the American Caesar had been mortally wounded in his own capi­ tol at Baton Rouge. I also wondered why he was not wearing a bullet-proof vest, after the fashion of a Hitler; for although Huey was, I believe, accurate in saying that he was sui generis, yet his problems in governing had more in common with those of the. European dictators where violence has taken the place of public discussion than they had with the problems of leaders in countries. where democratic processes still prevail. He died like a Caesar; immediately after Dr. Weiss fired the shot that was to kill him within thirty-six hours, he is supposed to have said something about his work being unfinished, and won­ dering just why that fellow did it. Millions of people mourned at the news of his fate, for he was one political leader that stirred emotions "right down to the liver"; he touched people on the­ quick; probably millions of people knew .and loved Huey. Other and greater millions undoubtedly felt relief when he died. They· felt · that this formidable- threat to American democracy and in­ stitutions had been removed, and by a method as spectacular and unusual as any of the methods used by the Duke of the Delta. -in consolidating his power there. As time passes, more and more of those who first felt grief at this leader's abrupt farewell now say (as one of my university students said to me) "My father and I got up at five o'clock in the morning to get the first radio flash after Huey was shot. I couldn't eat anything that day, but now that it is aU over, and when I think with my mind, I think it is. best this way." Huey might have seduced the American people in some such way, or for similar reasons, that a compelling and conscienceless woman might seduce a man who had never before strayed on to­ the primose path. Logic may not be enough in a situation of this sort, for "You can't combat a dream with logic." If the masses. of people were suffering enough, and if they thought that President Roosevelt was not doing all within his power to lessen their eco­ nomic distress, they might have listened to Huey's dream of Share-· ..· .; . ',. 436 · THE DALHOUSIE REVIEW . -our-Wealth , no matter how many. experts said it could never be.1 Nearly all people have stud1ed a grammar of language, but few of us have thought of a grammar of truth or evidence. Surely not ·every human action is the result of an inteqectual process alone.t Senator Long was powerful because he understood the springs of human action in people generally, and he possessed the artistry and energy to use this knowledge to a surpassing degree. To say that his empire now seems to be crumbling, and that none of his lieutenants or followers is capable of wielding his sceptre or wearing his cro\Am- that is, holding his organization together and adding to it-is no stranger than saying that if Tos­ canini were to die, the Philharmonic Orchestra would be something else: it could not be the same, for in all the world there is only one Toscanini. Politics is an art too, and the virtuoso in politics deals with a subject-matter even more subtle and changing than the materials that the conductor has to work with. For a Tos­ canini can be absent from his highly trained orchestra for several months and his work will go on; but in politics the maestro's pres­ ence is forever required lest his kingdom be lost. American his­ tory furnishes other examples of not only the unpopularity, but also the impossibility, of absentee rulership. Father Coughlin, Dr. Townsend, Governor Talmadge, and other "shepherds of discontent" remain, but they are cut on a less heroic mould, and they and the underprivileged are, or can be, .answered by the social legislation provided by this administration or the next. However, I now wish to present a portrait of Senator Long .as I described him last summer, a short time before his assassination. I. Huey Pierce Long, one of the most representative of our political gladiators, is something of a poseur who appears to be the natural man; he is the genus Americanum possessed of a certain flair that enables him to appeal effectively to millions of individuals below, and a few above, a certain intellectual level (and this in­ cludes a preponderant number below a certain economic level). He talks "United States", even as a ward politician or a man in the street talks it. He does not cite Karl Marx, nor use any other ·sort of communist or socialist jargon. He is 200% American. He has, in a sense, something of the Mae West appeal about him. He not only has political "it", but for women he has the authentic 1. Note my Boss Rule: Portrairs itl Cily Polilics. New York. 1935 HUEY LONG 437 primordial appeal. Moreover, all his life he has been a fighter, and with few exceptions-the Sands Point washroom battle, for example-he has come off with his colours flying. Nearly all of America loves a fighter, and all of America loves a winner. Huey himself is a combination of fighter, winner, mass psychologist, master salesman ("I can sell anybody anything"), and organizer -(his text being, "Go ye into all communities and preach the Gospel to every living creature"). His organization in Louisiana is so well perfected for doing this very thing that he and his party workers can within twenty-four hours place his message on the front porch of the farmers at the fork of the creek, the merchants at the cross roads, and the laborers in New Orleans or in any other section of the "Empire on the Delta". (He is now attempting to organize the rest of the United States in this fashion). He is a "Baptist preacher"; he combines the evangelism of the Reverend Billy Sunday and Aimee Semple MacPherson with the showmanship of a P. T. Barnum and the economies of a Get­ Rich-Quick-Wallingford. And he, like Jean Jacques Rousseau, is a social reformer. The citizen of Geneva and the citizen of Winn Parish each posit as a cardir1al tenet in their philosophy that "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." The stuff of the Senator's argmnent is built around a seemingly clear plan of a new order in which every man is a king. "There should be a guarantee of a family wealth of around $5,000; enough for a home and automobile, a radio, and the ordinary conveniences and the <>pportunity to educate their children; ... so there will be no such thing as a family living .in poverty and distress.'' He buttresses the approach and incentive for his more perfect society with a show of "facts" and literary allusions- statistics, myriad biblical passages, excerpts from Senate documents, the federal trade com­ mission reports, newspaper and magazine articles, speeches of Daniel Webster, the Reverend Harry Emerson Fosdick, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Bacon, Father Coughlin, ·Oliver Goldsmith, John Milton's Comus, Encyclical Letters of Leo XIII and Pius XI, and homely illustrations from the life of the people. Notwithstanding this grand and motley array of personages and favorite quotations that issue forth from the radio, one is almost prepared to hear the Senator say- "Facts!- what do I care about facts? I am thinking of imaginary facts!" His objections can be understood by the most ignorant muskrat trapper in the marshes on the delta, but the administrative steps necessary for the realization of a society in which every man is a king, or the more perfect state. of Rousseau, are obscure. This obscurity, ; I ; . ·, 438 THE DALHOUSIE REVIEW however is not fatal to the less discerning, for Huey is a compelling orator, ~d the aptness of his comments on current discussions and prominent personalities, and the smart cracks (reminiscent of Big Bill Thompson or Mayor Jimmy Walker) all combine to give millions of listeners a changing amount of vicarious satis­ faction. Huey is one of them--or would be, if they were a lot smarter! And Huey is articulate-their very own mouthpiece. He happens, moreover, to have one of the finest radio voices in America; probably the only other voice to excel it, or even to equal it, belongs to President Roosevelt. The Senator has something of a southern drawl that is both pleasing and convincing. He has a depth of timbre that indicates strength. He speaks in an in- . timate and confidential tone that suggests a conversation among a small group of people seated in a corner of a favorite club. One feels that he is of the people, and that he knows them as a wise master knows his hounds. He talks personally to his opponents. over the radio. He speaks easily, rapidly, and fluently, and right at the beginning of his addresses he is likely to say, "Hello, friends, this is Huey P. Long speaking; and I have some important things to tell you. Before I begin, I want you to do me a favour. I am going to talk along for four or five minutes, just to keep things going.