Presidents and Populism: Huey Long
He was a governor, a senator, a presidential candidate, but most of all, Huey Long was a populist. Just how popular he might have been is something history was prevented from knowing due to his assassination in 1935.
Huey Pierce Long Jr. was born on August 30, 1893 near Winnfield, Louisiana. His home Parish of Winn was an impoverished region populated mainly by Southern Baptists. During the Civil War, Winn Parish had been a stronghold of Unionism in an otherwise solidly Confederate state. Huey Long was the seventh of nine surviving children in a middle-class farm family. He was home-schooled as a young child before excelling academically in local schools. He won a debating scholarship to Louisiana State University, but he was unable to afford to attend and instead, he worked as a traveling salesman and as an auctioneer. In 1913, Long married Rose McConnell, a stenographer. The couple had a daughter, also named Rose, and two sons, Russell (who later became a seven-term U.S. Senator) and Palmer.
Long briefly attended seminary classes at Oklahoma Baptist University, but he decided that preaching was not to be his career. He attended the University of Oklahoma College of Law in Norman, Oklahoma, and later Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. In 1915 he passed the state bar exam and began private practice in Winnfield. He later spent 10 year practicing law in Shreveport, representing small plaintiffs against large businesses. He often boasted that he never took a case against a poor man. In one famous case he sued the powerful Standard Oil Company for a client, for unfair business practices. In 1918, at age 25, Long was elected to the Louisiana Railroad Commission on an anti-Standard Oil platform. He used this position to enhance his reputation as an opponent of large oil and utility companies, fighting against rate increases and 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 United States Supreme Court. The court's Chief Justice, William Howard Taft, called Long as one of the best legal minds he had ever encountered.
Long ran for governor of Louisiana in 1924. In the campaign, he became one of the first southern politicians to use radio addresses and sound trucks. He finished third. In 1928 he for the office again, campaigning with the slogan, "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown". He once again attacked utilities and large corporations. This time he won the election by drawing from the class resentment of rural Louisianans. He proposed government services far more expansive than anything in his state's history. His biggest challenge was in the Democratic primary, but after he won that, he was elected governor in the general election on April 17, 1928, with 92,941 votes (96.1 percent), to 3,733 for Republican candidate, Etienne J. Caire.
As governor, Long fired 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. He filled the vacancies with patronage appointments from his own political supporters. Every state employee who depended on Long for a job was expected to pay a portion of his or her salary at election time directly into Long's political war-chest, which raised $50,000 to $75,000 each election cycle, a very significant amount.
Long had control over his state's political machinery. He pushed a number of bills through the 1929 session of the Louisiana State Legislature to fulfill campaign promises. These included free textbooks for schoolchildren, night courses for adult literacy (which taught 100,000 adults to read by the end of his term), and a cheap natural gas for the city of New Orleans. Long began an ambitious public works program, that led to the building of roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools. Long used aggressive tactics to ensure passage of his bills and to silence his critics. In 1929, Long called a special session of both houses of the legislature to enact a new five-cent per barrel "occupational license tax" on production of refined oil, to help fund his social programs. The bill met with fierce opposition from the state's oil companies. Opponents in the legislature moved to impeach Long on charges that included bribery, and the misuse of state funds. Long tried to cut the session short, but after a heated conflict, the Legislature voted to remain in session and proceed with the impeachment.
To defend himself, Long took his case to the people, going on speaking tours. He argued that Standard Oil and other corporate interests were conspiring to stop him helping the state's poor. The House referred many charges to the Senate and conviction required a two-thirds majority in the Senate. When Long produced a "Round Robin" statement signed by fifteen senators pledging to vote "not guilty" no matter what the evidence, the impeachment process was suspended. It was alleged that both sides used bribes to buy votes.
After the failed impeachment proceeding, Long became ruthless when dealing with his enemies. He fired their relatives from state jobs and supported candidates to defeat them in elections. Long said at the time, "I used to try to get things done by saying 'please'. Now I dynamite 'em out of my path." In March 1930 Long founded his own paper, the Louisiana Progress, which he used to promote his agenda and to attack his enemies. To receive lucrative state contracts, companies were first expected to buy advertisements in Long's newspaper. Long tried to pass laws placing a surtax on newspapers and forbidding the publishing of "slanderous material," but these efforts were defeated.
After the impeachment attempt, Long received death threats. Thereafter, he surrounded himself with armed bodyguards.
In the 1930 legislative session, Long proposed another major road-building initiative as well as the construction of a new capitol building in Baton Rouge. The State Legislature defeated the bond issue necessary for the project. Many of his other initiatives failed as well. In response, Long surprised his critics by announcing his intention to run for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary of September 9, 1930. He characterized his campaign as a referendum on his administration as governor. He said that if he won, it would mean that the public supported his legislative agenda as governor. If he lost he promised to resign. Long defeated incumbent Senator Joseph E. Ransdell in the primary by a margin of 57.3% to 42.7%. He also won election to the senate.
His Senate term was scheduled to begin on March 4, 1931, but he had not yet completed the remainder of his four-year term as governor. He did not sit in the senate immediately, but he joked that this didn't matter because "with Ransdell as Senator, the seat was vacant anyway." For the remainder of his term he pushed his legislative program with renewed vigor. He was able to push through legislation for a gasoline tax to finance road construction projects, new school spending, a construction of a new Louisiana State Capitol, and a $75 million bond for road construction. Long's road building program gave Louisiana some of the most modern roads in the country.
Long and his friends liked to listen to the popular radio show "Amos'n'Andy" and it was from one of the characters that Long obtained his nickname, "the Kingfish" after the master of the Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge to which the fictional Amos and Andy belonged. The "Kingfish" character was a smooth-talking conman who was always trying to trick Amos and Andy. Long good-naturedly approved of the nickname.
In October 1931, Lieutenant Governor Paul Cyr, a political enemy of Long's, argued that as Senator-elect, Long could no longer remain governor. Cyr tried to declare himself as the state's legitimate governor. In response, Long ordered state National Guard troops to surround the State Capitol. He then went to the Louisiana Supreme Court to have Cyr removed as lieutenant governor, arguing that the office of lieutenant-governor was vacated when Cyr tried to assume the governorship. His suit was successful. Long chose his childhood friend, Oscar K. Allen, to run to succeed him as Governor in the election of 1932. Allen had the support of Long's base and he won easily, permitting Long take his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932.
Long arrived in Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the United States Senate in January 1932, although he was absent for more than half the days in the 1932 session. In the senate he gave fiery speeches which denounced the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. He also criticized the leaders of both parties for failing to address the depression and attacked conservative Senate Democratic Leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas for being to chummy with President Herbert Hoover. In the presidential election of 1932, Long became a strong supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long was a strong supporter of the New Deal, but differed with FDR on patronage. Roosevelt wanted control of the patronage and the two men disagreed on the issue. Long soon became one of the few national politicians to oppose Roosevelt's New Deal policies from the left. He opposed the National Recovery Act, calling it a sellout to big business. In 1933, he led a three-week filibuster against the Glass banking bill.
Roosevelt president called Long "one of the two most dangerous men in America." (The other was Douglas MacArthur). In June 1933, Long visited the White House to meet President Roosevelt. At the Long behaved very disrespectfully, refusing to take off his straw hat and addressing Roosevelt as "Frank", instead of "Mr. President". Roosevelt cut Long out of consultation on the distribution of federal funds or patronage in Louisiana and in 1934 Roosevelt 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.
Long's radical populist rhetoric and his aggressive tactics did little to endear him to his fellow senators. Long believed that the Federal Reserve's policies were the cause of the Great Depression. He made speeches denouncing the big banks. In March 1933, Long sponsored a series of bills known as "the Long plan" for the redistribution of wealth. The first bill proposed a new progressive tax code designed to cap personal fortunes at $100 million. Fortunes above $1 million would be taxed at 1 percent; fortunes above $2 million would be taxed at 2 percent, etc., up to a 100 percent tax on fortunes greater than $100 million. The second bill limited annual income to $1 million, and the third bill capped individual inheritances at $5 million. He introduced his "Share Our Wealth" plan over a nationwide radio broadcast. His plan was criticized by economists and he was accused of being a socialist.
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 "Share Our Wealth" clubs were organized by Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith. 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.
Long announced his intention to run for President in 1936. He planned to challenge Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination, knowing he would lose, but gain valuable publicity in the process. His plan was to form a third party using the Share Our Wealth plan as its basis. In the spring of 1935, Long undertook a national speaking tour and regular radio appearances, attracting large crowds and increasing his profile. Democratic Committee National chairman James Farley commissioned a secret poll in early 1935 which revealed that if Long ran on a third party ticket, he would win about 4 million votes (about 10% of the electorate). Roosevelt in a letter to his friend, William E. Dodd, wrote:
"Long plans to be a candidate of the Hitler type for the presidency in 1936. He thinks he will have a hundred votes at the Democratic convention. Then he will set up as an independent with Southern and mid-western Progressives. Thus he hopes to defeat the Democratic Party and put in a reactionary Republican. That would bring the country to such a state by 1940 that Long thinks he would be made dictator. There are in fact some Southerners looking that way, and some Progressives drifting that way. Thus it is an ominous situation".
On Sunday, September 8, 1935, Long was at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge attempting to have the state senate remove a long-time opponent, Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy. At 9:20 p.m., just moments after the House passed the bill, Pavy's son-in-law Dr. Carl Weiss, a physician from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, approached Long and fired a handgun at him from four feet away, shooting him in the torso. Long's bodyguards returned fire, killing Weiss instantly. Long was rushed to the hospital, but died two days later, on Tuesday, September 10, 1935, at 4:10 a.m. Long was 42 years old. His last words were said to be, "God, don't let me die. I have so much to do."
Long's body was placed in the State Capitol rotunda where an estimated 200,000 people came to pay their respects. Long's funeral was held on September 12, 1935. In 1985, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of Long's assassination, PBS produced an excellent documentary on Long by film-maker Ken Burns, simply entitled Huey Long.
Huey Pierce Long Jr. was born on August 30, 1893 near Winnfield, Louisiana. His home Parish of Winn was an impoverished region populated mainly by Southern Baptists. During the Civil War, Winn Parish had been a stronghold of Unionism in an otherwise solidly Confederate state. Huey Long was the seventh of nine surviving children in a middle-class farm family. He was home-schooled as a young child before excelling academically in local schools. He won a debating scholarship to Louisiana State University, but he was unable to afford to attend and instead, he worked as a traveling salesman and as an auctioneer. In 1913, Long married Rose McConnell, a stenographer. The couple had a daughter, also named Rose, and two sons, Russell (who later became a seven-term U.S. Senator) and Palmer.
Long briefly attended seminary classes at Oklahoma Baptist University, but he decided that preaching was not to be his career. He attended the University of Oklahoma College of Law in Norman, Oklahoma, and later Tulane University Law School in New Orleans. In 1915 he passed the state bar exam and began private practice in Winnfield. He later spent 10 year practicing law in Shreveport, representing small plaintiffs against large businesses. He often boasted that he never took a case against a poor man. In one famous case he sued the powerful Standard Oil Company for a client, for unfair business practices. In 1918, at age 25, Long was elected to the Louisiana Railroad Commission on an anti-Standard Oil platform. He used this position to enhance his reputation as an opponent of large oil and utility companies, fighting against rate increases and 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 United States Supreme Court. The court's Chief Justice, William Howard Taft, called Long as one of the best legal minds he had ever encountered.
Long ran for governor of Louisiana in 1924. In the campaign, he became one of the first southern politicians to use radio addresses and sound trucks. He finished third. In 1928 he for the office again, campaigning with the slogan, "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown". He once again attacked utilities and large corporations. This time he won the election by drawing from the class resentment of rural Louisianans. He proposed government services far more expansive than anything in his state's history. His biggest challenge was in the Democratic primary, but after he won that, he was elected governor in the general election on April 17, 1928, with 92,941 votes (96.1 percent), to 3,733 for Republican candidate, Etienne J. Caire.
As governor, Long fired 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. He filled the vacancies with patronage appointments from his own political supporters. Every state employee who depended on Long for a job was expected to pay a portion of his or her salary at election time directly into Long's political war-chest, which raised $50,000 to $75,000 each election cycle, a very significant amount.
Long had control over his state's political machinery. He pushed a number of bills through the 1929 session of the Louisiana State Legislature to fulfill campaign promises. These included free textbooks for schoolchildren, night courses for adult literacy (which taught 100,000 adults to read by the end of his term), and a cheap natural gas for the city of New Orleans. Long began an ambitious public works program, that led to the building of roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools. Long used aggressive tactics to ensure passage of his bills and to silence his critics. In 1929, Long called a special session of both houses of the legislature to enact a new five-cent per barrel "occupational license tax" on production of refined oil, to help fund his social programs. The bill met with fierce opposition from the state's oil companies. Opponents in the legislature moved to impeach Long on charges that included bribery, and the misuse of state funds. Long tried to cut the session short, but after a heated conflict, the Legislature voted to remain in session and proceed with the impeachment.
To defend himself, Long took his case to the people, going on speaking tours. He argued that Standard Oil and other corporate interests were conspiring to stop him helping the state's poor. The House referred many charges to the Senate and conviction required a two-thirds majority in the Senate. When Long produced a "Round Robin" statement signed by fifteen senators pledging to vote "not guilty" no matter what the evidence, the impeachment process was suspended. It was alleged that both sides used bribes to buy votes.
After the failed impeachment proceeding, Long became ruthless when dealing with his enemies. He fired their relatives from state jobs and supported candidates to defeat them in elections. Long said at the time, "I used to try to get things done by saying 'please'. Now I dynamite 'em out of my path." In March 1930 Long founded his own paper, the Louisiana Progress, which he used to promote his agenda and to attack his enemies. To receive lucrative state contracts, companies were first expected to buy advertisements in Long's newspaper. Long tried to pass laws placing a surtax on newspapers and forbidding the publishing of "slanderous material," but these efforts were defeated.
After the impeachment attempt, Long received death threats. Thereafter, he surrounded himself with armed bodyguards.
In the 1930 legislative session, Long proposed another major road-building initiative as well as the construction of a new capitol building in Baton Rouge. The State Legislature defeated the bond issue necessary for the project. Many of his other initiatives failed as well. In response, Long surprised his critics by announcing his intention to run for the U.S. Senate in the Democratic primary of September 9, 1930. He characterized his campaign as a referendum on his administration as governor. He said that if he won, it would mean that the public supported his legislative agenda as governor. If he lost he promised to resign. Long defeated incumbent Senator Joseph E. Ransdell in the primary by a margin of 57.3% to 42.7%. He also won election to the senate.
His Senate term was scheduled to begin on March 4, 1931, but he had not yet completed the remainder of his four-year term as governor. He did not sit in the senate immediately, but he joked that this didn't matter because "with Ransdell as Senator, the seat was vacant anyway." For the remainder of his term he pushed his legislative program with renewed vigor. He was able to push through legislation for a gasoline tax to finance road construction projects, new school spending, a construction of a new Louisiana State Capitol, and a $75 million bond for road construction. Long's road building program gave Louisiana some of the most modern roads in the country.
Long and his friends liked to listen to the popular radio show "Amos'n'Andy" and it was from one of the characters that Long obtained his nickname, "the Kingfish" after the master of the Mystic Knights of the Sea lodge to which the fictional Amos and Andy belonged. The "Kingfish" character was a smooth-talking conman who was always trying to trick Amos and Andy. Long good-naturedly approved of the nickname.
In October 1931, Lieutenant Governor Paul Cyr, a political enemy of Long's, argued that as Senator-elect, Long could no longer remain governor. Cyr tried to declare himself as the state's legitimate governor. In response, Long ordered state National Guard troops to surround the State Capitol. He then went to the Louisiana Supreme Court to have Cyr removed as lieutenant governor, arguing that the office of lieutenant-governor was vacated when Cyr tried to assume the governorship. His suit was successful. Long chose his childhood friend, Oscar K. Allen, to run to succeed him as Governor in the election of 1932. Allen had the support of Long's base and he won easily, permitting Long take his seat in the U.S. Senate in January 1932.
Long arrived in Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the United States Senate in January 1932, although he was absent for more than half the days in the 1932 session. In the senate he gave fiery speeches which denounced the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few. He also criticized the leaders of both parties for failing to address the depression and attacked conservative Senate Democratic Leader Joseph Robinson of Arkansas for being to chummy with President Herbert Hoover. In the presidential election of 1932, Long became a strong supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Long was a strong supporter of the New Deal, but differed with FDR on patronage. Roosevelt wanted control of the patronage and the two men disagreed on the issue. Long soon became one of the few national politicians to oppose Roosevelt's New Deal policies from the left. He opposed the National Recovery Act, calling it a sellout to big business. In 1933, he led a three-week filibuster against the Glass banking bill.
Roosevelt president called Long "one of the two most dangerous men in America." (The other was Douglas MacArthur). In June 1933, Long visited the White House to meet President Roosevelt. At the Long behaved very disrespectfully, refusing to take off his straw hat and addressing Roosevelt as "Frank", instead of "Mr. President". Roosevelt cut Long out of consultation on the distribution of federal funds or patronage in Louisiana and in 1934 Roosevelt 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.
Long's radical populist rhetoric and his aggressive tactics did little to endear him to his fellow senators. Long believed that the Federal Reserve's policies were the cause of the Great Depression. He made speeches denouncing the big banks. In March 1933, Long sponsored a series of bills known as "the Long plan" for the redistribution of wealth. The first bill proposed a new progressive tax code designed to cap personal fortunes at $100 million. Fortunes above $1 million would be taxed at 1 percent; fortunes above $2 million would be taxed at 2 percent, etc., up to a 100 percent tax on fortunes greater than $100 million. The second bill limited annual income to $1 million, and the third bill capped individual inheritances at $5 million. He introduced his "Share Our Wealth" plan over a nationwide radio broadcast. His plan was criticized by economists and he was accused of being a socialist.
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 "Share Our Wealth" clubs were organized by Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith. 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.
Long announced his intention to run for President in 1936. He planned to challenge Roosevelt for the Democratic nomination, knowing he would lose, but gain valuable publicity in the process. His plan was to form a third party using the Share Our Wealth plan as its basis. In the spring of 1935, Long undertook a national speaking tour and regular radio appearances, attracting large crowds and increasing his profile. Democratic Committee National chairman James Farley commissioned a secret poll in early 1935 which revealed that if Long ran on a third party ticket, he would win about 4 million votes (about 10% of the electorate). Roosevelt in a letter to his friend, William E. Dodd, wrote:
"Long plans to be a candidate of the Hitler type for the presidency in 1936. He thinks he will have a hundred votes at the Democratic convention. Then he will set up as an independent with Southern and mid-western Progressives. Thus he hopes to defeat the Democratic Party and put in a reactionary Republican. That would bring the country to such a state by 1940 that Long thinks he would be made dictator. There are in fact some Southerners looking that way, and some Progressives drifting that way. Thus it is an ominous situation".
On Sunday, September 8, 1935, Long was at the State Capitol in Baton Rouge attempting to have the state senate remove a long-time opponent, Judge Benjamin Henry Pavy. At 9:20 p.m., just moments after the House passed the bill, Pavy's son-in-law Dr. Carl Weiss, a physician from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, approached Long and fired a handgun at him from four feet away, shooting him in the torso. Long's bodyguards returned fire, killing Weiss instantly. Long was rushed to the hospital, but died two days later, on Tuesday, September 10, 1935, at 4:10 a.m. Long was 42 years old. His last words were said to be, "God, don't let me die. I have so much to do."
Long's body was placed in the State Capitol rotunda where an estimated 200,000 people came to pay their respects. Long's funeral was held on September 12, 1935. In 1985, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of Long's assassination, PBS produced an excellent documentary on Long by film-maker Ken Burns, simply entitled Huey Long.