The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-10-24
Senator Huey Long

Senator Huey Long
Burleigh county electors filled to
cverflowing the auditorium Saturday
night to hear Senator Huey Long,
storm center and dictator of Louisiana
politics. In addition to all this, he
has lately become the "enfant ter
rible" of the most deliberative body
in the world. His Bismarck audience
cheered all references to Governor
Franklin D. Roosevelt. They roared
at his southern accent and rocked
with mirth over some we'll told stor-
les. Great amplifiers carried his
stentorian notes for blocks and
crowds gathered about two great
sound trucks parked in front of the
city auditorium. 1t was a glorified
Huey Long political rally, transplant
ed from the cotton fields Of the south
to the wind-swept prairies of the
north. And how they all enjoyed 1t!
Taking for his model the Norris
style of oratory, Senator Long ex-
coriated the rich with great vehem-
ence and pleaded earnestly for a
more equal distribution of wealth
through the medium Of confiscatory
federal taxes.
Yet this political evangelist from
the south would permit everyone to
retain one million dollars of his year.
ly gains and the right to bequeath
millions more at his death. There
was nothing in this economic plat
form TO cause alarm in North Da-
kota audience or start a heated argu-
ment among the farmers present who
at present price levels cannot think
in terms of thousands not to men,
ton the millions and billions which
Huey juggled in his attack upon the
predatory rich and the ruling
'plutocratic regime" He stormed the
Notifications of entrenched wealth
like a stern Cato calling out for the
destruction of Carthage.
There is this to be said even in de-
tense of political extremist, that
among many thoughtful students
there is complete agreement that
much is fundamentally wrong in our
economic process which concentrates
great wealth in a few and intensifies
want and distress among the many.
They view with real alarm the dis
traught conditions which permit
hunger amidst plenty; widespread
unemployment where money and in
come abound.
Senator Longs audience was In
earnest sympathy with his militant
arraignment of such conditions. They
did not conceal their approval either.
More than half those assembled were
farmers who corrected Long when he
erred in quoting depression prices OF
wheat, corn, flax, barley and other
agricultural products. They laughed
heartily when this southern emissary
of Democracy ascribed his errors in
prices to the fact that President
Hoover must have made more
speeches since he examined the quota
tons.
Politicians often refer to the South
as the Bible Belt Religion and
politics are often mixed south of the
Mason and Dixon line. This may
explain Senator Longs style of cam.
paign. He has many attributes of the
southern camp meeting exhorter
Cherishing a political Utopia, he
would separate the sheep from the
goats SO that only the politically
righteous could march on to Zion.
At times it was hard to follow Sen.
ator longs logic relative to the pc.
tency of federal taxation in accom-.
plishing an economic millennium
where wealth would be divided NOR
equally than now. Unfortunately /
does not work out that way in prac
tice. All will heartily agree witt
him, who are not hide-bound par
tisans, that our taxation system need
as much revision as the tariff law
so that burdens can be lifted from
all alike and millions of tax none,
now squandered by tax eaters be di
verted to productive channels an
for the relief of the poor and tn
jobless.
On the whole, however, Senate
Long gave an address that pleasel
his audience. They chuckled goo'
humoredly, If they did not AWAY
follow his political philosophy which
in some respects was vague and de
magogic. He has strong emotiona
appeal for voters depressed by thes
abnormal times. In his flights o
oratory, he calls upon the high heav
ems to Justify his political econom!