The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1935-09-20
.ONG REMAINS ENIGMA IN u
s, POLITICS


nee Monitor concerning the political
activities of the late Huey P. Long,
Who had hosts of staunch admirers,
IS well as legions of bitter enemles'
will be found interesting reading, but
caves you just where you started;
Huey P. Long who passed on, the
yictim of an assassin's bullet, had
1een something of puzzle to WASH
ngton ever since he stepped out OF
IN express train at the Union station
1881. curly-haired and fiamboy-
mt, to take up on the national stage
he career that had already made
lin virtual dictator in Louisiana.
There have been many analyses
If Huey Long since, and his activities
lave kept the public eye steadily
lpon him, but Washington is still a
title uncertain whether it ever really
understood Huey Long after all,
whether it had guessed the riddle OF
lis career.
The most violent prejudices sur
.ounded the self-styled Kingfish. HIS
.ollowers in Louisiana could not say
enough in his praise; his opponents
,arried vindictiveness to a point
where it placed him in danger on
numerous occasions. Through 1t all,
Ar. Long went his own turbulent
way, bringing his Immediately
lressed figure into the contras-ingly
1umdrum atmosphere of the Senate,
md time after time setting the
galleries agog by his activities.
An effort at impartial analysis, to
begin with, must stress Mr.. Long S
ability Those opposed to him al
most invariably moderated him, UNI
ess they had daily contact with him
Is had his colleagues in the Senate.
This observer, for one, believes there
was hardly more effective speaker
han Mr.. Long on the Senate floor;
more agile mind, or a better de-
oater, in his own peculiar field.
Mr.. Longs turbulence and audac-
.ty unquestionably cowed a great
many other Senators, who had re-
oeatedly seen those who fenced with
aim pricked by his wit, or dashed by
his verbiage If Mr.. Long had CO.
operated with any group of the Sen
lte on equal terms he might have
gone far with his undoubted ablll-
les: but instead of that he insisted
IN subservience as the price OF
friendship. With all that, Mr.. Long
,ustomarily wore a merry look on the
floor of the Senate, and opponents
often found it difficult to dislike him.
The great feature about Mr.. Long
was his youth-a Senator and only
Az; he was the ruler of one state and
had a seat in the upper branch OF the
national legislature, where he could
appeal to the country at large. The
question was, what did Huey< Long
really want, and what did he expect
to get by his tactics? That is what
Washington has puzzled over, almost
ever since he arrived. There have
been times when it seemed Mr.. Long
hardly knew himself.
He was for a time at the head OF
the insurgent bloc in the Senate, but
in the midst of his impotent filibuster
against NRA extension it was the
very insurgents who turned on him
and blocked his attack. He broke
with Mr.. Roosevelt and regular
Democrats almost from the first.
He constantly assaulted the stand
pat Republicans, though time and
again he was aligned with them
openly or covertly, to harass the
regular Democrats. Mr.. Long I'M
doubtedly yearned for power, but has
followed no consistent or methodical
method of amassing it. The expla-
nation put forth by enemies thai Mr.
Long was a mere self-seeker does not
satisfy a good many observers either,
who attempt to be impartial.
Mr.. Long undoubtedly made good
thing out of politics. The strings OF
all sorts of enterprises went into his
hands in Louisiana. He was raised
in the forcing house of Louisiana
politics, where corruption has been
rife ever since Spain and France first
possessed it. Mr.. Long played the
political game there and played 1t SO
much better than anyone else that
he did what nobody else succeeded
in doing. became dictator.
On the other hand, in the Senate,
Mr.. Long chung to George w. Norris.