The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-09-18
BY EARL SPARKLING
Times Special Writer

BY EARL SPARKLING
Times Special Writer
We had beaten them to their
knees and made them utterly ridicu-
lous, but the newspapers Of Louisi-
ana now had laudatory things to say
about Huey P. Long. All his enemies
were suddenly for him. for the sim
pie reason that they expected at last
to be rid Of him.
They had done their best to keep
the people from electing him United
States Senator. Now that he was
elected they had the consolation that
he would be in Washington and not
in Baton Rouge Lieut.. Gov. Paul
Cyr, whom Long had carried into
office as he put it 'Cn my COat-tailS'
but who had become bitterly anti
Long. would now become Governor.
But Huey had a different idea. He
was determined not TO relinquish
control in Baton Rouge until he
could put a Long man in the Gov
ernorS chair
Huey Refuses to Quit
Louisiana entered into the fabu-
lous and hilarious interlude which
farmers remember as the time Of
the many Governors" Huey did not
resign from the gOvernOrship. He
continued to sit in Baton Rouge,
signing himself Huey P Long, LID,
Governor u. S. Senator Elect.
There is more to that LID than
outsiders realize. As a special stu
dent who had mastered a three-year
course in seven months he had de-
rnanded that Tulane University give
him degree. That proud seat of
learning declined and a desire to
humble Tulane became a funda-
mental motive of his political lie.
Tulane had once been the Univer-
sity of Louisiana. After Paul Tulane,
a New Orleans merchant. had made
a fortune in New York and endowed
the institution, the board of trustees
pulled a coup and made the state
university into a private university
Builds Louisiana State u.
Tulane as a private institution
continued to exercise many prerog-
atives Of a state university, includ
ing exclusive use of the famous state
charity hospital in New Orleans,
with which the university built up
one Of the rel owned medical col
leges Of the world.
When Long became Governor he
r1o,,,nV,HoI r,1oaa r1frlofon
board of trustees and again was de-
clined. All of which explains why
he devoted his chief political efforts
to building up Louisiana State Uni
versity at Baton Rouge, which had
been the West Point of Louisiana in
the pre-Civil War days.
In building up the school at Baton
Rouge, Long created out of nothing
medical college to rival the Tulane
Medical College. With his last
breath, as he lay dying, Long gasped:
MY poor university boys, what will
happen to them nOw?"
HOn0red by LOyOla
AS a Tulane man. I remember the
CONSERVATION when LOyola Univer-
sity established itself as a powerful
institution on a great campus direct
" adjoining Tulane in the World
War days. 1t was this Catholic
university which in 1881 bestowed
upon Huey Long, upstate Baptist,
the degree of doctor of laws.
To large parts of America, where
universities do not have the ancient,
almost medieval meaning they have
in the South and especially in Louis
lana. the possibility of universities
dominating political life will sound
improbable
The New Republic in its current
issue states editOrially, however:
I'VE learn from reliable sources that
his chief quarrel with the Senator
tthe quarrel of Longs assassin, Dr.
Carl Austin Weiss. a Tulane mani
was because the latter was attempt
ing to destroy the Tulane University
Medical School, in which DR.. Weiss
was interested. by building up in
opposition to it a medical school in
New Orleans"
As LOuisianian and as a Tulane
man. have no private information
as to why Carl Weiss killed Huey
Long. but the New Republics theory
is far from improbable.
Huey Calls Out Troops
And so, we have him sitting in
Baton Rouge as a doctor of law and
as Governor and United States Sen
ator-Elect. In October. 1881. Lieut.
Gov Cyr visited a notary public and
had himself sworn in as Governor
of the state.
Long Immediately called out the
National Guard in Baton Rouge and
ordered the soldiers 10 keep Cyr
from SeiZing the State Capitol and
the executive mansion.
Cyr set himself up as Governor in
the Heidelberg Hotel. Longs old eX-
ecutive headquarters in Baton
Rouge. but Long had the manage
ment throw him out. Meanwhile a
W. l.. Aldrich Of Shreveport went
before a notary public and took the
oath of Office as Governor, explain
ing that he needed a job.
DR.. Cyr cried to the state that