The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-09-13

what has been
 written to date however, a man from Mars might receive the impression that his life was unique in the annals of the country. It was nothing of the sort. Senator Long typified merely single minded indi- vidual who took advantage of our national boast that in the United States it is possible to rise from obscurity to eminence by the simple process of snatch ing opportunities. He is the perfect prototype of that rug ged individualism" about which we heard so much from Repub- lican and Republican, orators during the latest presidential campaign and which is fat headedly imagined to be the req son for the nations progress. The only difference between the slain boss of Louisiana and the bygone Titans of American business and finance and indus try is that he chose for his field of operations neither the mill nor. the mine nor the market but the broad arena of politics. Followed Beaten Trail
 Almost without exception the individuals who in the pioneer ing past seized upon power and wealth did so by ignoring the law of God and prostituting the law of man. The trampling of human rights into resistless pulp was their code of conduct. The thieving of great national properties was designated as development of the nations resources" The purchase and ownership of the courts of law was a mere phase of their cam- paign for power. Ruthlessness towards business competitors, mercilessn ess towards individual adversaries, and total dis- regard for everything but the promptings of illimitable ambi- tioh were their invariable char acteristics. Should this state- ment appear altogether gro- tesque, as well as untrue, the reader Is respectfully referred to the past of the Standard Oil Company, the court record of the case of the United States of America versus John M. Patter- son and the National Cash Reg ister Company, the legislative debauchery attendant upon the construction of the Southern Pa- cific Railroad; the market ca- reer of Commodore Vanderbilt, Daniel Drew, Jim Fisk, and Jay Gould. And as a little light re- search for the incredulous I can recommend a cursory slant at the fashion after which the the western lumber barons ac- cumulated their colossal hold ings.
 "The Public Be Damned"
 The incontrovertibIe evidence is already in print regarding the oil potentates, the industrial magnates, and the railroad buc- cancers. Commodore Wander bilt's classic remark "The pub- lie be damned" is still war cry of certain powerful utilities groups If the testimony heard by the Black senatorial committee in Washington a few weeks ago affords any means of Judgment. As far as the lumber kings are concerned lived and ate and talked throughout one long win- ter with old time timber cruisers who worked for them in Min nesota and Michigan and lis- tened popeyed to their recital of the theft of billions of feet of white and Norway pine from nationally owned timberlands and Indian reservations for their employers. One aged amiable rogue informed me that when he died and went to hell he would do so with regret because he should have been thief for his own profit instead of that of the man who hired him to do the stealing.
 Just the Same
 What was there different in the Long political methods and their application to the state in which he lived and the tech nique of the past masters of politics whom he took for his models? Nothing except the noise of the brass band of pub licity. Was Senator Longs con- trol of Louisiana any more com plete than that of Matt Quay or Boise Penrose over Pennsyl- vania? Was his dominance any more memorable over the law makers from the bayous and the parishes than Mark Hanna's was over the legislators from Ohio's cities and towns and villages? Was his ownership of the com monwealth any more perfect than is that of J. Henry Rora- back now in Connecticut? Per- sonally, l do not think 1t was.