Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1935-04-25

Southerner's disdain of the cOlOred
man, but it is not the basis OF his
political creed. Indeed, he prldes
himself on having improved Negro
education in Louisiana, and on the
exemption of virtually all Negroes
in the state from taxation. Nor Will
Huey Long ever burn the books OF
his contemporaries in a public bon
fire. Like many man deprived OF
an academic education, he has an
almost touching faith i'm it, and GER
tainly cheaper and better schooling
has been one of his central detectives
However impetuously he stamped out
criticism of himself in the student
newspaper of L. S. u, he has seen to
it that good professors have been en-
ployed by the state, and they enjoy
academic freedom.
The incident of the Renville is to
hostility to free speech, but by the
fact that the student who wrote the
critical letter was nephew of one
of his bitterest opponents. He ex-
ploded because he thought his enc
mics were using "his" university
against him and were getting away
with it. 1t showed we'll enough how
little he cares about the rights of
criticism, but he does not mount the
platform telling people, as Hitler and
Mussolini do, that individuals must
be prepared to sacrifice such per-
sonal rights for the good of the COM
munity.
Aided by Financiers.
| 1t would clinch the larger parallel
between Huey and Hitler if it could
be demonstrated that Huey, like the
dictator of Germany, understands
how to win the financial support of
big interests. Ostensibly he is their
implacable foe, and his record shows
much to justify his claim. But if he
knows how to strike he may know
also how to withhold HIS blows. Jul
JUS Long, Huey's brother Cat the time
estranged from him), testified before
the Senate committee under oath that
Huey's first unsuccessful candidacy
for the governorship in 1924 was fl
nanced principally by the Southwes-
tern Gas and Electric Company and
allied interests. He also alleged that
money had passed to his brother from
representatives of the Union Indem-
nifty Company.
''They handed my brother" he tes-
titled, "a large roll of money, think
a couple of times, while l was there,
which he tucked into one of the back
pockets of his trousers. 1t looked like
it would almost pull them off; at the
same time he sort of seemed to be
talking to himself that the Union In
demnity Company would get all the
insurance of this state" This brother
also threw doubt on Huey's sincerity
in attacking big interests. "He does
not care whether the trust is in, just
so he is in. The trust could not have
better agent than Huey Long"
Seeker Of Power.
This opinion is frequently expressed
in New Orleans by those who have
watched him in action. Nor would
inconsistency, if it exists, be a
change from the POLITICAL tradition
of Louisiana. Where there is only
one party, and political power swings
from one faction to another, funda-
mental principles often are obscured
or even absent, and the focus of the
fight is victory, and the fruit OF vic
tory is the spoils. Certainly this de-
scription of Huey Longs political
conquests is just as true as to say
that he has fought for the good OF
the people. There is room in Huey's
scheme of things for inconsistency
Power must precede reform, and the
end justifies the means. Even the
Reverend Gerald L. K. Smith himself
said SO.
The assumption in the North that
Huey Long is local phenomenon, a
product of conditions not to be dupli-
Gated elsewhere, rests on the fallacy
that the social picture of Louisiana
is unique. The same easy-gOing mis-
take is made about those foreign
countries, Germany and Italy. One
has only to translate conditions in
any of these regions into distractions
to see how little external distinctions
really matter. Given land in which
the great majority are in want or in
fear of it, in which democracy has
not produced wise leadership or COM
petent organs to conduct public af-
fairs, in which big interests" have
far more than their share of power,