Evening star., 1936-08-06

cially reported that he once had
banked, At one time. half q million
doliars. for which no adequata account
had been made The Attorney Gen
eral. Mr.. Cummings. found the case OF
Long and his organization so impor-
tant that he brought the former Gov
ernor Of Texas. Dan Moody. from
Texas TO New Orleans ~ special assist
ant to the Attorney General TO prose-
cute cases. A. L. Shushan. president
of the New Orleans levce board. was
among the accused. He was tried and
| acquitted. One man was found guilty
and sent to Atlanta. He was Joseph
Fisher, a State Representative and
member of the Long organization.
Longs Assassination.
Before the rest came to trial Huey
Long was assassinated. In September,
1885. The New Orleans Tribune" an
nounced that the leaders Of the late
dictators political machine had held
a conference and decided to make a
peace offering to President Roosevelt.
And that they had decided to ask him
to stop any further Federal investiga-
tions concerning political leaders
which are now under way in this
State" Paul Maloney, according to
this paper. was designated to 60 to
Washington and confer with the ad-
ministration leaders. A little cabinet"
was appointed to succeed Long and 1t
dropped Mr.. Seymour Weiss. as q
liability"
In November. 1895. the Federal
grand jury returned indictments
against Weiss and two others on six
counts. charging attempts to defraud
the Government and conspiracy to
evade. On December 4 Messrs. Wilson,
Nichols and Schii we're also charged.
But between that time and the
Democratic National Convention in
June. the Department of Justice nolle
pressed the cases against all IL who
were charged and yet untried. That
means that the charges were simply
dropped. Nine members Of the grand
| jury which indicted. protested and
criticized United States Attorney Rene
Vioscas action in dropping the tax
charges. They declared that II the
Government intended to be consistent
it should release Fisher. who was serv-
! ing his sentence in Atlanta.
Importance Of Date.
The dates are important. When
| the charges were preferred. Huey Long
| and his machine were on the outs
with the administration. When the
charges were dropped-after all the
months of investigation. after the in
dictments were made. and after one
man had been sent to jail-Long was
dead and his machine. with the ex-
ception Of the Rev. Gerald H. X.
Smith. had made peace with the ad-
ministration. Mr.. Weiss. despite the
fact that he was liability" arrived
at the Democratic convention, an
nouncing enthusiastically that he was
ready to go down the line for Presi-
dent Roosevelt" When the charges
were made Long beloved belligerently
that his gang had been framed"
Huey ought to have known. He had
been repeatedly accused OF using his
own income tax law for "blackmail
ing" purposes. Were they framed
or weren't they? And how about
Mr.. Fisher. who had the bad luck
to be tried before the great recon-
| Citation?
There were few peeps Of protest
in louisiana And the Treasury De-
partment announced that despite the
Department Of Justice. they intended
to press the indictments and reopen
the charges. They were preparing, it
was announced. to give the men
90 days to pay or file appeals. Does
! this mean that the Treasury dis
trusts the Department OF Justice'
Or what In the world does it mean?
| lCopyTight. 1850