Kristen Cassels History 360-097 Fall 2011 10/28/11 Huey P.

Long Film Review In Ken Burns America: Huey Long, you get a glimpse into the wild world that was Huey Longs. We take a journey and experience tales that show us why he was one of the most liked and most hated men in politics to date. The poor followed his leadership with unwavering dedication. The rich despised his antics and political satires. In the beginning of the film we hear a speech given by Mr. Long. His unwavering stature and hammered first show he thrives on power. He had a smile that could make him likable, and his charm was undeniable. Through the recants of fans and foes, the film then walks you through Huey Longs rise to fame and his untimely death. The amazing career of Huey Pierce Long began on a farm in Winnfield, Louisiana, August 30, 1893. After public school education, his older brother Julius supported him for one year in New Orleans to study law. He selected a number of law courses at Tulane University Law School, but principally studies on his own. In 1915, after only one year of schooling he convinced his educators to admit him to the bar. He then returned to his hometown of Winnfield, but moved his practice to booming Shreveport. Politically ambitious, he gained election to the Louisiana Railroad Commission at the age of 25, and continued in that post for 10 years. He led successful fights for independent oil companies, reduced telephone rates, forced pipelines to act as common carriers and prevented street-car rate increases in Shreveport. This successful campaign gave Long his most enduring and useful adversary- The Standard Oil Company. (Cowan)

It operated, arguably, the largest oil refinery in the world at Baton Rouge, and it depended on large coterie of pipelines for supplies. As a new member of Louisiana Railroad Commission, soon to become the Louisiana Public Service Commission, he recognized that pipelines should be a public utility, transporting all oil at equal rates for all refiners. (Cowan) Long made his first run for governor of Louisiana in 1923, standing for a stronger and more active government. He introduced the issue of free textbooks for school children, an idea foreign to Louisiana but already in practice elsewhere in the South. Though Huey ran third, the election was so close that his stature actually increased. The following year he was swept into a second term as public service commissioner. By then he was the odds-on favorite in the gubernatorial election of 1928. Louisiana at the time held her accustomed spot near the bottom of the nation, not only geographically but in average income (39th of the 48), farm value (43rd), and literacy (47th)(Van). When he won the gubernatorial election on his second try in 1928, he embarked upon a series of changes that went beyond reform to outright rebellion against the ruling class. No poor man ever hated Huey Long from this day forward. (Burns) He raised severance taxes on natural resource industries to pay for schoolbooks for every child, regardless of whether they went to public or private school. During his term as governor, the state built over 2,300 miles of paved roads, 111 bridges, and, in 1932, employed 10 percent of the men involved in road building nationally. He moved to abolish the practices of straitjacketing and chaining to introduce dental care at mental institutions (at one, he claimed, dentist extracted seventeen hundred diseased teeth from inmates.) Longs appointee of head of Angola, still considered today one of the toughest prisons in the country,

instituted the states first prisoner rehabilitation programs. Long implemented an adult literacy program in Louisiana that largely served the African Americans of the time. His conduct aroused such violent opposition that his impeachment was voted by the State House of Representatives. The Senate organized as a Court of Impeachment, adjourned when 15 Senators refused to convict him. Governor Long took his case to the people, claiming

persecution by the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana in retaliation for advocating occupational tax on refineries. (Burns) He perfected his political machine and developed as organization through which he blanketed the State overnight with political circulars. He had now established his own newspaper. In 1930, Long ran for the U.S. Senate and won. But a break with his Lieutenant Governor Paul St. Cyr convinced Long not to take the seat until the end of his term as governor. It was not until 1932 that Long went to Washington. But back in Louisiana, Long was crafting not progressive legislation, but tyranny. In 1934 he sent two thousand state troopers into New Orleans to overawe the mayoral election. He prevented a duly elected member of legislature from taking his seat, and employed a subservient state court to defend the outrage. He re-organized the governmental structure of Louisiana. Laws were enacted that abolished local self-government and gave him control of the appointment of all police, fireman, and school teachers. He secured complete command of the militia, the judiciary, election officials, and tax-assessors. Nationally, he advocated the redistribution of wealth; and when the united States Senate rejected his tax proposals, he resigned his committee posts. He invaded Arkansas with a sound-truck to help elect his choice candidate to the United States Senate. (Burns)

He appealed to a depression shocked public with his fallacious but tempting Share-The-Wealth program. (Burns) Simultaneously harassing the National Administration and consolidation his absolutism on Louisiana, he was at the height of his power. He two books, Every Man A King and My First Days in the White House. (Wall) Long gradually became more and more

authoritarian as the need for his personal attention spread to an ever wider stage. By 1935, Long had so suppressed the legislature that no one even bothered to peak for or against his bills. The bills were introduced, read, and passed. The Louisiana Supreme Court was in his pocket. Without examining Longs motives, his stated programs should be applauded. But it is clear that as his power grew, the quality of the programs he championed cheapened. His program came more and more to be anything that made his power more arbitrary. But on September 8, 1935, it all came to an end. At 9:20 p.m. that evening, Dr. Carl Weiss approached Long in the capitol corridor outside of the governors office and got off one shot with a .32-caliber automatic pistol. (Wall) Long stumbled wounded, then ran into a stairwell, His bodyguards shot Weiss repeatedly. Though Long underwent surgery, his doctor missed closing a severed artery to the kidney. (Van) By the next day, when the omission was noticed, Long was too weak to operate on again. He died on Tuesday, September 10, 1935. At the age of 42, a colorful career came to a tragic end. Long had captivated the masses with his wit. He possessed a keen mind, an unfailing memory, and a limitless imagination. Political success attended him because of his forcefulness and originality. He was a master salesman, and he was boldly unorthodox. A political genius, he ignored tradition and defied propriety. He emerged from obscurity and adversity to become Louisianas rude awakener and reckless builder of political methods.

Works Cited Cowan, Walter G., and Jack B. McGuire. Louisiana Governors: Rulers, Rascals, and Reformers. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 2008. Print. Ken Burns America: Huey Long. Dir. Ken Burns. PBS Paramount, 1985. DVD. Van, Vleck Della Holbrook. Huey P. Long: Fact and Fiction. New York: Random House, 1975. Print. Wall, Bennett H. Louisiana: A History. Fifth ed. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, 2008. Print.