BILBO AND LONG.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 277, 22 November 1934, Page 16

BILBO AND LONG.

POLITICAL END MEN.

HUMOROUS CANDOUR. "DEAD MEN" WHO WON'T ME DOWN. (By PAUL MALLON.) WASHINGTON", October 10. One tiling everyone liore now concedes is that these Now Dealers can take nearly everything with a smile. They have been able to conceal their real

feelings about some of these democratic primary results only with great effort, but the. effort never was greater than when the man Bilbo won the other day in Mississippi.

You may not know Mr. Bilbo, but you will. He will become a United States Senator next January. For the following six years he will be a national character surpassing Huey Long. He was promised it. As one astute New Dealer remarked after hearing of Bilbo's victory: "All the Senate now needs to become a minstrel show is a brass band. Bilbo and Long are the two best end men in politics." All Things to All Men. The secret of Mr. Bilbo's success is not what you may think. He is not anti-New Deal. Nor does his election mean that Mississippi has gone berserk. He made a good reform record in his first term as Governor, and still is supported by many of the best families in the State, as well as the backswoodsinen. The best authorities on politics there seem to agree his victory can be traced to two things:—(l) The unpopularity of his opponent; and (2) Mr. Bilbo's promise of all things to all men. His political technique is amazing. He has been accused of nearly everything under the sun, and a few things over it, and lie never denies anything. Indeed, lie makes a virtue out of most accusations. For instance, a tale is told about how one of his opponents in a gubernatorial campaign accused him of being too much of a ladies' man. He chose to make a reply at a women's political rally, where he said in effect:

"The man Bilbo (he always looks nt himself objectively) is 52 years old. He has been accused of being a ladies' man. He does not deny that accusation, but says that any man who is 52 years old and is still a ladies' man is the kind of a man you want for Governor." Did Not Bat An Eye. It is also whispered that, in another campaign, ho was caught in a rather embarrassing position, because the candidate for whom he was campaigning was dying. Mr, Bilbo did not bat an eye. Said lie:

"I would rather vote for a man in a graveyard with a good respectable name than the best of these puddin'heads, who arc running around dead but won't lie down."

Some of the newspapers in his State have said some things about him in fighting words. Ho has been on both the receiving and sending end of bribery charges. Ono newspaper once commented on the fact that he hid in a barn from a Court subpoena by expressing commiseration for the animals in the barn. To all of which Mr. Bilbo turned the other cheek.

When a jury absolved him in a malfeasance case, he took occasion to say that perhaps the judge, the prosecutor and some other people thought him guilt}', but he sided with the jury. Also, he is the man who made that groundless assertion in the 1028 campaign that the Republican Presidential candidate had danced with a negress. Will Go Wild.Carefully. The new deal attitude is illustrated by what Chester Davus (A.A.A. Administrator) said in jest. He thought it spoke well for Agriculture Secretary Wallace's political acumen that, in six months, Wallace was able to develop a man capable of winning a senatorial nomination.

The truth is the new dealers would not give Bilbo a good job. In order to take care of him, they gave him a desk in the A.A.A. and permitted him to clip newspapers at a salary of £1300 a year, a fact they may later have cause to regret. Nevertheless, Mr. Bilbo will probably vote with the new deal in most important matters. He will go wild carefully, and only on his pet subjects, such as the cash bonus and the redistribution of wealth.

But his election and some of the others mean a tempestuous and amusing Congressional circus this winter.—(N.A.N.A.)