AMERICAN DAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 36, 12 February 1936, Page 4

AMERICAN DAYS

LAND OF SUDDEN DEATH

PICTURES OF TWO NOTABLES

LONG AND ROGERS

Death by violence is a common end of life in the United States, writes Paul Anning in the "Cape Times." Every year some 11,000 persons are the victims of .homicidal attacks and 100,000 are killed in accidents. Two famous men have recently made front-page history by dying American deaths. Will Rogers crashed to death in Wiley Post's aeroplane in an Alaskan fog; Huey Long was shot down by a political enemy on the steps of his orfn State Capitol. I sat at the air-conditioned; metal and glass Manhattan bar in the Hotel New Yorker a few minutes after landing. The barman went to fetch my whisky and water. A voice from the next stool said: "What the hell do you want to drink whisky for?" It came from ' a fattish man with a cheeky, upturned nose, untidy and very hot. Two toughlooking gentlemen on his further side looked at me venomously. As quickly as possible I gave my reasons. The earthquake at my side crashed down a. podgy fist on to the bar. "Whisky is poison, rots your guts, ruins your manhood.". Nervously, I asked what should be drunk. "Ramon gin fizz," was the immediate reply; "the drink I brought from New Orleans, mixed by the only bartender in the South who can do it, the man I brought here to teach the New Yorkers how to drink." "THE LOUISIANA KINGFISH." This was Huey Long, lately Governor, now Senator and Dictator of the State of Louisiana; the man who proposed to stand as a third party candidate in the 1936 Presidential election-; and was i even then correcting the proofs of a book, "My First Years at the White House," in anticipation of his election. All around the bar hung placards praising his especial drink; only a few days before the. Press had jumped at the story of the public-minded > Louisiana Kingfish who had brought gin fizz and enlightenment to the public of NewYork. Publicity was the sun in which Huey Long basked and gre^v strong. Without scruple, shrewd, the perfect opportunist, full of colour, it was his boast that he could do what he wanted with the Southern, sub-tropical State of Louisiana. Born on a Southern farm, in succession a bood-pedlar, typesetter, law student, land salesman, lawyer, orator appealing to the mob, and finally politician, he threw round his shoulders the mantle of the champion of the common people. At Washington, in the Senate/he kept .himself perpetually in the public eye. He claimed to be a dictator; his enemies called him a tyrant. He made a joke of democratic government in Louisiana and boasted that he could "buy legislators like so many sacks of potatoes" in his own^ State. He gave his pe'ople roads but took away their freedom, and in doing so lost his own freedom, so that for years past he went about, like Al Capone; with an armed bodyguard. INFERIORITY COMPLEX. He made a small fortune, having sole control of the revenues of Louisiana; ostensibly his wealth was made from fees paid by the State for legal advice on laws enacted in his own Legislature. Asked at a Senate inquiry what he did with his money, he replied: "Spent it on brass bands, football games, and drinks for my friends." At heart, con--5 tinually conscious of his lack of edu- , cation, he was absurdly jealous of any , man having book learning. This inferiority complex stimulated him to found the Louisiana State University, so that every child in the district should have the opportunity of higher, edueatiori. But the benevolence of his action was minimised by the fact that already there was an excellent University freely available, but Long was for some reason antagonistic to it. To the end he found .the'greatest happiness in acting as "Cheer Leader" of his university's football team. In this raucous task the political buffoou found the perfect outlet for his energies. As he died his last words are reported to have, been: "What will become of my university boys now?" To the unthinking common folk he will live as a martyr; to the intelligent a dangerous Fascist whose career had shown all the stages of a dictatorship —its good intentions, its immoral practices, and its violent end. Probably only in the United States could such an illiterate man have gained such power. His rise was significant, and thoughtful America awaits with anxiety the rise of his successor: There are ■■ some who point the finger towards Father Coughlin, the free-thinking priest of Detroit. A SIGH OF RELIEF. The news of Long's death caused a national sigh of relief, hastily smothered with pious denunciations of the "un-American" nature of his death. But the effect of the news of Will Eogers's death on the American public was amazing. It stunned the whole country, and or{ that bright August morning when the hews came through on the radio, in every office, in every street, men and women paused, dazed and doubtful, unable to believe that their friend, Will Rogers, was dead. His radio talks, his years of laughtermaking on the stage and on the screen, had made him the private jester and public adviser of nearly every man and woman in the nation. It seems certain that Will Rogers had, in the last analysis, more power in the United States that any President, or politician, or other leader of public opinion. He, too, came from the soil and. a ready, earthy sense of fun illumined all his public utterances. He was known, like so many of his fellowtheatricals, as a generous giver, but immensely respected because he was^ shrewd enough to make and to keep his lponey while others lost theirs. He was admired because he had American Indian blood in his veins, and was reputedly proud of it. He was m many ways reminiscent of Harry Lauder, but he kept the affection of his " public by his generous and friendly manner. BULWARK GOES. Among the deluge of stories now going the rounds is one that illustrates an attractive side of this keenly-living jester who kep| himself, on the floodtide of public affairs. Over a drink he was talking with a group of politicians; the names of several people famous in England and America were referred to with disparagement. Invariably as they talked, it turned out that Rogers had known the man and had found something likeable about him Eventually Will remarked with a grin: "I just can't seem to dislike anybody I ever' met. If I want to hate him, I've got to stay away from may not have affected public policy greatly, but he certainly affected private opinions. He stood, generally speaking for a policy of national isolation, and it was counted enormously in his'favour that"he was a 100 per cent. American. He was, in fact, a reactionary of the type so popular with the Americans of today who are at present *o freely expressing their fear and hatred of what they call "Communism"; which, in effect, may mean any

tendency, to the Left, trom the palest pink to a Socialism that is redder than the rose. - With Rogers's death it has seemed that a major bulwark against revolution has been destroyed. To the general public, who in common with him have no fundamental philosophy, his death has really meant the loss of a personal and well-loved friend.