THE ASSASSIN’S BULLET

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 244, 12 September 1935, Page 6

THE ASSASSIN’S BULLET

Tiie bullet of an assassin has, not unexpectedly perhaps, cut short the political career of Senator Huey Long, the dictator of Louisiana, who was planning to enter the contest for the next Presidential election. That he was beset with political enemies was well-known to Senator Long, who created a sensation last month by purporting to give in Congress a recording—how it was obtained was not stated—of a plot to take liis life. One Senator he implicated merely observed that Mr Long was ranting and the subject did not create more than passing interest, since his political idiosyncrasies were known nation-wide. His slayer, who met an instant and violent death at the hands of the bodyguard without whom the dead Senator did not venture far, was the son-in-law of a Judge whom the Long faction sought to remove from office, for no other reason apparently than that he has opposed the political administration of Louisiana. As explained by Judge Pavy, an intensive study of Louisiana’s political situation had convinced his son-in-law that the form of government under the dictatorship was so terrible and such a miscarriage of justice that his broodings had unhinged his mind. Those words explain a great deal. Senator Long’s Governorship of Louisiana was marked by a prodigal spending of loan money that considerably raised the State debt, and it has been continued during his period of dictatorship. Not only was his successor his automaton, but he placed in office men calculated only to do his bidding. To win wider support he devised his “share the wealth plan” by which incomes were to be limited and the inheritance of huge fortunes prohibited. By what has been described as a campaign of “ridicule, patronage, and a shouting appeal to the mass emotions of the electorate,” Senator Long owed his rise to power. Theatricalism was a very important part of his stock-in-trade and his filibustering tactics in Congress were well-known. He quickly became an enemy of the New Deal, and his auger was sharpened when lie found he could not dictate to Washington on the question of appropriations under the huge relief schemes of the Federal authorities. His opposition to President Roosevelt became most articulate, and his decision to stand as a Democrat at the next election, or as an Independent if Mr Roosevelt secured the party nomination, expressed his determination. It has been said that Mr Roosevelt’s legislation taxing huge incomes and inheritances was inspired by Senator Long’s campaign. Be that as it may, an extarordinarv but possibly powerful figure in American politics has been removed.