A POLITICAL CRIME

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22210, 10 September 1935, Page 8

A POLITICAL CRIME

In the State House of Louisiana, the scene of many of his political triumphs, Senator Huey P. Long has been attacked with intent to kill. This attempt on his life calls worldwide attention to his amazing career. He is an extraordinary man even in a land constantly producing men apt to break away from routine. It is said that a distaste for hard work and a liking for city pleasure made him at 16 a house-to-house salesman; but probably, while his early occupation was rightly named, someone he afterwards angered was a trifle careless in suggesting that Huey Long was instinctively lazy. At all events, on the commission he earned, together with what an open-eyed brother lent him, he married—and set about studying law. Young though he was, he made such good headway through successive examinations that, under a special dispensation of the State Supreme Court, he was admitted to the Bar on the he was 21, and began practice. Soon ho was in State politics, again at an unusually early age, and at 24 was beginning a strenuous fight against oil monopolists. With virtually no organisation to back him, he ran for the State Governorship, winning at the second attempt. Thenceforth he has been the most prominent figure in Louisiana. He has had his ups and downs. The vigour of his challenge to vested interests aroused opposition as keen as was support, but his programme of public works in the State enabled him to rally popular help sufficient to keep him in office. That he should go on into Federal politics was inevitable, and recently, in view of the forthcoming nominations for the presidential election next year, the possibility of his being a candidate, or at least leading an influential party in the preliminary struggle, has been an important factor. The most remarkable feature of his personality as it is generally known is a .style of public speech so free-and-easy that political questions are often made to look grotesque. He throws grammar and dignity to the winds. But along with this habit is an ability to make the jargon serve a purpose deadly serious. He Has always known what he wanted to do or have done, and has gone about it in his own way; and those knowing him best are agreed that he has deliberately adopted his characteristic method of speech in order to compel attention. He has made many personal enemies; his eagerness for power and mercilessly adroit manner of using it were bound to create resentment. Probably this murderous attack is attributable to an animosity thus engendered, and is a political crime of the kind sadly common in the United States. It is symptomatic, as has been his going about with an armed bodyguard, of the disturbed and restive condition of the country just now, and will doubtless add to the ferment. More than ever, his name will be tossed to and fro in a riot of speculation about his motives and his programme, but the chief thought will bo of his narrow escape from a tragic end to his meteoric career. However he is estimated the attempt on his life is utterly deplorable.