 FATHER
COUGHLIN, HUEY LONG, & UPTON SINCLAIR; VOICES
FOR THE DISAFFECTED IN 1930s AMERICA
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HUEY
LONG
Long
became an U.S. Senator in 1930 and much to the chagrin of his critics,
remained Governor of Louisiana so that he could have time to manipulate
his supporters into voting for his lackey, Alvin Olin King, to succeed
him as governor in 1932. With King under his thumb, Long continued to
govern Louisiana in-absentia, just as if he were there.  During this
time, Long critics united to return control of state government to the
people, but Long controlled opposition by exploiting friends,
and more
importantly, by deploying the National Guard as his own military
force to
squelch the opposition. Never bashful, never ashamed, and never
remorseful, Long did whatever it took to maintain control and
through
this control, he willed his ideas upon the state. Not surprisingly, he took on the
name
Kingfish from the character George "Kingfish" Stevens
(played by actor Tim Moore) the smooth-talking
schemer character from the Amos & Andy radio show because, he
said,
"'I'm a small fish here in Washington. But I'm
the Kingfish to the
folks down in Louisiana'" (Social 1).Long, also a Democrat, naturally supported FDR in 1932, and felt assured that his own ideas would mesh with those of FDR's. Long wrote in 1933 is reflections on FDR: But
I saw to it that my views were known to Mr. Roosevelt, then Governor of
New York and now President of the United States. Early in his candidacy
in a speech delivered in Atlanta, Mr. Roosevelt said:
'The millions who are in want will not stand by silently forever while the things to satisfy their needs are within easy reach. Many of those whose primary solicitude is confined to the welfare of what they call capital have failed to read the lessons of the last few years and have been moved less by calm analysis of the needs of the Nation as a whole than by a blind determination to preserve their own special stakes in the economic disorder. We may build more factories, but the fact remains that we have enough now to supply all our domestic needs and more, if they are used. No; our basic trouble was not an insufficiency of capital; it was an insufficient distribution of buying popover coupled with an over-sufficient speculation in production.' Soon thereafter on the basis of such declarations, I became convinced that the best chance for a solution of America's difficulties was through the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt as President (Long 298) |
