Share-the-Wealth Wave

(See front cover)

Economic theories for the immediate salvation of the U. S. come & go like the waves of the sea, pounding loudly for a little while on the beach of public attention and then receding to the silent depths of history. The Utopian movement, whipped up into big breakers by the 1934 campaign, spent itself in the defeat of California's Upton Sinclair and his EPIC. Its successor, the Townsend Plan, touched its high watermark just before Chairman Doughton of the House Ways & Means Committee put the old country doctor on the witness stand and made a monkey out of him (TIME, Feb. 18). As of All Fools Day, 1935, the largest political splash was being made by Huey Pierce Long's Share- the-Wealth movement.

Most of last week Senator Long spent on business in Louisiana with the result that: 1) the Senate galleries were all but empty; 2) the Senate itself suddenly began to make progress on its legislative program. This positive popularity with spectators, this negative power with Senators, did not pass Washington unnoticed. To wiseacres there it was just one more significant proof of the important change, personal and political, Huey Long has undergone in the last few weeks.

Change to Charm. The outward signs of that change are marked. The Senator was loud, rough, profane. He still is, by nature, but nowadays as he passes through the corridors of the Senate Office Building, he tries to be charming and affable to all comers. He used to run around to his quota of parties, but nowadays he has little time for such gay amusement. Though he has not yet become a teetotaler, he is no longer the Huey Long of the Sands Point washroom. This change is not reform; it is ambition, guided by a keen sense of self-advantage. Senator Long may have his faults and flaws but he does not neglect his business, which is politics.

Huey Long has been at work on that business since he got himself admitted to the Louisiana Bar at 21. At 25 he was a member of the Railroad Commission of Louisiana. At 27 he got on the State Public Service Commission. At 34 he was Governor. At 38 he was U. S. Senator and political master of Louisiana in a literal sense that non-Louisianians cannot understand. In six years he ran the State debt up from $46,000,000 to $143,000,000 and doubled its annual operating expenses but today no responsible person in Louisiana dares challenge his power. The Governor is his puppet. He curses his State Legislature to its face and then boldly boasts that "they are the finest collection of lawmakers money can buy." The State judiciary is so packed with Longsters that a legal test of the Senator's autocracy is out of the question. The State guard is, in effect, a private political army to put down any and all anti-Long squawkers. The State's election machinery is so rigged that an outsider can never win. Political scientists may deplore such a perversion of democratic government but they cannot help admiring the shrewd inventiveness of the politician who devised such a state organization.

Senator Long's official connection with his State government is now confined to special, but profitable, services. The State Public Service Commission has the free legal advice of the State Attorney General but lately it has employed Mr. Long as counsel. Recently the Commission ordered Baton Rouge water and electric rates reduced, to which the utilities agreed. For his services in this unexciting transaction Senator Long charged the State $5,600. Last week he was again in Baton Rouge to represent the Commission which had ordered a telephone rate reduction. But this time Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co. opposed the move and the Senator announced that his fee would be $20,000.

Without Baggage. Most new Senators bring their wives, families and careers with them to Washington. Senator Long went to the Capital with no such baggage. For obvious reasons national politics, up until a few months ago, was only a side show to him. His two boys, Russell Billiu, 16, and Palmer Reed, 13, stay in high school at New Orleans. His daughter, Rose Lolita, 17, last year a bright freshman at Newcomb College, this year a sophomore at her father's Louisiana State University, occasionally visits Washington with her mother. But by & large Papa Long now has little time for family life in Washington.

On his arrival in Washington, the Louisiana Senator lived at the Mayflower Hotel, with the usual two rooms in the Senate Office Building. On his evenings off he liked to go out to night clubs. Now all that is changed. His private life, such as it is, is lived at the Broadmoor, an apartment hotel on Connecticut Avenue. There he has a three-room & kitchenet apartment, with one or more of his bodyguards occupying the outer room and changing the records on the phonograph that is kept going from the time the Senator gets up at 8 o'clock in the morning. In the back room the Senator sleeps, and gives interviews--sometimes sitting sleepy-eyed on the edge of his bed; sometimes while picking out one of the gaudy shirts laid out by Murphy, his husky valet; sometimes in the bathroom brushing his teeth. Occasionally that apartment is also the scene of parties that he gives for male associates from New Orleans.

Office No. 143. The most important part of the Long plant in Washington is Office No. 143 in the Senate Office Building, not two rooms now, but five, more than any other Senator occupies. Even in that space he is so crowded that the 21 men and girls who clerk for him from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p. m. are followed by a night shift of 14 who work from 5:30 to 11:130.

The head of that office--Senator Long's Marvin Mclntyre, "Steve" Early and James Aloysius Farley rolled into one--is Earle J. Christenberry. Secretary Christenberry works on a yearly contract, holds Mr. Long's power of attorney, pays his bills, looks after his $55,000 life insurance. Fourteen years ago Mr. Christenberry claimed the world's record in stenography, later ran a public stenographic service in New Orleans. He got his job early one morning when Huey Long called him up and dictated a long letter over the telephone. Nowadays he works Sundays, nights and holidays. He sees that each of the 15,000 to 30,000 letters a day received at the Senate Office Building addressed to Senator Long gets a "personal" answer from the Senator. He is the mechanic who keeps Huey Long's Washington political machine in running order.

But it is not a close-knit organization like the parent company in Louisiana. For Huey Long has, practically speaking, no personal friends in official Washington. He used to go out sometimes with Senator Wheeler until Senator Wheeler decided he had better keep to quieter company. Although he is on speaking terms with every Senator, there are few members who relish talking to him. He has openly threatened to campaign in the next election against Senators Robinson, Harrison and Bailey. As a whole the Senate dislikes and fears him.

Visitors & Boys. The only other personal contacts Senator Long has in Washington are with newshawks. Many a correspondent despises him. But coming from a State where every paper of note attacks him violently, he is grateful for small favors. He looks kindly on the New York Times because he thinks it alone gives him a fair break. His best newshawk friend is Paul Y. Anderson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Recently a story went the Washington rounds to the effect that Senator Long did the unheard-of thing of calling informally on Correspondent Anderson at his home one evening, accompanied by two bodyguards carrying "violin cases." "Just dropped in for a chat," said the Senator. "Don't mind the boys here. They just look big because they have a couple of submachine guns along."

Senator Long has not suffered from a lack of friends in Washington. A turn has come in his affairs and he is too busy for social contacts. From the first the President, whom he helped nominate, definitely would have no truck with him. The Administration, in fact, lined up against him, gave him no patronage, indicted his friends for income tax evasion. He began, according to his custom, a campaign of retaliation, singling out Postmaster General Farley as the Administration's Achilles heel. Democratic leaders thought they had to reply and in no time public interest filled the Senate galleries whenever Senator Long appeared on the floor. He became a national character, which from his standpoint was both enjoyable and profitable.

Serious Sideline. A second good fortune followed. General Johnson denounced him (TIME, March 18). Senator Long did not mind in the least. He demanded radio time to reply, and seized the opportunity, not to denounce General Johnson but to propagandize for his Share-the-Wealth Clubs. That brought him his maximum mail, over 30,000 letters in one day.

Before those two developments, he could see little further profit in remaining in Washington. He had even announced that he was going home to run for Governor next year. Then he changed his tune: He would run again for Senator because other Senators seemed too anxious to be rid of him; he might even run for President. Senator Long had suddenly found reason to take his sideline seriously.

Roosevelt Inspiration. To the Chicago Convention which had just nominated him for President in 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt made a speech of acceptance in which the following passage fairly raised the roof with applause: "Throughout the nation men and women . . . look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth." To most Chicago delegates those words were just mouthfilling rhetoric, a noble sentiment to be approved but not literally practiced. But when Huey Long heard them, they sounded like an inspiration. He filed that effective Rooseveltian appeal away in his memory. Today he is using it for all it is worth.

The Share-the-Wealth movement is divided into two parts. Part I is in Louisiana where Share-the-Wealth meetings are part of the regular curriculum of Boss Long's ward heelers. There are clubs, organized by his workers, in nearly every precinct or voting district. All jobholders and would-be jobholders are assembled in a shabby little house. They have nothing to lose and may have much to gain by joining. Orders are to elect as many officers as possible, so each club always has a president, several vice presidents, a secretary and many committee chairmen. Then some young attache of the Loner machine like Herbert Christenberry, brother of the Senator's Washington secretary, makes a speech promising them all a home, an automobile, a radio, $5,000 in cash, an income of not less than $2,500 a year, old-age pension, a free university education for their children--as soon as Huey is President. The more illiterate the audience, the larger the promises. Thus the strong Long machine grows stronger daily.

"Man of God." Part II of the Share-the-Wealth movement is in the rest of the U. S. Until recently Senator Long gave it little more attention than to have circulars mailed out to enthusiasts who sent him letters. Such organization as Part II has had has been provided by the Rev. Gerald L. K. Smith. Nearly a year ago he left the First Christian Church of Shreveport to join Senator Long. A young, vigorous pulpit-pounder, he organized Share-the-Wealth Clubs far & wide on a revivalist basis. Sample of his exhortations: "They said I was run out of St. Francisville. That was a lie. I've never been run out of any town. . . . The only thing about me that will run is my nose. . . . God says the wealth of the land shall be distributed every 50 years. Has it been distributed? . . . God says there shall be forgiveness of all debts every seven years. Have we been forgiven our debts? . . . How many of you have three suits of clothes? . . . How many have four good suits of underwear? . . . Never has a man gone to the Senate from Louisiana who has uttered the oratorical and rhetorical gems uttered by Senator Huey P. Long. . . . I've slept with him, eaten with him, talked with him, prayed with him and I know he is a man of God. All we need is 20,000,000 ballots." Lots of Share-the-Wealth clubs, however, have never heard Mr. Smith. Anybody who writes to Senator Long receives free literature urging him to form a Share-the-Wealth Society and "Be sure to send in the coupon off the circular with the names of your officers." There are no dues, no charges of any kind against members unless they want to send Mr. Christenberry $2 for 1,000 buttons. So anybody can become the president of such a club.

Bomber. One who did was Eugene S. Daniell Jr., once a candidate for President of the U. S. on the National Independent Party (his own) ticket. He made more of a splash in August 1933 when he threw two tear gas bombs into the ventilating system of the New York Stock Exchange. Like some 200 others in and around New York City, he made himself head of a Share-the-Wealth Club, began preaching on Wall Street opposite the office of J. P. Morgan & Co., got about 150 followers who now meet with him Friday nights in Brooklyn.

Of such stuff is the Share-the-Wealth movement. Secretary Christenberry carries a black notebook in his vestpocket in which he keeps tally. He says there are 27,431 clubs in the U. S. with 4,684,060 members. Even he probably does not know within a million or two how much truth there is in that figure.

1936 Ticket. Fortnight ago Senator Long told a newshawk in Washington: "There positively will be a Share-the-Wealth ticket in the field in the 1936 campaign. No doubt about that. That ticket will be headed by a man who won't go back on his word. He will be a man who is honorable enough to commit suicide if we win and he doesn't make good on his promises."

"Senator, are you honorable enough to commit suicide under such circumstances?"

Huey Long roared with laughter: "You may say, that my modesty prohibits me from answering that question."

Many people get the jitters when they think of the possibility of Huey Long in the White House. Last week Senator Robinson, who gets riled by him, described him as a Red. Communists call him a Fascist. In truth he is just about as much of a Red, just about as much of a Fascist, as the late Boss Tweed--no more and no less.

His political strength is that he is a cross between an unscrupulous Bryan and a political Barnum, a realist as well as an exhibitionist. He is a buffoon by policy but in his own line he is as smart as a steel trap. He has conclusively demonstrated that in Louisiana by finding a hundred ingenious ways to turn the institutions of democracy into the tools of absolute dictatorship. He is a master of writing jokers into laws. In the U. S. Senate he has made himself in three short years a master of parliamentary tricks.

Old Fred. With his Share-the-Wealth movement he is now considered a potential rival to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936. Certainly he would like to become master of the U. S. as he is master of Louisiana. His hero is Frederick the Great of whom he says: "He was the greatest who ever lived. 'You can't take Vienna, Your Majesty. The world won't stand for it,' his nitwit ambassadors said. 'The hell I can't,' said old Fred, 'my soldiers will take Vienna and my professors at Heidelberg will explain the reasons why!' Hell, I've got a university down in Louisiana that cost me $15,000,000, that can tell you why I do like I do."

But the question is whether Huey Long's soldiers can take Vienna. Roosevelt I and La Follette I both found how hard it was to get up the machinery of a third party on a country-wide basis. Huey Long is no man's fool about such a practical matter. He also knows perfectly well that outside Louisiana where his Share-the-Wealth Clubs are run by his lieutenants, they are not organized as an effective political army. He can either trade on his nuisance value or he can run as a third party candidate. He might, as some people have estimated, poll 10,000,000 votes. If he does run, it will be a victory of his vanity over his horse sense.

For there is no profit in being an also-ran, which is all that 10,000,000 votes can make a candidate. Vain as Huey Long is, his career shows that he generally chooses for profit rather than notoriety or glory. If he chooses for profit, his threat of entering the campaign will be something on which he can set a high price. Republicans have already calculated that the 13,000,000 votes which they polled last autumn must be the absolute minimum conservative vote in the U. S. If Huey Long can poll 10,000,000 votes as third-party candidate, those votes subtracted from the 22,000,000 votes which Franklin Roosevelt polled in 1932, will give the Republican candidate victory.

If Democrats can be made to see this as a likelihood, Huey Long will have something of value to sell to the Democratic convention in 1936 and if the Democrats refuse his price he can always sell to the Republicans. To date he has not showed himself a man hell-bent for election. He appears more like a man jockeying for position to drive a smart bargain. He is obviously still waiting for developments before he decides how he can best use the prestige of being the leader of a national movement. Meantime, he is working, as only he knows how, to enhance that prestige, to make himself a bigger & better Huey Long.

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