Des Moines Holiday

Three years ago Milo Reno, Des Moines farmer-insurance man, made a national stir when his Farmers' Holiday Association began blockading Midwestern cities by barring produce trucks and trains. Since then, though his fame has waned, he still puts on a good show for his followers. Last year at their annual meeting in Des Moines he had Priest Coughlin as speaker. This year he invited Huey Long, Governor Olson of Minnesota. Governor Talmadge of Georgia and again Priest Coughlin. Had Mr. Reno got them all he would have had an all-star cast for a Third Party Follies of 1935. All but one star, however, found previous engagements and that star blazed so brightly that Milo Reno was cast in the shadow.

From the first Mr. Reno ran into bad showman's luck. When he called his followers to order in the open air amphitheatre of the Iowa State Fair Grounds, they equaled only a fraction of the 18,000 people who were in Des Moines that day to see the 26th annual Drake Relays The sky was dark and a chill April wind whistling past the microphones moaned like muted Bronx cheers through the amplifiers. Gone was Milo Reno's oldtime fire. He read his speech in a hurried monotone, anxious to get through before Huey Long's arrival distracted everyone's attention. Then Huey Long drove up with twelve policemen as his bodyguard and stopped to buy a bag of peanuts at the gate. The band struck up "Every Man a King," and Huey, entering with a Bible and a copy of Liberty Magazine under one arm. joined in the chorus. By that time there were 8,000 Iowa farmers in the audience.

For a full hour Huey Long gave them his oratorical works, including his best epithets: "The Lord Destroyer, Lord Corn Wallace' "Prince Franklin, Knight of the Nourmahal," "Ickes, the Chinch Bug of Chicago."

His audience applauded. It cried "Amen!" when he read from the Bible. "The Lord," he shouted, "has called America to a barbecue and 50,000,000 people are starving. . . . The only difference between the Democratic and Republican leaders is that the Democrats are skinny from the ankles up and the Republicans from the ears down." Griefstricken, he declared, "From the deception, false pledges and promise-breaking by politicians, it looks like it's almost hopeless to look for the American people to be relieved."

Then he waked hope in their breasts: Share-the-Wealth, a $5,000 homestead for every family, $2,000 to $2,500 a year income, no more than $5,000,000 for anybody.* "Just addition, subtraction, multiplication and division will show how it will work," he cried. "Maybe somebody says I don't understand it. Well, you don't have to. Just shut your damned eyes and believe it. That's all."

The Holiday Farmers shouted, stamped.

"You know," said Huey Long as he took train back to Washington, "that was one of the easiest audiences I ever won over. I could take this State like a whirlwind. What I did in Louisiana is nothing compared to what I could do in Iowa."

One piece of bad news reached Huey Long before he left Des Moines: the Federal Government which has income tax indictments against eight of his gang in Louisiana, had convicted one, State Representative Joseph Fisher, given him 18 months in Atlanta. Said Senator Long: "I've got too many relatives in the penitentiary to comment about it."

* His enemies say that Huey Long has put by a rattling good fortune of his own. Says he: "I am worth $100,000 less than nothing."

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