Kickback

For nine riotous years the late Huey Long's Louisiana State University seemed the answer to a collegian's dream. Upon his students the Kingfish lavished two luxurious athletic stadia, a huge gymnasium, a mammoth coliseum, the longest U. S. swimming pool, 100 grand pianos, the best football team and the biggest band that money could buy. Fabulous were the parties and the football junkets he threw for L. S. U. students. Long, his L. S. U. president, James Monroe Smith, his hand-picked trustees and his legislators thrust scholarships upon them (last year 1,000 of L. S. U.'s 8,550 students were on the State payroll). Last July, when President Smith was indicted for making free with the University's money (TIME, July 10), this lush era came to an end. Last week outsiders learned how much their fun had cost Louisiana students in humiliation.

One of the agencies that helped pay the bill for Louisianians' fun was the National Youth Administration, which gave 525 L. S. U. students up to $25 a month. The man who handed out this dole was George C. Heidelberg, 60, supervisor of student employment, uncle of the owner of the Heidelberg Hotel, where Huey Long used to live. One day two months ago George Heidelberg hailed a cabdriver, told him to drive to a saloon. Said he: "I'll have to get mighty drunk to do what I'm going to do this afternoon." Three saloons later, Mr. Heidelberg confided to an L. S. U. sophomore that he was mighty worried about complaints against him that had been made to Acting President Paul M. Hebert. Thereupon George Heidelberg rode home to his house in Baton Rouge, sent the cabbie to the kitchen to brew him a pot of strong coffee, and pumped a bullet through his head.

Four days later NYAdministrator Aubrey Williams sent Floyd Reeves, director of the American Youth Commission, on the run to Baton Rouge to find out why Heidelberg had killed himself. As the fall term began, Investigator Reeves reported:

> To get NYA jobs, L. S. U. students had to get politicians' recommendations.

>They were given useless jobs; no one checked up on whether they worked.

>To keep their jobs, NYAsters had to kick back part of their dole to officials (in one case, $5 of $25).

Administrator Williams promptly put the University on a strict six-months' probation, refrained from blacklisting it entirely only because the University's new board of supervisors and Acting President Hebert appeared to be making an honest effort to clean house.

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