re: Tell me about Earl K. Long

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The long opponents opposed progress. They didn't even want a bridge connecting new Orleans to rest of state

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Sounds like a lot of the OT

Just like the Confederate States of America. Created by Democrats.

Interesting comments on EKL and the state here.

Many people look at Louisiana with 2022 glasses on.

Try to imagine Louisiana in a 1945 context.
One major city, New Orleans.
No internet or personal computers.
Very few buildings with air conditioning.
Difficult to make long distance phone calls.
Many areas of the state that only have party line phone service.
Many citizens without telephone service.
Outhouses still in style.
No interstate highways.
Most of the state connected by two lane US highways.
Very few bridges crossing the Mississippi River.
Ignorance and poverty prevalent.
AM radio was an entertainment/news source.
WDSU TV first came on the air in December of 1948, in black and white.
Majority of the state had difficulties with reading.
North Louisiana very suspicious of New Orleans.
Many in New Orleans who felt that north Louisiana was not part of the state.
In this type of situation a person like EKL could easily be elected as governor.

For all you anti-Long folks, here are some of Huey Long's accomplishments. I realize the thread was about Earl but it got off track:

Crusaded for lower utility rates, forced the railroads to extend their service to small villages and hamlets, and demanded that the Standard Oil Company end the importation of Mexican crude oil and use more oil from Louisiana wells.

In 1922, Long won a lawsuit against the Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Company for unfair rate increases, Long successfully argued the case on appeal before the United States Supreme Court[1] resulting in cash refunds totaling $440,000 being sent to 80,000 overcharged customers. After the case, Chief Justice William Howard Taft described Long as one of the best legal minds he had ever encountered.

When elected governor, the state had roughly 300 miles of paved roads and only three major bridges. Illiteracy rate was 75%, the vast majority of families could not afford to purchase text books for their children. The poll tax kept most poor whites and blacks from voting; only about 300,000 of the 2 million residents could afford to vote. Literacy test had disenfranchised blacks from voting since the 1898 Grandfather Law.

He set up free ferries while construction of bridges was ongoing. He reduced the toll bridge fee of $8.40 to 60 cents.

Before Long’s election, political power in the state had been the monopoly of a coalition of big business and planters, reinforced by oil and other industrial interests. He changed that and gave farmers and other small people a voice.

Upon taking office, he immediately began giving out free text books to students. Faced with opposition from Caddo Parish School Board who refused to accept “charity” from the state, Long told them he wasn’t giving them to the school system, he was giving them to the students. In return, Long held up establishment of an Army Air Corps base nearby until the school board caved.

Adult literacy classes were started, known as “night school”, which taught over 100,000 adults to read by the end of his term.

He forced the supply of cheap natural gas to the City of New Orleans.

Built a new state capitol, charity hospital in New Orleans, and many new buildings at LSU which was a minor college when he was elected and which he turned in to a recognized university. He increased state funding, expanded its enrollment including poor students to attend. He quadrupled the size of the LSU band and chartered busses for students to attend out of town games.

He established the LSU Medical School in New Orleans.

He built Airline Highway connecting Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

He campaigned on a whirlwind tour in Arkansas supporting the widow of a US Senator, Hattie Caraway, and enabled her to defeat a crowded field.

In the US Senate, he filibustered a bill that gave favored national banks over state banks. Eventually, the Glass-Stegall Act passed with Huey’s backing which extended government deposit insurance to state banks as well as national banks.

His falling out with President F. D. Roosevelt forced Roosevelt to shift strategy to the left and enact the Social Security Act, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the National Labor Relations Board, Aid to Dependent Children, the National Youth Administration, and the Wealth Tax Act of 1935. Roosevelt admitted privately he was “trying to steal some of Long’s thunder.” At the time, Long was receiving 60,000 letters of support at his senate office from across America.

He forced Standard Oil to agree that 80% of oil sent to its refineries would be drilled in LA.

Long created a public works program for Louisiana that was unprecedented in the South, with a plethora of roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and state buildings that have endured into the 21st century. During his four years as governor, Long increased paved highways in Louisiana from 331 to 2,301 miles (533 to 3,703 km), plus an additional 2,816 miles (4,532 km) of gravel roads. By 1936, the infrastructure program begun by Long had completed some 9,700 miles (15,600 km) of new roads, doubling the size of the state's road system. He built 111 bridges and started construction on the first bridge over the Mississippi entirely in Louisiana, the Huey P. Long Bridge in Jefferson Parish, near New Orleans. He built a new Governor's Mansion and the new Louisiana State Capitol, at the time the tallest building in the South. All of these projects provided thousands of much-needed jobs during the Great Depression, including 22,000—or 10 percent—of the nation's highway workers.


Long's free textbooks, school-building program, and school busing improved and expanded the public education system. His night schools taught 100,000 adults to read. He expanded funding for LSU, tripled enrollment, lowered tuition, and established scholarships for low-income students.

Long founded the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. He also doubled funding for the public Charity Hospital System, built a new Charity Hospital building for New Orleans, and reformed and increased funding for the state's mental institutions. Long's statewide public health programs dramatically reduced the death rate in Louisiana and provided free immunizations to nearly 70 percent of the population. He also reformed the prison system by providing medical and dental care for inmates. His administration funded the piping of natural gas to New Orleans and other cities. It built the seven-mile (11 km) Lake Pontchartrain seawall and New Orleans airport.

Long slashed personal property taxes and reduced utility rates. His repeal of the poll tax in 1935 increased voter registration by 76 percent in one year. Long's popular homestead exemption eliminated personal property taxes for the majority of citizens by exempting properties valued at less than $2,000. His "Debt Moratorium Act" prevented foreclosures by giving people extra time to pay creditors and reclaim property without being forced to pay back-taxes. His personal intervention and strict regulation of the Louisiana banking system prevented bank closures and kept the system solvent—while 4,800 banks nationwide collapsed, only seven failed in Louisiana

Read 'Inside the Carnival: Unmasking Louisiana Politics

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Long's statewide public health programs dramatically reduced the death rate in Louisiana and provided free immunizations to nearly 70 percent of the population

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Uh oh...