re: What's your opinion on Huey Long?

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when he had the swimming pool built, at that time it was the biggest swimming pool on any college university.

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Your taxes at work.

Now it's a lazy river.

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What's your opinion on Huey Long?

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He was a corrupt and criminal piece of shite that established the classic Louisiana do nothing corrupt culture of business as usual of kickbacks, bribes and demonizing successful people and businesses while completely not giving a flying frick about this state being left behind compared to other southern states and Texas.

He also terrorized anybody and everybody who did not obey him in Louisiana including practically blackmailing people that would pay tribute to him.

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I'm curious of this boards opinion of the man.

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There are people that honestly defend him and give us the usual tired bullshite of helping the poor and building up LSU.

What they don't realize is that he didn't do that out of the goodness of his heart, he did that to raise his profile and exert control over the private and governmental landscape. Oh and advancing socialism didn't hurt either.

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You have to understand what drove a lot of people into the arms of Long. The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 had a lot to do with it where a lot of people's lives were decimated not just along the Mississippi but also along the lower Red River. Hungry desperate people will vote for anyone who will get them food and shelter and that is what Long promised.

On top of that he expanded LSU by changing the school's admission policies. He basically said that if you graduated from an accredited Louisiana high school, that you could go to LSU for at least a semester at a reduced tuition rate subsidized mostly by the state.

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Oh you mean to tell us that Huey Long took advantage of poor people to exert control over the political and private class?

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eople don't realize that he was only governor for 4 years before he became Senator.

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He left office in name only and put his puppet Allen in place. He was still Governor until the very day he died.

But still, even if Huey Long truly left office and lost control, remember that a lot of damage can happen in 4 years on his watch and they get ran out of office right there.

Just ask Jimmy Carter, Kathleen Blanco, Herbert Hoover and LBJ after he got his own term.

Hell this country, threw out a pretty good President in Bush 41 because of a mere sluggish economy and some taxes raised.

The stock market crash does not happen until September of 1929. Long had been governor for at least a year by that time and had been spouting his chicken in every pot thing since he had been running in 1927/28.

The fact that a lot of the state had been wiped out by the great flood of 1927 and Coolidge's intransigence to the plight of the people at the time radicalized a lot of people. Long was elected in something of landslide in 1928 and he kept the power by delivering on what he said he would do - mostly

Forget the b.s. of monetary policy, etc. You had lots of poor people homeless and without work and on the verge of starving. The governor at the time did not do much to alleviate the problem and Coolidge although sympathetic did not think it the role of the federal government o spend a lot of money to combat the problem. That leaves the population ripe for a socialist/ progressive/ populist like Long .

Think about this, you had flood waters inundating many places in Louisiana fr 150+ days. If you don't think that radicalizes people then you live in a fantasy.

Long was a crook, a criminal and in saner times should have gone to jail for what he did. But the calamity of the flood coupled with the other gut punch that was the Great Depression made people question the effectiveness of the economic system and even the political institutions of the time.

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friend of the cracker

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Louisiana 1927 (Randy Newman) on Youtube

Randy Newman's Good Old Boys is a must own recording for any red-blooded Louisiana man.

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There is nothing wrong with being a nationalist.

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Correct but I highly imagine people posting his support understand what Long really was.

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Oh you mean to tell us that Huey Long took advantage of poor people to exert control over the political and private class?

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Yep, like any good populist would, a better question would be, in 1927-1928 what were the other politicians doing in regards to the destruction of the 1927 flood. I keep harping on the flood because for the lower Mississippi Valley, it was probably the biggest calamity to hit the region since the Civil War. O.H. Simpson the governor at the time could not and would not do anything. Coolidge although he appointed Hoover to coordinate in certain situations made the problem worse. You really should read up on everything about it.

The Great Flood of 1927 had a profound impact on the politics of the nation going forward that was not really felt in full force nationwide until 1932 . Although there are some historians that would argue that certain economic impacts of the flood probably helped bring about the 1929 Wall Street crash. I'm not sure I agree with that. But the flood and the hardships created by it particularly in Louisiana absolutely paved the way for a guy like Huey Long

The corrupt New Orleans politician controlled Louisiana politics before Long came along. Louisiana had 250 miles of paved roads when Long started paving highways. We still use his bridges across the Mississippi. He opened up LSU to any high school graduate. My grandmother moved her family over to Baton Rouge in the early 30's so my uncles could attend LSU. The New Orleans gang didn't give a frick about anything but New Orleans so I think Huey brought important change to Louisiana.

My great aunt told me about how they had to leave Mer Rouge, and go up to Red Hill which is now part of Bastrop. They lived in tents up there, and went to school in Bastrop.

Here's a Bastrop Enterprise article about the flooding in Morehouse Parish

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Tracing the Flood of 1927 through the Morehouse Enterprise: How high’s the water, Ma?

One of the first books to land on store shelves this year was a volume titled “1995: the Year the Future Began.” In this work, W. Joseph Campbell makes the argument that several technological issues, historical events and cultural flashpoints turned that year into a defining one, the beginning of the current future.
For Morehouse Parish, the year 1927 proved to be a similar year. The city of Bastrop was growing rapidly, and nearly every edition of the Morehouse Enterprise highlighted the opening of a glorious new business — the Rose Theatre, a new set of offices, a new Dodge place, a new housing development — or the enhancement of services, such as added telephone lines, new paved roads and increased public transportation to area cities. Amidst all of this growth, the city and parish also had to cope with a large scale natural disaster — the Great Mississippi River flood of 1927.
According to research published by Betty Jo Harris on the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development website, the Northeast Louisiana delta flatlands feature three different high areas above the floodplain, and each of these served as a gathering point for refugees displaced by flood waters or who relocated as a precautionary measure as waters rose.
Sicily Island in Catahoula Parish was one such destination as was Macon Ridge in West Carroll Parish. In Morehouse, the Bastrop Hills, which Harris notes are 70 feet above the flood plain, 17 miles long and five miles wide at their largest, served as the high ground.
The Morehouse Enterprise records from the time explore the potential for a flood as early as April 1, and flipping through the then semi-weekly newspaper provides a fascinating overview of the public opinion as it shifted from confidence to concern followed by acknowledgment and resourcefulness.

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.Resourcefulness takes hold as refugees arrive
The City of Bastrop had little time to acknowledge the full scale of the flood before it launched into a resourceful mode as refugees began to arrive in the city.
In the April 26, 1927 Enterprise, it was reported that all lines to Arkansas City were down, Dermott was under two feet of water and refugees were arriving in Monticello, Monroe and Bastrop. Estimates placed 7,000 refugees in Monticello at this point, a large number at Monroe and a projection that Bastrop would also host an undetermined large number. Also projected were millions of dollars in property losses, thousands of people left homeless and 8,000 squares mile under water. In retrospect, all of these estimates ended up on the low side.
Several organizations in Bastrop, including the Kiwanis Club and the American Legion, stepped up alongside the Morehouse Chapter of the Red Cross to begin to care for the refugees who described Bastrop as the first dry spot from the flooded area.
Initially, the Red Cross requested that Morehouse Parish raise a total of $975 to support the needs of the displaced — at this time the city still believed most of the refugees would come from outside of the parish.
April 29 was the first major acknowledgement of major league flooding in Morehouse.
“The Enterprise has no desire to pose as an alarmist,” the paper states, “but information gained from unimpeachable sources establishes without doubt the fact that flood waters from the breaks in the Arkansas River levees north of here are approaching the low lands of Morehouse Parish in volume and at a speed never heretofore known.
“The towns of McGehee, Dermott, Jerome and others all report water three or four feet higher than experienced in previous floods. Residents of the low lying districts around various Arkansas towns have been trapped by the swiftly approaching waters, many barely escaping with their lives. Loss of livestock and property has been enormous. There were also unconfirmed reports of loss of human life in the flood waters. Forecasting the effect of the waters when they shall have reached the Bartholomew and Boeuf River basis is made difficult by the fact that the waters are coming from a direction not hitherto experienced in this section.”
As Bastrop made room for its first 300 refugees, precautionary health condition warnings began to be issued as camps started to spring up in the hills. Local health officials and doctors ordered an “ample supply of typhoid” vaccine immediately and would later vaccinate every resident of the camps in the hills against both typhoid and malaria.
By May 4, it was estimated that 7,000 refugees were protected by the Bastrop hills — approximately 3,000 within the city and another 4,000 in camps that sprang up — the Enterprise reported camps existing as follows: Pugh Camp on Vester Ferry Road, Lightwood, Plantersville and Twin Oaks; Spear Hill near Gallion; Handy and Stuckey Hill on Cooper Lake Road; White School House on Plantersville Road; Log Cabin at Ward’s Ferry; Red Hill on the Mer Rouge Road; Collinston Hill; Graball Hill and Upand (which would probably be referred to as Grabault and Upland in the present day).
The Enterprise reported “in the majority of cases it is a scene pathetic in the extreme to see these unfortunate people assembled in colonies or groups with no shelter and with little or no food clustered about the roadsides — a story that can never be told in words or painted by the best artists. The sounds as they sigh through the pines lends to the solemnity of the lot that is theirs. The little children wear an expression of wonderment and cannot understand. Morehouse has never in modern times experienced such a grave situation as what now confronts the bigger farming section of the parish.”
At this point, Mer Rouge was under several inches of water — the first time in the memory of the city’s oldest inhabitant such a thing had happened — flood waters were traveling fast and practically all roads out of the city were reported as under water. Oak Ridge, Doss, Collinston, Gallion and Bonita had water within their limits, but had not yet taken on overflow. Immediate evacuation was strongly encouraged as refugee parties in trucks and boats worked to remove people from the path of the water. An airplane was also pressed into patrol duty over the inundated areas to search for marooned persons

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Wiki is your friend. Say what you want about Huey, he did more for the poor-assed people than any governor before........ten times more.

"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 airpor
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.


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.[128]
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 Long founded the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. Also, during his term, LSU tripled enrollment, lowered tuition, and established scholarships for low-income students.


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."