Platonic Kingfish

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer, will names be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

Although I was a member of the Harvard Liberal Club's delegation to the recent National Conference on Students in Politics in Washington, and although I had the supreme honor of meeting and talking to Senator Huey P. Long of Louisiana, I was not taken into confidence when the Liberal Club sent a telegram to Senator Walsh asking for Long's expulsion. I would like to protest this move, not only because it was done in a dictatorial manner by two members of the Club, but also because it does not represent the views that some of us members hold on the subject.

I believe that Long's expulsion would be a national catastrophe. He is the one bit of comedy in the Senate today; in fact, he is probably the greatest one-man circus that ever appeared in that body.

Between expletives and curses of various shades and colors, this mighty Senator outlined to me his new plan which he copied from Plato but which is really "an improvement over Plato's idea." He heaped ridicule on both me and Harvard because I did not recognize his plan as coming from Plato and because Harvard had never made me read Plato. The only decent universities in America, he said for emphasis, are Louisiana State U. and Wisconsin "which have never accepted bribes from any Rockefeller or Morgan." Is not this a masterpiece of thought coming from a United States Senator? Do you want more before you will see what he is worth to our nation? Well, then; he went on to criticize the history textbooks used in American schools as being nothing but propaganda.

"They fought the battle of San Jacinto on my aunt's property," he exclaimed violently. "But do you suppose the history books say so? They do not; they say it was fought near an old well. And there was oil in that well too. I know it because I got a hundred dollars for it..." and so on and on.

If anyone needs further proof of Long's worth to our nation, I suggest that he be in Congress on that memorable day when Huey rolls in that chart, 18 by 36 feet or thereabouts, collars some confrere, and startles the nation with the Long plan for recovery. The only trouble with it, said Huey, is that it might take a long time to work.

No, I am against Senator Long's expulsion. He is too good to lose. He is too valuable to the Senate. In fact, I should say that he is the shining light in the darkness of Congress. Alvin M. Josephy, Jr. '36.