The Press: Contemptuous Item

Back in 1911 a tousle-haired, 18-year-old country boy named Huey Long, from the "redneck" hills of Louisiana's Winn Parish, walked into the dingy Union Street office of the New Orleans Item one day and asked for a job. Said Marshall Ballard, editor of the Item then & now: "I'll give you $10 a week." Said Huey, grinning as he walked out : "That's not enough. Keep your eye on me—I'm going places."

Huey Pierce Long did go places. He went to the Governor's Mansion up in Baton Rouge, to the U. S. Senate in Washington,...