186 ChaPter^4
ily and my father does not have enough money to get him a bottle of Beer.
He is a democrat and did all he could to have you voted. The N.R.A.
[National Recovery Administration] is coming alone fine. As little as I am
I know just as much about depression as a grown person. I’m 12 years old
and am in the 8th grade curly hair Brunette & brown eyes & fair complex-
ion & weigh 76 lbs. Hoping to hear from you soon I remain your true
DemocratJ. A. G.p.s. We would have loved if Mrs. Roosevelt when she was visiting Logan
to come around to our small town she was only about 60 miles from here.Roosevelt’s “First New Deal,” pro-business and conservative, had not made
a significant dent in the economic depression, and the popularity and at times
adulation that FDR received was beginning to decline. And then, the Left
began to act up.Every Man a King!
The governor of Louisiana, a large, charismatic, colorful man loved to make
speeches and talk to his people, especially the poor. He loved attention and
wore clothes that looked like “an explosion in a paint factory.” Invited to dine
with FDR during the 1932 Democratic Convention, he showed up wearing a
patterned sports jacket, orchid shirt, and pink tie—to the gasps or amusement
of all. He even wrote a song that he would perform for the citizens of his
state: “Ev’ry man a King, ev’ry man a King/For you can be a millionaire/But
there’s something belonging to others/There’s enough for all people to share.”
His name was Huey Long and by 1935 he would be the biggest thorn in FDR’s
side, but the governor, a populist at heart who loved to attack the wealthy
ruling class and wanted to “share the wealth,” was just one of the many
people on The Left who had turned on Roosevelt and the First New Deal.
Soon, this “Thunder on the Left,” as the famous historian Charles Beard called
it, would force the president to reevaluate his policies up to that point and
eventually find new approaches and new solutions to the depression.