McCOMB - Back when he was governor of Louisiana, from 1928 to 1932, Huey P. Long put in a system of free textbooks for school children whether they wanted them or not.
It was probably the debate over that issue that inspired a story I once heard about the "Kingfish."
Asked why those who could afford them should be given free textbooks, Long had a perfectly logical explanation. "They're paying for them."
He was referring, of course, to taxes paid by the rich. Since they were paying for all the "free books," why shouldn't they have them, too?
Free textbooks are now taken for granted, not only in Louisiana, but almost every place else, and it's a good thing in my view.
Maybe the same principle should apply to school lunches, which currently are the subject of debate in Washington.
Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which held hearings on the subject last week.
Some folks think there are too many free and reduced lunches and want to cut them back. Some don't think there are enough.
According to a report I read from Washington, under current rules, a child from a family of four making no more than $23,530 a year qualifies for a free lunch, and one from a family making up to $33,485 gets a discounted price of 40 cents.
Here in the McComb School District, all the children at four schools, kindergarten through the eighth grade, are offered free lunch and free breakfast.
That's because the percentage of those eligible for free meals is so high the school district is taking advantage of a federal reimbursement plan that enables school officials simply to offer everyone free meals.
The "Kingfish" would be proud.
Interestingly, there are not enough eligible for free and reduced meals to justify all receiving free meals at the high school level.
Perhaps the parents and the families earn more money as the kids get older. By the time they get to college - those who go - they'll need it.
Full price of a lunch at the McComb Schools is $1.25, and breakfast, which also is available, is 75 cents.
Multiply that by all the children that receive free or reduced lunches all over the country, and it is a massive outlay of tax money, most of it from the federal level.
But I doubt it's anywhere near what the dispute with Saddam Hussein has already cost, whether there is a war with Iraq or not. The price of one of those 2,000-pound bombs would buy several lunches.
I hope the present discussions over free and reduced lunches result in more, not less.
I don't believe it's wasting money to feed a child who needs nutritional food.
And if some middle-class or even rich kids get a free lunch - well, as Gov. Long said, their folks are paying for them and more.
