Huey Long: “Our Growing Calamity” Address

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Ladies and gentlemen, the only means by which any practical relief may be given to the people is in taking the money with which to give such relief from the big fortunes at the top.… 

Now, we have been clamoring for a number of relief measures. Among them was the old-age pension.…

Now, along comes Mr. Roosevelt and says that he is for the old-age pension of $30 a month, but he says that it shall be paid by the States.… 

What the Roosevelt pronouncement for old-age pensions means is that he would scuttle it inside and out. In other words, he will proceed to show how unreasonable, how impossible an old-age pension system can be, and how much harm can be done by trying to bring it about.… 

The only way you can get $3 billion is by taxing the billionaires and multimillionaires, and nobody else, because if you tax the poor wage earner, who is barely making a living now, you will do more harm than good in trying to build up an old-age pension system.…

He rode into the President’s office on the platform of redistributing wealth. He has done no such thing and has made no effort to do any such thing since he has been there.… We can pass laws today providing for education, for old-age pensions, for unemployment insurance, for doles, public buildings,… and still none of them would be worth anything unless we provided the money for them. And the money cannot be provided for them without these things doing twice as much harm as they do good unless that money is scraped off the big piles at the top and spread among the people at the bottom, who have nothing.…

The big interests realize Roosevelt’s plan would not cost them anything, which is the same as saying it will be no relief to the poor.…

The big men of Wall Street were a little bit apprehensive for fear Roosevelt would provide some relief or social legislation that would cost them something, but they are glad to see whatever he does will be self-sustaining. That is, the poor people who get relief will pay for it.…

Now, our conditions today are much more deplorable than they were in [Herbert] Hoover’s depression. The Roosevelt depression is just a double dose of the Hoover depression.…

The average worker’s income of nearly $1,099 in 1934 is below the minimum necessary to support a family of five in health and decency by $813, or 43 percent.…

In other words, according to these accredited figures, those so fortunate as to be employed are living 43 percent below a reasonable standard of living at the end of the year 1934 under Roosevelt’s depression.…

We have the same promises from Mr. Roosevelt now that we had before he was elected, with the exception he says you must not pass any such law as will put them into effect in actual fact.

The only difference in Roosevelt before election and now is that Roosevelt now says he is still for them, but that you must not do anything about them. The only difference between Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Hoover is that things are much worse in every degree under Mr. Roosevelt than ever under Mr. Hoover; and you could tell what Mr. Hoover meant to do, or rather meant not to do, whereas understanding what Mr. Roosevelt means to do compared to what he does do is difficult.

There is only one way to save our people; only one way to save America. How? Pull down wealth from the top and spread wealth at the bottom; free people of these debts they owe; God told just exactly how to do it all.

There was once a country in exactly the same shape as America is today. God’s prophet was there and applied the laws as God had prescribed them. If you would just recognize that God is still alive, that His law still lives, America would not grope today. Here is the written record of that country that was in the same fix as America is today. Here is what they did under the command of God’s prophet. Hear me, I read from the Bible, Nehemiah, chapter 5.… 

Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy corn, because of the dearth.…

Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother.…

Restore, I pray you, to them, even this day, their lands, their vineyards, their olive yards, and their houses, also the hundredth part of the money, and of the corn, the wine, and the oil, that ye exact of them.

Then said they, We will restore them, and will require nothing of them, so will we do as thou sayest.…

Hear me, people of America, God’s laws live today. Keep them and none suffer, disregard them and we go the way of the missing. His word said that. Here is what He said:…

“And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” Leviticus: chapter 25, verse 10.

“At the end of every 7 years thou shalt make a release … Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbor shall release it; he shall not exact it of his … brother; because it is called the Lord’s release.” Deuteronomy: Chapter 15, verses 1 and 2.

Maybe you do not believe the Bible; maybe you do not accept God as your Supreme Lawgiver.… If you do not, then all I ask of you is to believe the simple problems of arithmetic.… If you believe them, you will know that we cannot tolerate this condition of a handful of people owning nearly all and [nearly] all owning nearly nothing. In a land of plenty there is no need to starve unless we allow greed to starve us to please the vanity of someone else. I can read you what Theodore Roosevelt, Daniel Webster, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, all other great Americans said. Their beliefs might be stated in the following lines of Emerson: “Give no bounties: make equal laws: secure life and prosperity and you need not give alms.” Or maybe these words of Theodore Roosevelt would be proof: “We must pay equal attention to the distribution of prosperity. The only prosperity worth having is that which affects the mass of people.”…

Here are the words of Pope Pius in his encyclical letter of May 18, 1932, which I, a Baptist, caused to be placed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD. Hear these words:

From greed arises mutual distrust that casts a blight on all human dealings; from greed arises hateful envy which makes a man consider the advantages of another as losses to himself; from greed arises narrow individualism which orders and subordinates everything to its own advantage without taking account of others, on the contrary, cruelly trampling under foot all rights of others. Hence the disorder and inequality from which arises the accumulation of the wealth of nations in the hands of a small group of individuals who manipulate the market of the world at their own caprice, to the immense harm of the masses.

I call and ask you now to organize a share-our-wealth society in your community now. Don’t delay.…  Help in our plan. What is it? I state it to you again:

We propose to limit the size of all big fortunes to not more than $3 to 4 million and to throw the balance in the United States Treasury; we will impose taxes every year to keep down these fortunes and to also limit the amount which any one may earn to $1 million per year, and to limit the amount any one can inherit to $1 million in a lifetime, throwing all surpluses into the United States Treasury.

Then from the immense money thus acquired we will guarantee to every family a home and the comforts of a home, including such conveniences as automobile and radio; we will guarantee education to every child and youth through college and vocational training, based upon the ability of the student and not upon the ability of the child’s parents to pay the costs; we would pay flat and outright to all people over 60 years of age, a pension sufficient for their life and comfort; we would shorten the hours of work to 30 hours per week, maybe less, and to eleven months per year, maybe less; and thus share our work at living wages and to those for whom we fail to find work we would pay insurance until we do find it; we would pay the soldiers’ bonus and give a sufficient supply of money to carry on our work and business.

All this can be done with ease only if we will say to the rich, “None shall be too rich!”

Won’t you help in this work? Is not humanity worth the effort? …

Good night, my friends. I thank you!