How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
I believe that was the judgment and the view and the law of the Lord, that we would have to distribute wealth ever so often, in order that there could not be people starving to death in a land of plenty, as there is in America today. (21)
Long frequently referred to the Bible during his speech as a way of giving divine cred to his own policies. People took their Bible very seriously, and who could argue with what the prophets thought about economic justice? People going hungry during a famine is a tragedy; people starving while there's plenty to go around is also epically unjust. That's what bothered Huey Long.
Quote #2
How many of you remember the first thing that the Declaration of Independence said? It said: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that there are certain inalienable rights for the people, and among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" and it said further, "We hold the view that all men are created equal." Now, what did they mean by that? Did they mean, my friends, to say that all men are created equal and that that meant that any one man was born to inherit $10,000,000,000 and that another child was to be born to inherit nothing? (6-9)
Long also uses the foundational principles of the U.S. to support his views on inequality. The Declaration of Independence was treated as a holy document in its own right, and its central message about the fundamental equality of all men was a powerful piece of evidence that Long used in his favor. No matter that the founders weren't really thinking about economic equality when they wrote that line; Long just added it to his argument.
Quote #3
We have trouble, my friends, in the country, because we have too much money owing, the greatest indebtedness that has ever been given to civilization, where it has been shown that we are incapable of distributing the actual things that are here, because the people have not money enough to supply themselves with them, and because the greed of a few men is such that they think it is necessary that they own everything, and their pleasure consists in the starvation of the masses, and in their possessing things they cannot use, and their children cannot use, but who bask in the splendor of sunlight and wealth, casting darkness and despair and impressing it on everyone else. (26)
The crushing debt that faced most Americans after the crash of the stock market in 1929 was a measure of inequality that often went ignored in these types of discussions, but Huey Long wasn't one to leave ammunition on the table when he was making an argument. He also points out here that the problem goes beyond a few people having most of the money—it's that those guys almost enjoy seeing everyone else suffer.