Share Our Wealth (Modified)
Some of the language and phrasing in this document has been modified from the original.
Head Note: Senator Huey Long, Governor of Louisiana from 1928-1932, was well known for his powerful speeches and radical politics. In his “Share the Wealth” speech, he outlined his plan for restoring economic strength through new laws. This plan became the foundation for more than 25,000 Share Our Wealth societies across America with more than 4.5 million members by 1935.
People of America: In every community get together and organize a share-our-wealth society. Motto: Every man a king
Principles and platform:
- To limit poverty. Every deserving family shall receive at least one third of the average wealth, which is $5,000.
- To limit fortunes to a few million dollars so that the rest of the American people can share in the wealth and profits of the land.
- Old-age pensions of $30 per month to persons over 60 who do not earn as much as $1,000 per year or who own less than $10,000 in cash or property, in order to remove from the work force in times of unemployment those workers who have contributed their share to the public service.
- To limit the hours of work to prevent overproduction and to give the workers of America some recreation, convenience, and luxuries of life.
- To balance farm production with what can be sold and consumed according to the laws of God.
- To care for the veterans of our wars.
- Taxes to run the Government to be supported, first, by reducing big fortunes from the top.
We propose to help our people into the place where the Lord said was their rightful own and no more.
There is nothing wrong with the United States. We have more food than we can eat. We have more clothes than we can wear. We have more houses and lands than the whole 120 million can use if they all had good homes. So what is the trouble? Nothing except that a handful of men have everything and the rest of the people have nothing. There should be every man a king in this land flowing with milk and honey instead of the lords of finance at the top and slaves and peasants at the bottom.
Source: Excerpt from Senator Huey Long’s “Share the Wealth” speech, The Congressional Record, February 5, 1934.