“Every Man a King.” Every man to eat when there is something to eat; all to wear something when there is something to wear.
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?Did that mean, my friends, that someone would come into this world without having had an opportunity, of course, to have hit one lick of work, should be born with more than it and all of its children and children’s children could ever dispose of, but that another one would have to be born into a life of starvation?That was not the meaning of the Declaration of Independence when it said that all men are created equal or “That we hold that all men are created equal.”Nor was it the meaning of the Declaration of Independence when it said that they held that there were certain rights that were inalienable—the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.Is that right of life, my friends, when the young children of this country are being reared into a sphere which is more owned by 12 men than it by 120,000,000 people?Is that, my friends, giving them a fair shake of the dice or anything like the inalienable right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, or anything resembling the fact that all people are created equal; when we have today in America thousands and hundreds of thousands and millions of children on the verge of starvation in a land that is overflowing with too much to eat and too much to wear?I do not think you will contend that, and I do not think for a moment that they will contend it.Now, my friends, if you were off on an island where there were 100 lunches, you could not let one man eat up the hundred lunches, or take the hundred lunches and not let anybody else eat any of them. “Every Man a King.” Every man to eat when there is something to eat; all to wear something when there is something to wear. Fear no opposition. One is the same as another. There is an average of $15,000 in wealth to every family in America. Everyone can take up the work, and as many societies can be organized as there are people to organize them. There has never been a country that put its heel down on the Jews that ever lived afterwards. 'Every man a king' — that's my slogan. That is right here today.We do not propose to divide it up equally. 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? What do we propose by this society? Wealth inequality was at an unsurpassed high in America, and the majority of the people were in the position of struggle and famine. Take up the fight! We do not propose a division of wealth, but we propose to limit poverty that we will allow to be inflicted upon any man’s family. That is right here today.We do not propose to divide it up equally.
Take up the fight! There are no high lights in this effort. The whole line of my political thought has always been that America must face the time when the whole country would shoulder the obligation which it owes to every child born on earth—that is, a fair chance to life, liberty, and happiness.… [I]n the land of plenty there shall be comfort for all. Is that a right of life, when the young children of this country are being reared into a sphere which is more owned by 12 men than it … In his autobiography, Every Man a King, Huey Long said that Earl Long's first candidacy for lieutenant governor brought forth charges of a family dynasty in the making. This speech was truly moving especially since the era was during the Great Depression. The post was hand-painted by Vincent in 2020, and features a whole cast of Kaiser Cat Cinema Patreons making cameo appearances in the background. We propose to limit the wealth of big men in the country. One man or woman is as important as any other. We have a marvelous love for this Government of ours; in fact, it is almost a religion, and it is well that it should be, because we have a splendid form of government and we have a splendid set of laws. Huey P. Long, “Every Man a King” and “Share our Wealth” (1934) Amid the economic indignities of the Great Depression, Huey P. Long of Louisiana championed an aggressive program of public spending and wealth redistribution. Except that last thing, about the Jews. 'Every Man a King' is Huey Long's side of the story. Our present plan is that we will allow no one man to own more that $50,000,000. That makes us all a sovereign.For 20 years I have been in the battle to provide that, so long as America has, or can produce, an abundance of the things which make life comfortable and happy, that none should own so much of the things which he does not need and cannot use as to deprive the balance of the people of a reasonable proportion of the necessities and conveniences of life. In We will not say we are going to try to guarantee any equality, or $15,000 to a family. It may be necessary that we limit it to less than $50,000,000.
If you did, there would not be anything else for the balance of the people to consume.Now, we have organized a society, and we call it “Share Our Wealth Society,” a society with the motto “Every Man a King.”Every man a king, so there would be no such thing as a man or woman who did not have the necessities of life, who would not be dependent upon the whims and caprices and ipsi dixit [unproved assertion] of the financial barons for a living. Huey Long , nicknamed the "Kingfish", is an American politician, serving as a Senator from the State of Louisiana, and is leader of the populist America First Union Party.An outspoken populist, Long is best known for his Share Our Wealth program, and its motto "Every Man A King", that proposes new wealth redistribution measures aimed at revitalizing the working class in America.