Ladies and gentlemen:I've, on several occasions, had
the particular honor of being invited to make some
speeches that I was supposed to get some kind of
Honoraria for. I started to say moratorium. [Laughter]
One time over in Cleveland I was supposed to get
$250, and one time in New York I was to get five, six,
seven hundred dollars, but my conscience wouldn't allow
me, on either of these occasions, to take the money.
Now, however, I have never made a free speech. I
never made a speech unless it was before a court or
before a crowd where I was trying to get votes or before
an audience where I was trying to get converts. And I
am probably addressing, for the benefit of the work I am
pursuing, the most important and probably the
farthest-reaching organization that I've ever had the
pleasure of speaking to, because you are the people who
have the contact with the American people....
According to the tables which we have assembled, it
is our estimate that 4 percent of the American people
own 85 percent of the wealth of America, and that over
70 percent of the people of America don't own enough to
pay for the debts that they owe.
Any man with a thimble-full of sense ought to know
that if you take 85 percent off of that table and give
it to one man that you are bound to have 2/3 the people
starving because they haven't got enough to eat.
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Giv'em a yacht! Giv'em a Palace!
Send 'em to Reno and
give them a new wife when they want it,
if that's what they want.
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How many men ever went to a barbecue and would let
one man take off the table what's intended for 9/10th of
the people to eat? The only way to be able to feed the
balance of the people is to make that man come back and
bring back some of that grub that he ain't got no
business with! [Laughter and applause]
Now we got a barbecue. We have been praying to the
Almighty to send us to a feast. We have knelt on our
knees morning and nighttime. The Lord has answered the
prayer. He has called the barbecue. "Come to my
feast," He said to 125 million American people. But
Morgan and Rockefeller and Mellon and Baruch have walked
up and took 85 percent of the victuals off the table!
Now, how are you going to feed the balance of the
people? What's Morgan and Baruch and Rockefeller and
Mellon going to do with all that grub? They can't eat
it, they can't wear the clothes, they can't live in the
houses.
Giv'em a yacht! Giv'em a Palace! Send 'em to Reno
and give them a new wife when they want it, if that's
what they want. [Laughter] But when they've got
everything on God's loving earth that they can eat and
they can wear and they can live in, and all that their
children can live in and wear and eat, and all of their
children's children can use, then we've got to call Mr.
Morgan and Mr. Mellon an Mr. Rockefeller back and say,
come back here, put that stuff back on this table here
that you took away from here that you don't need. Leave
something else for the American people to consume. And
that's the program. [Applause]
We will call in Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Morgan, Mr.
Mellon....Dear Mr. Mellon, We're not going to destroy
the capitalistic system, but we're going to put in a
limit, you can have up to 4- to 5-million dollars and
that's all. We're not going to destroy the Gulf
Refining Company; we're not going to destroy the
Standard Oil Company, but we're going to say that the
limit of any one man's stock ownership in the Standard
Oil company is from 3- to 5-million dollars for that
individual and the balance to the people of America who
own the balance of what the Standard Oil company is
worth! [applause]
Then, we start from the bottom. That the 25 or more
million American families shall have a homestead. Up to
$5,000....a home and the comforts of a home, including
an automobile and a radio, the things it takes in that
house to live on...
We say to America, 125 million, none shall be too
big, none shall be too poor, none shall work too much,
none shall be idle. No luxurious mansions empty, none
walking the streets, none impoverished, none in
pestilence, none in want, but in the land blessed by the
smile of the Creator with everything to be consumed, to
be eaten, to be worn, that America will become a land,
sharing the fruits of the land, not for the favored few,
not to satisfy greed, but that all may live in the land
in which the Lord has provided an abundance sufficient
for the luxury and convenience of the people in
general! I thank you.