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Text:
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.
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 you'll ever 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.
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