TABLE OF CONTENTS
About the Author
Michael O'Malley received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1988. He taught at New York University and Vassar College and now teaches at George Mason University where he is Associate Professor of History and Associate Director of the Center for History and New Media.
Huey Long
"Barbecue" Speech (1934)
Annotation
Long gave this speech to a group of Senate staffers. It can be read online and viewed as video at http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/hueyplongshare.htm. Long used the barbecue metaphor in more than one speech. The video clip gives a good sense of his style.
Excerpt from "Barbecue" speech: 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 and 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]
Long, Huey. "Share Our Wealth." Speech, radio, National Broadcasting Company, New York, March 7 1935. From American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches. Accessed May 1, 2012.