The New Deal is a Bad Deal and Other Parting Thoughts
- Long uses his last few minutes to attack the New Deal and its institutions and to call the working poor to join him.
- He says "[y]ou cannot solve these things through these various and sundry alphabetical codes. You can have the N.R.A. and P.W.A. and C.W.A. and the U.U.G. and G.I.N. and any other kind of dad-gummed lettered code. You can wait until doomsday and see 25 more alphabets, but that is not going to solve this proposition" (108-110).
- He also reiterates his main points (because we haven't heard them enough): "God told you what the trouble was. The philosophers told you what the trouble was; and when you have a country where one man owns more than 100,000 people, or a million people, and when you have a country where there are four men, as in America, that have got more control over things than all the 120,000,000 people together, you know what the trouble is" (115-116).
- Anyone can see these problems; if you don't, you're just hiding from the truth.
- Farmers toil all day long and end up with nothing.
- And how about the veterans? They deserve bonuses and health care.
- Who cares what it costs? Like he's been saying, lack of money is not the problem.
- Long declares that the only thing the N.R.A. (National Recovery Administration) has done is run smaller, local businesses into the ground with all their complicated regulations that no one can understand. He could've told you that would happen.
- Long again declares that the centralization of wealth and power are the roots of all America's troubles, and everyone needs to get behind him ASAP, organize a Share the Wealth Society, and start hacking away at those roots.
- If people don't understand the program, or want more information, just write in to either of Long's senatorial offices, which work round-the-clock to answer the thousands of letters he gets a week.
- He gets some last-minute digs against the billionaires of his day, the Morgans and the Rockefellers.
- They could've been like the Mayo brothers, those famous scientists who are entitled to more money than those other rich guys, but who gave their fortunes to treat the sick and do good in the world.
- It's going to take a law to get the Morgans and their ilk to do that; no way they'll give back anything voluntarily.
- Long again urges all those listening to join their local chapters of the Share Our Wealth Program.
- Bills and resolutions are in front of congress as he speaks, so everyone needs to jump in and do their job as citizens.
- Finally, he bows out with grace and gratitude to NBC for the free airtime and a farewell to the nation and to his family, whom he loves and promises to see soon.
- P.S.: Pleas help by joining one of the Share Our Wealth Societies.