Senator Huey Long was the 40th well known Governor of Louisiana who was known as a radical populist. In the year 1934, Long delivered a speech which I thought to be a very persuasive one because of many reasons. One of these reasons being, he gave the American people hope by telling them that there will be less American citizens working too much, idle too much, wealthy too much among other reasons. He believed that the wealth of the nation should not only be placed in only four percent of the American population as well as there should be order in the nation. The Populist was very critical in relation to capitalism especially banks (finances) and railroads. In addition they also associated themselves with labor movements.
During this era in the United States, populist thought that the economic, social and political conditions were unfair. These unfair conditions was what led Senator Huey Long to the proposals he made in the speech. I believe that the speech stressed on the economic conditions in which Americans were facing during this time. In addition, I also believe that Long was not being selfish rather willing to compromise with the wealthiest men in the nation at that time. The economic inequality was what led Long to made this free speech since he was against inequality of all sorts. In the speech Long mentioned that he does not usually speak or make speeches for free therefore this indicates that Huey Long was being genuine about what he said during the speech as well as he meant everything that he said.
In addition, I believe that Huey Long’s speech indicated that he wanted a decent standard of living for all citizens of the United States hence the reason why he mentioned that the wealth of the nation should not only be in that hand of minority of the population. He believed the wealth of the nation should be spread among the citizens of the great nation. I also believe that the proposition he made in relation to higher educational and vocational training for citizens would help boost the economy in terms of more people being educated hence more ideas being brought to the forefront. Mr. Long did not have the intention of destroying the capitalistic system therefore signifying that he was not a communist. Other than the fact that he didn’t had intentions of destroying the capitalistic system, he also was not going to destroy the Standard Oil Company nor the Gulf Refining Company.