Huey Long criticizes the New Deal, particularly the National Recovery Administration (NRA), for creating an overly complex and burdensome regulatory framework that hinders small businesses. He points out the absurdity of requiring even simple operations, like a peanut stand, to adhere to extensive rule books, stating that "everything from a peanut stand to a power house had to have a separate book of rules." This complexity is exemplified by his comment about the shoe-shine stand needing "40 lawyers to tell" them how to operate without facing legal repercussions, highlighting how the regulations were not only confusing but also intimidating for small business owners. Long’s rhetoric suggests that the New Deal’s approach stifled individual enterprise rather than empowering it.
Use the excerpt from Huey P. Long's "Share Our Wealth" speech, given on March 12, 1935, to answer the question.
And they proceeded with the NRA. Everything from a peanut stand to a power house had to have a separate book of rules and laws to regulate what they did. If a peanut stand started to parch a sack of goobers for sale, they had to be careful to go through the rule book. One slip and he went to jail. A little fellow who pressed a pair of pants went to jail because he charged 5 cents under the price set in the rule book. So they wrote their NRA rule book, codes, laws, etc.
They got up over 900 of them. One would be as thick as an unabridged dictionary and as confusing as a study of the stars. It would take 40 lawyers to tell a shoe-shine stand how to operate and be certain he didn't go to jail.
In 3-5 sentences, analyze Huey Long's criticism of the New Deal. Cite specific details in the except to support your analysis.
(4 points)
1 answer