Use the excerpt from Huey P. Long's "Share Our Wealth" speech, given on March 12, 1935, to answer the question.

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 excerpt to support your analysis.

Answer 1

Huey Long criticizes the New Deal's NRA for creating a complex system of rules and regulations for businesses, even small ones like peanut stands and shoe-shine stands. He argues that this system is confusing and burdensome, requiring the help of multiple lawyers just to operate a simple business without risk of being sent to jail.

Answer 2

In 3–5 sentences, describe the policies of the National Industrial Recovery Act or the National Recovery Administration concerning unions.