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Michael Cheung
Rogers
U of U Writing 2010
23 February 2015
Rhetorical Analysis of Every Man a King
In 1934, Huey P. Long, a United State Senator, gave a speech over the radio about wealth
in the United States and a society he was forming (9). The speech was called Every Man a King
and was a 30 min long broadcast where he talked without a script about the problems of how
wealth is distributed in the U.S. and how it is spread unequally (1). The society that he was
making was the Share the Wealth Society, a society in which the motto was every man a
king and whose goal was to limit the wealth of the rich and share with the poor. He used sources
like the Bible, information about past presidents and philosophers, as well as information of the
amount of debt the U.S. has to support his claim. Huey P. Long used Ethos, Pathos, and Logos to
persuade his listeners of the broadcast to create a Share Our Wealth Society in their
communities.
Huey P. Long boosts his credibility by using many different sources to back up his claim.
During his speech, he refers to the Bible by mentioning that the Lord told us what difficulty
is it was later written in the Book of James, where everyone could read it (2). He uses the
Lords name to help tell people what difficulty is. He tells of how the Lord said that the wealth
must spread among the populace for the country to stay alive. This applies ethos because it is
using a religious deity to help back up what he is saying, making it relatable to the followers of
the religion. Later he uses the United States Supreme court to help back his claim of how the
U.S. cannot pay off its debt easily. The United States Supreme Court has definitely found out

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that it could not be done, because of a Minnesota case [and] postponed the collecting a debt
(4). He refers to the Supreme Court to help boost his credibility because the Supreme Court is
the highest court in the United States that what the State had done was a valid, constitutional
exercise of legislative power. He uses them to help tell how the debt of the U.S. cannot be paid.
Later in the speech he refers to his position as a U.S Senator to tell people to [w]rite [him] and
let [him] send you data on [a] proposition (9). He uses this to add to his own credibility by
stating that he is a Senator, who is elected by the people to represent them, and to show that he
knows what he is talking about. He shows this by asking the people to send him letters that
inquire about the Share the Wealth Society.
He attempts to affects the readers emotion many times over the course of the speech with
his wording. He talks about how someone would come into this world without having had an
opportunity [while another would] be born with more than it and all of its children and
childrens children could ever dispose of (2). This quote is relatable to parents listening to the
speech who are thinking of their children as any parents would want the best for their child.
Their children would be able to relate as well as opportunity such as when they are applying for
jobs and finding education. This appeal to the emotion of the listeners as they can relate to it now
or later depending on where they are in their lives as it could affect them. It can also appeal to the
emotions of higher or lower income family; if they are higher they may sympathy, while if they
lower they could angry at the higher income. The lower income would be angry as they may not
be getting resources distributed to them that there is excess of. He later describes the government
as being seen as a religion. He uses descriptions such as a kind of religion people have read of
when women would take their infant babes and throw them into the burning flame [that]
some people of the world even today [would] throw their tear-dimmed eyes into the sad faces

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of their fathers and mothers, who cannot [give] them food and clothing they both [need] (6).
Long uses this wording to make a point on how people have treated religion before and how
much faith they used to invested into religion. He uses a metaphor to relate religion and
government where both are used to support communities. He tries to us feel sad that there are
families that cannot support themselves and has no one to turn to.
With that, Huey P. Long also tries appeals to peoples logic by referring to statistical data
multiple times across the speech. He refers to the debt to show how our debt is greater than what
we can pay. He mentions that Two hundred and seventy-two thousand millions of dollars of
debt are owed by various people of the country today [That] [t]he entire currency of the United
States is on $6,000,000,000 (4). He tells us these numbers to show the difference in the amount
of money that Americans owes compared to how much money that the United States has. Later
he mentions that to pay off such debt, by the individuals, that the United States would need to
multiply how much money they have in the treasury by a multiple of forty-five to pay it off.
Later he starts to describe the Share the Wealth Society and mentions how the money would
distribute among the people. He proposes this to limit poverty that would be inflicted upon a
family and that $5000 would be enough to support a family (6). The reason why he proposes this
statement is to appeal to peoples logos in which, he is giving people a logical stance to join the
society as the money would be able to help most families to buy a house and car as $5000 was a
large amount of money, about $88,000 today1.
Huey P. Longs speech Every Man a King was made to help persuade people into joining his
Share the Wealth Societies. He uses ethos of important figures in peoples lives to gain
credibility by using things like the Bible, the Supreme Court, and his position as a senator. He

1 http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm $5000 in 1934 to 2014

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uses pathos by showing people how uneven the world is in a sad way. He later uses logos to
prove his point and explain how much money we have and how much he is proposing is shared
in his propose society.