Chairman: Ladies and
gentlemen, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce to you that
true man of the people, the next Governor of the state, Willie Stark!
Stark: My friends, my friends, I -- I have a speech here. It's a
speech about what this state needs. There's no need in my telling you
what this state needs. You are the state and you know what you need.
Stark: You
over there, look at your pants. Have they got holes in the knees? Listen
to your stomach. Did you ever hear it rumble for hunger?
Stark: And you, what
about your crops? Did they ever rot in the field because the road was so
bad you couldn't get 'em to market?
Stark: And you, what about your kids? Are
they growing up ignorant as dirt, ignorant as you 'cause there's no
school for 'em?
Stark: Naw, I'm not gonna read you any speech [tosses speech]. But I am gonna tell you a story.
Sadie Burke: Hey, what's he up to?
Stark: It's a funny
story so get ready to laugh. Get ready to bust your sides laughin',
'cause it's sure a funny story. It's about a hick, a hick like you, if
you please. Yeah, like you. He grew up on the dirt roads and the gully
washes of a farm. He knew what it was to get up before dawn and get feed
and slop and milk before breakfast, and then set out before sunup and
walk six miles to a one-room, slab-sided schoolhouse. Aww, this hick knew
what it was to be a hick, all right. He figured if he was gonna get
anything done, well, he had to do it himself. So he sat up nights and
studied books. He studied law, because he thought he might be able to
change things some -- for himself and for folks like him.
Stark: Now, I'm not
gonna lie to ya. He didn't start off thinkin' about the hicks and all
the wonderful things he was gonna do for 'em. Naw, naw. He started off thinkin' of number one. But something came to him on the way. How he
could do nothin' for himself without the help of the people. That's what
came to him. And it also came to him with the powerful force of God's
own lightning back in his home county when the school building collapsed
'cause it was built of politics' rotten brick. It killed and mangled a
dozen kids. But you know that story. The people were his friends because
he'd fought that rotten brick. And some of the politicians down in the
city, they knew that, so they rode up to his house in a big, fine, shiny
car and said as how they wanted him to run for Governor.
Jack: [in the audience] Sadie, he's wonderful, wonderful.
Stark: And he
swallowed it. He looked in his heart and he thought, in all humility,
how he'd like to try and change things. He was just a country boy who
thought that even the plainest, poorest man can be Governor if his
fellow citizens find he's got the stuff for the job. All those
fellows in the striped pants, they saw that hick and they took him
in.
Tiny Duffy: [confronting Willie on the platform] Willie, what are you tryin' to do?
Stark: There he is! There's your
Judas Iscariot! Look at him! Lickspittle, nose-wiper -- look at him!
Look at him!
Tiny Duffy: Wait a minute....
Stark: Look at him! Look at him!
Look at him!
Tiny Duffy: [to the band musicians] Play it! Play
anything!
[the band begins playing]
Stark: [shoving Duffy] Joe
Harrison's, dummy! Look at him!
Tiny Duffy: That's a lie!
Stark: Look at him!
Tiny Duffy: [signals to his goons standing near the
platform] Come get him, boys. Come get him!
Stark: Look at him!
Tiny Duffy: Come get him, boys. C'mon, go get him!
[Sugar Boy moves to intervene against Duffy's
goons.]
Stark: [turning to the band playing anything] Now, shut up! Shut up, all of ya. Now, listen to me, you hicks. Yeah, you're hicks too, and they
fooled you a thousand times, just like they fooled me. But this time,
I'm gonna fool somebody. I'm gonna stay in this race. I'm on my own and
I'm out for blood.
[cascading scenes of Stark's stump speaking]
Now listen to me, you hicks! Listen to me, and lift
up your eyes and look at God's blessed and unfly-blown truth. And this
is the truth. You're a hick, and nobody ever helped a hick but a hick
himself!
Stark: Alright, listen to me! Listen to me! I'm the hick they were gonna use to split the hick vote.
But I'm standin' right here now on my hind legs. Even a dog can learn to do
that. Are you standin' on your hind legs? Have you learned to do that
much yet?! Here it is! Here it is you hicks! Nail up anybody who stands
in your way! Nail up Joe Harrison! Nail up McMurphy! And if they don't
deliver, give me the hammer and I'll do it myself!