Address at Skelly Stadium, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Governor Turner, Mr. Mayor, distinguished guests, and fellow Democrats:

I am very happy to meet you here in Tulsa this afternoon. I can understand why this. is the "Magic City" and the area surrounding it called the "Magic Empire." I want to thank this color guard, this VFW color guard. I understand that they were all in the 35th Division in the First World War. That is wonderful. They seem to be able to wear the same belts they could in 1918. Now, contrary to what some people say, I know that you still have the same courage and vision and faith of the men who built this great region.

And I know that you are looking forward with me, and not backward with the Republican Party. Now, if that's the case--and I believe it is--you can't help but send Dixie Gilmer to the Congress, and you must send Bob Kerr to the Senate, and then we'll be well on the road to curing that "do-nothing" Both Congress. I know that Oklahoma is always on the beam.

It sent one of the best divisions to fight in World War Two, and Oklahoma in the First World War was the training ground for the 35th Division, of which I was a member, over here at Fort Sill. I spent one of the coldest winters in my life at Fort Sill, Okla. And when it wasn't cold, why, it was blowing Texas up one day and blowing Kansas down the next. But I still like Oklahoma and always shall like it, because I've been coming here all my life.

As a veteran of World War One, I know what it takes to make a good division, and I know that that Thunderbird Division had a record that's unsurpassed. It is fearless men who know what they are fighting for, and I believe that is a characteristic of all the people of this great State.

I know you still have the spirit of the men who built this region because you are still carrying on in their tradition. Today, you are fighting the forces of drought and flood just as your forefathers fought the wilderness.

You have carved out of a semi-arid region a land of agricultural abundance.

You have made such progress that I am happy to be able to report to you that this year, for the first year in your history, Oklahoma will reach a farm production worth $1 billion.

Just think of that, $ 1 billion income for the Oklahoma farmers this year!

I remember all too well in the early 1930's when Oklahoma's agricultural production was only a little over one-tenth of this year's figure. Much of your farmland was wasting away. Farmers all over the State were moving away in despair.

What is responsible for this great change between the early thirties and today? I will tell you what it is. It is the result of wise Federal farm programs.

These programs were conceived in the interest of all the people of the United States and by the administration of our great Democratic President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. They have been extended, and ably executed, in the interest of all the people of the United States, I am proud to say, by my own administration, too.

The basic issue facing the people of the United States today is this: Shall States like Oklahoma continue to expand and reach a better living, or shall their progress be stopped dead in its tracks ? Shall the Democratic program that brought this wonderful record to Oklahoma be continued, or shall it be thrown back into the dark ages by the Republicans?

Let me remind you of the Democratic and Republican records as they affect the West.

I'll give you two sets of figures. The first figure will be for the period ending in 1932, after 12 years of Republican neglect of the welfare of the people.

The second will be for 1948 after 16 Democratic years of work for all the people, farmers, workers, businessmen, and white-collar people.

In 1932 the value of Oklahoma farm produce was $106 million. Today it is a billion.

In 1932 only one Oklahoma farm in forty had electricity. In 1948, one-half of all the Oklahoma farms have electricity.

Between 1920 and 1932--those 12 long Republican years--only four reclamation projects were completed in the entire western section of the United States.

Between 1933 and 1948, the Democratic years, thirty-two reclamation projects were completed.

Under 12 years of Republican rule, only 706,000 new acres were brought under irrigation by Federal projects. The Democratic years saw the tremendous figure of over 1 1/2 million new acres brought under irrigation.

The Republican years saw an increase in hydroelectric capacity in the West of 78,000 kilowatts.

The Democratic years saw a staggering increase of almost 2 1/2 million kilowatts. The Republicans are trying to wipe that out. This 80th Congress did its best to hamstring the public power policy of the United States, which has been the policy since 1933, and they almost succeeded in doing it. If you hadn't had somebody in the White House who was looking out for your interest, they would have done it.

You all know what this program has meant to the West. Here in Oklahoma the irrigated cotton yield is 3 1/2 times as high as dry farm cotton. Average income per acre in Oklahoma on irrigated land is 6 times as high as on dry-farmed crops.

The facts are all the sales talk the Democratic program needs.

The Democratic Party is committed to continue and expand this program. Now, what do the Republicans plan to do?

They have made a lot of campaign promises, but the best proof of the pudding is in the eating. Look what the Republicans do, not what they say. You can always judge a man by the way he acts and not what he says.

Let's take up some of the issues that mean a lot to you people here in Oklahoma.

The Republican 80th Congress attacked our reclamation and public power policies. The Republican House passed a bill which would have cut out six of the largest reclamation projects and would have forced Federal power prices up as much as 48 percent!

The Republican House of Representatives voted against an increase in funds to expand the rural electrification program.

The Republican House voted to cut reclamation funds for 1948 by more than half.

Why, the Republican Congressman from Tulsa even fought the Grand River Dam project right here at his front door! I don't know what he wanted to do that for. His record is one of the worst records in the Congress, so far as the interests of the people are concerned, and he's got a brother up in Missouri that's got the same kind of record. That's the reason I want you to send Dixie to the Congress.

My threat of a veto on some of the worst Republican bills and loyal support by Democratic Congressmen are all that saved your reclamation and public power programs from ruin.

There isn't time to tell you today all about the things the Republicans did to you during the 2 long years of the 80th "do-nothing" Congress.

But there is one matter that every voter in the country should know about.

The Republican 80th Congress passed a law which has already begun to hurt the farmers.

They passed a law extending the life of the Commodity Credit Corporation, but that law had a joker in it. They took away from the CCC the right to provide emergency storage for farmers' grain when regular grain storage facilities are full.

Because the CCC cannot build storage bins this year, thanks to the Republicans, farmers have been unable to meet the requirements for Government support prices. In a great many places they have had to sell their grain for whatever prices were offered by speculators in the grain trade.

That's what the Republicans would like to do to you right now. They would like to turn the clock all the way back and turn the farmers back over to the speculators. As long as I'm President, they're not going to have a chance to do that. Look how they treated the workingman. The first thing they did as soon as they got there was to try to take some of the liberties away from labor. We have it right now--on the front page of the paper today--what they propose to do to labor if they get back in there. Now, farmers and laborers and small businessmen are exactly on the same boat. All of them must be prosperous, if the whole country is going to be prosperous. Now, what are some of the Republican plans if they win this election?

They have already attacked the farm price support program throughout the country. Republican campaign propaganda is being spread through the country in an attempt to make the workers think that the farm program is to blame for high prices. At the same time, Republicans are telling the farmers that wages are to blame for high prices.

The Republican Chairman of the House Public Works Committee has attacked the power and reclamation program and promises to reverse the present Federal power and reclamation policies in the next Congress.

In an article he recently wrote for a private utility trade magazine, he promised that, if the Republicans are elected, they will stop Federal projects and take the power from existing projects and turn it over to a private utility monopoly. In other words, the Republicans intend to take the power that is already yours as citizens, away from you, and give it to private monopolies to sell back to you on their own terms.

Is that what you want? I know you don't. If you really don't want it, you'll go and vote the Democratic ticket straight on election day. Now, this article I refer to, about these utilities, was written by a Republican Congressman from Michigan, who again would be Chairman of the Committee on Public Works in the House of Representatives, if we got another Republican Congress. His name is George A. Dondero, and he's one of the most backward-looking men in the Congress.

This Republican spokesman made the flat statement that the Republicans "are of one mind" in changing our Federal reclamation and power laws.

Now, I disagree completely with the Republicans on this issue. I believe we should expand our programs for building up the country--not tear them down.

Just for example, my administration is now working on plans for seven new reclamation projects for your State of Oklahoma that will irrigate 89,000 acres of land that is not now producing.

I have taken a great interest in the development of the Arkansas River. I conferred on this subject at length with my good friend Bob Kerr, when he was Governor of your great State.

I felt a real sense of satisfaction, when he told me this morning that my efforts with reference to the Arkansas had speeded up that development by at least 10 years.

I want to assure you people of Oklahoma that I shall continue my efforts in behalf of the Arkansas River development.

For the first time in the history of this country I had a complete flood control power and dam site survey made of the whole Mississippi Valley, from the Appalachian Mountains on the east to the Rocky Mountains on the west, and from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico; and I've got a program for that whole river system that will cure floods and give us all the power we need here in the Middle West.

Now, the issues are clear enough in this campaign. You can vote for continued price supports, more rural electrification and greater reclamation, irrigation, and hydroelectric power projects. Or you can vote for the candidates who threaten to reverse the established policies and turn the clock back to the boom-and-bust Republicanism of the twenties.

I just don't believe you're going to do that. I think you're going to take this thing in hand. I think you're going to inform yourselves, and I think on the 2d day of November you're going out there and pile up such a record Democratic vote that these fellows never will again try to turn the clock back.

Thank you very much.