Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Arkansas

[1.] BULL SHOALS, ARKANSAS (Outdoor luncheon at Bull Shoals Dam, 12:08 p.m.)

This is sort of like being back in the Senate. It isn't very often that a President gets a chance to make two speeches at the same place and on the same day.

I do appreciate the hospitality that you have extended to us. We all appreciate it. It has been a grand day for me. I am not in the same position as the fellow was who was going to the funeral of his wife and the undertaker told him that he would have to ride with his mother-in-law. He said, "Well, hell, I could, but it's just going to spoil the whole day for me."

That did not happen to me. I had a perfect day, and it has not been spoilt.

I want to thank you for this wonderful dinner you have given us. I understand now that it is going to be my job to go with General Pick and pry this bridge open across the dam down here. And I guess the sooner I get that done the better, because I understand some of you may want to go home that way.

[2.] BATESVILLE, ARKANSAS (Rear platform, 3:12 p.m.)

The President does have many burdens. He has many pleasures. Today is one of them. I don't think I have had a more pleasant day since 1948.

We had a wonderful meeting up here at this dedication of these two great dams in the northern part of Arkansas. And they mean something. They mean something for your benefit. They mean something for the welfare of this part of the world, and they mean something to the Democratic Party. And as I said up at Bull Shoals Dam, the welfare of the South is wrapped up in the Democratic Party.

[At this point someone in the audience shouted, "Amen."]

It sounds like a good old Methodist camp meeting.

I have had, I think, one of the most pleasant days I have spent. It has been a pleasure to be with you, and I can't tell you how very much I appreciate your coming out to greet the Chief Executive of the United States. As your Congressman has said, there is no position in the history of the world that equals the Presidency of the United States. It is not the man who occupies it, it is the Office that is the greatest in the history of the world.

Now the welfare of all the people is the job of the President of the United States. He is the only lobbyist in Washington who is the lobbyist for all the people. Everybody else has some special interest, and you can't blame them for that. I don't. But when the President forgets that he represents all the people of the greatest country in the history of the world, he is no longer the President of all the people.

I have tried to be just that. I hope I have. Some of you don't agree with everything I want to do, and I don't blame you for that--I don't blame you for that--that is an American privilege. But you will find that most of the things for which I stood have been for your welfare and benefit. There is not a man or woman in this audience who is not better off as a result of 20 years of Democratic rule.

Now, if you want to throw that out the window and go off after false gods, that is your business, and I can't stop you. But just do a little thinking, and you will find that your interests are with the party that represents the people as a whole, and not special interests.

Thank you very much.

[3.] NEWPORT, ARKANSAS (Airport, 4:35 p.m.)

Congressman Mills, distinguished guests:

It is always a very great pleasure for me to appear before a crowd like this, because by doing that you can understand just exactly what kind of a person the President of the United States is.

A lot of people misrepresent him. They tell a lot of tales about what he does, and what he believes, and what he is. But when you see and talk to him--and he can talk to you--you find out that his interest is entirely your interest.

Now a great many things happen to the President when he is on a tour. We were driving along down the road today, and our advance police cars pushed the people off the road. And we came by a great big truck, with a tough truck driver in it, and he was very much put out because he had been pushed off the road.

And he asked me, he says, "Who do you think you are, the President of the United States ?"

"Well," I said, "sometimes people call me that, and I think I earned it in 1948."

And he was very much surprised. And so was I, because I think he was happy when he found out that the President of the United States had really pushed him off the road. If it had been some other person, he might have been in a frame of mind to cause trouble.

I know a story about President Coolidge. President Coolidge always arose early--like I do--and he transacted a lot of business before anybody else got up in the White House. And along about 7 o'clock in the morning, he telephoned down to the pantry and said that he would like to have his breakfast.

And the new waiter on the job didn't recognize his voice, and he said, "Who do you think you are, the President of the United States? .... Well," he said, "I was elected President of the United States. I would like to have my breakfast." The fellow said, "All right, you shall have it. I will bring it up right away."

But this trip down here has been a most satisfactory one. I have been able to see people in Arkansas, and to tell people in Arkansas exactly what a Democratic administration means to the South.

I hope all of you will listen to or read the speech I made up at Bull Shoals Dam. You will find that the welfare of this country has always been the first thing in the minds of the people who are now running the country. You will find that the welfare of the farmer, the laboring man, and the businessman has been the first idea in the minds of the people who are now running the Government. And you will find a lot of other things that will be of very great interest to you.

You will also find that this part of the world, and the South generally, has profited as no other part of the country has profited from the fact that the Democrats have been in control of the Government for the past 20 years. And you will find that your interests are wrapped up in that control for the next 4 years.

Now, I announced on March 29th that I do not intend to run for reelection. I will have been in office nearly 8 years by the 20th of January 1953, and on the 8th of May 1953, I will be 69 years old--or young, whichever way you want to put it.

I told them this morning that I have an expectancy of 20 years, but this thing you must remember, that the oldest man who was ever elected President of the United States was 68 years old, and he lived just 1 month after he was inaugurated.

I have no ambition to go out in that way. You know, politicians have a way of staying too long. They either have to be carried out feet first, or they have to be kicked out.

Now, I don't want that to happen to me. And I will still be just as interested in the welfare of the country, and in the welfare of the Democratic Party, as I have been as an officeholder for the last 30 years.

I want to express my appreciation for the hospitality and the cordiality of your section to me today all along the trip that I have taken. I have had a grand time with your great progressive Governor, Sid McMath. I think he is one of the great Governors of the 48 States.

And it is my private opinion--and I've got no business monkeying with politics in Arkansas--that you ought to send him back to the Governor's chair this fall when the election is held. And I hope you will do just that.

Thank you a lot for your cordiality, your hospitality, and your grand reception of the President of the United States.