Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania

[1.] WILMINGTON, DELAWARE (Rear platform, 7:32 a.m.)

I certainly do appreciate the fact that you are willing to get up so early in the morning. The thing that pleases me most is that we have succeeded in getting these reporters and photographers up so early. They don't like to get up at all.

I always enjoy coming to this town. I have been here on many an occasion. While I was in the Senate I used to come to Wilmington for the purpose of making some investigations.

Now, after listening to some of the propaganda the Republicans put out, I was a little worried about what I might find here, but I am glad to see that your industries as well as your people are apparently doing very well under our system of free enterprise and a Democratic administration.

I am making these trips around the country because I think it is very important to our country that we elect Adlai Stevenson President of the United States. I know you will vote for him, and for Senator Sparkman, on the 4th of November. In that way you can make sure you will continue to have a Government that works for the welfare of the people, even including the Republicans.

You have some exceptionally well-qualified candidates on the Democratic ticket in Delaware. Governor Carvel is recognized everywhere as one of the most progressive and promising young men in the Democratic Party. He has done a great deal to improve the schools, roads, and other institutions of this State.

And I am glad to see another wonderful young Democrat coming to the front in Alex Bayard. He evidently has some very courteous friends here. He and Adlai Stevenson are working for the good of the country, just as their grandfathers worked together in the administration of Grover Cleveland. Alex Bayard's grandfather was Secretary of State in Cleveland's first administration, and he was Ambassador to Great Britain during the second Cleveland administration when Governor Stevenson's grandfather was Vice President.

You will have a good team with Governor Stevenson in the White House, Alex Bayard in the Senate, and another good Democrat in the House of Representatives--Joseph Scannell. Joseph Scannell and Alex Bayard are both young and progressive. They are both combat veterans, and when you send them to Washington, they will still be on the firing line, and they will still be fighting for you, the people.

The most important task of the new administration in Washington will be to continue to work to bring about world peace, and to avoid another world war. The Democratic Party is working for peace through international cooperation. And neither our party nor our candidates are misled or confused by the false doctrine of isolationism with which the Republican Party is afflicted. They have been suffering from that for a long time.

We believe in working with the other free governments to strengthen the United Nations, and make it an effective instrument against aggression. That course holds our best hope for achieving a just and lasting peace in the world.

If the Republican isolationists ever got in the saddle and started cutting down on our programs of international cooperation, we will be on the road to disaster. That is why it is so necessary this year to elect a President and a party that really believes in helping to create a strong world barrier against Communist aggression.
All I am out here for is, as I told you to begin with, to try to get you to think. Just think, then, in your own interest. Look at the situation. Find out exactly what the issues are. Find out where the Democrats stood in the Congress, and then find out where the Republicans stood in the Congress-and that's all you can go by. You can't go by what the politicians tell you from the platform--except from the President himself, he tells you the truth.

Study these things. Study these things, and then you can't do but one thing. You will just vote your own interest. You will vote for the welfare of the greatest Nation in the history of the world, and you will vote for the free world's continuance in its opposition to communism.

If you do that, you will send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and you will reelect the Democratic ticket here in Delaware-and continue another 4 years of good government.

[2.] JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY (City Hall, I I a.m.)

Mr. Mayor, I can't tell you how very happy I am to be back once again in Jersey City. This is a place where no good Democrat need feel lonesome.

The last time I was here, if you remember, I was trying to keep my job. Some people didn't think I would make it. And some of them are not over that licking yet!

This time I am fighting just as hard for another man, because I know that America needs a President who believes in the great Democratic principles we have always fought for. And we are going to elect that kind of a man as President on November 4th-Adlai Stevenson.

I am glad to pay tribute to the brilliant son of one of New Jersey's most distinguished families--your candidate for the Senate, Archie Alexander. As Under Secretary of the Army he bore a heavy responsibility for arming our allies and our troops in Korea. In that job he worked tirelessly to create a bulwark of strength against Soviet imperialism. And he succeeded. President Stevenson will need him in the Senate, and I know you are going to send him there.

Ed Hart, the Representative of your 14th Congressional District, has for 18 years fought the battle of the Democratic Party for the welfare of all the people. As head of the Democratic delegation from New Jersey, he is a captain on our team. Let's keep him on the job; you don't know how badly we need him.

Al Sieminski, representing your 13th Congressional District, is a young man who knows the menace of Communist aggression at first hand. He emerged from active service in Korea with a keen awareness of the Communist threat and a great devotion to the task of preserving our freedom. His voting record shows it. Return Al Sieminski to Congress on November the 4th, along with all the rest of the Democrats on that delegation.

I want to say to you again, that I am glad to be here with a fighting New Jersey Democrat from the old school. I refer of course to your great mayor and leader--John V. Kenny. I am also most happy to see my former colleague from the Senate, and former Governor of the great State of New Jersey, Harry Moore, on the stand this morning with me.

Now, my friends, in the course of 40 years of political life, from precinct to President, I recall some tough battles for the Democratic Party--some we won--some we lost. I recall, for example, that in the election of 1928 some who like to call themselves Democrats were impersonating the little man who wasn't there. But John V. Kenny was there, I was there, Adlai Stevenson was there. And thousands of you who were old enough to vote were there--fighting for the election of that great Democrat and great American, Alfred E. Smith.

Now, my friends, I don't know how the Republican candidate for President felt about the 1928 election. He says he never voted until 1948, at the tender age of 58 years. That is a pretty ]ate start in politics. I started keeping score more than 45 years ago, so I have been in politics all my life, practically.

At any rate, it is hard to believe that the General would understand a man of the common people, like Alfred E. Smith--although I am sure that Al Smith would understand the General very well.

The Republican candidate for President advises party workers to appeal to emotion rather than to reason. He tells them to look for inspiration, not to a man like Al Smith, but rather to another general--Oliver Cromwell, in whose religious wars he says he finds a model for injecting spirit and enthusiasm into his own campaign.

The General certainly has a lot to learn about civil government, which is a constructive rather than a destructive art. The General should learn that it is possible to create spirit and enthusiasm among people by being for things--as well as by being against them--by being for such things as better housing, better schools, better health conditions, better job opportunities, and greater security and welfare for all the people.

It is doubtful, however, whether he can ever learn this lesson from his current set of professors--who are against everything, including themselves.

For the past 20 years the Democratic administrations in Washington have fought the battle of the common man, and we don't intend to stop now. You need only look around you, in your own State and throughout the Nation, to find ample proof that our investment in America has paid off, in terms of a higher standard of living and a greater well-being for all the people. Great advances have been made and are being made today under progressive Democratic leadership-advances which improve housing, schools, roads, health facilities, and expand industrial development and job opportunities. The Democratic Party has been the vehicle of the average man in his quest for a better life, and I hope and trust that we will never see the day when it abandons that role. I don't think we ever will.
The Republicans, on the other hand, have been against the things the New Deal and the fair Deal have done for the people. They would like to forget it in election years, but they can't run away from their voting record in the Congress. That record shows how they have been against low-cost public housing--against effective rent controls and price controls designed to hold down the cost of living. They have a long record of voting to obstruct and cripple the social security program. They say they are in favor of it now, but their record is against them. Just this year, they have opposed our efforts to make it possible to grant a haven and a refuge here to more of our friends who have escaped from the Soviet communism in Poland and Czechoslovakia and other unfortunate nations behind the Iron Curtain. In short, they have consistently been against New Deal and fair Deal measures designed to help the little fellow, as opposed to the rich and the powerful.

But most of all, in this election year, the Republicans are against the Democrats. The Republican high command has become so blind and so desperate that it has gone all out in spreading the outrageous falsehood that your President and your Government in Washington are soft toward communism. They have used every propaganda technique and huge sums of money to try to put this big lie over on the American people.

In the face of everything my administration has done to build up our defenses against communism here and abroad, the Republican charge would be funny if the matter were not so serious. Trying to make our hatred of communism a weapon of partisan politics is a good way to tear the country apart.

While the Republican candidate for President and his new friends have been busy trying to sow false seeds of suspicion, your Government has been steadily going forward with concrete measures to fight communism at home and abroad. Many of these measures I cannot even mention for security reasons. Others are a matter of public record, but you probably haven't read about them in the opposition press. I am glad to add that your own Jersey Journal and Observer is one paper that is not afraid to print the truth.

A simple listing of some of the measures that have been taken--some of those which can be mentioned publicly--may shed some light on just how soft the Democrats are toward communism.

We now have the finest intelligence services in our history, both at home and abroad. We created the Central Intelligence Agency and vastly strengthened the FBI.

We have established a highly effective industrial security program.

We have established a thoroughgoing and effective port security program.

We have established Government-wide standards to protect secret information.

We have created the Psychological Strategy Board.

We have established the federal employee loyalty and security programs, which put Government servants through more careful examination than any other group in the Nation.

All these things and more have been done under my administration. In recent months, as you know, acting under a law passed by a Democratic Congress under President Roosevelt--and based upon 10 years of painstaking investigation by the FBI--we have been indicting and convicting the Communist conspirators and putting them where they belong--in jail.

Now, my friends, I ask you a plain, simple, straightforward question: Does that sound soft on communism?

In the international field, we have built defenses against Communist aggression all around the world. Let me just remind you of how we stopped Communist aggression in Greece and Turkey. Let me remind you of how we have blocked Communist expansion through the Marshall plan, the point 4 program, the North Atlantic Treaty, and the mutual security program. And remember, too, how the chips were down in Korea on June 25, 1950. There was a real test of softness or toughness toward communism. I am proud that under American leadership the free nations of the world, within 24 hours, moved in courageously to challenge Soviet aggression.

That record may paint a picture of softness toward communism in the minds of demagogues, intent on grasping political power. But it is time even for them to come to their senses, because the poison they peddle is dangerous to the security of the Republic they profess to revere. There is nothing more subversive of our form of government than the Communist, Fascist, antireligious doctrine that the end justifies the means.

Make no mistake about it, the Communists would be delighted with the defeat of the Democratic Party in November, because communism thrives on reaction and depression and social problems. Only the other day, the Government of India caught Communist leaders in that country in a crude plot to discredit our American Ambassador, with a view to influencing our national election. And don't think the Communists didn't try to defeat me in 1948. They did everything they could to dupe Democratic and Independent voters into supporting the Progressive Party ticket--not because they were foolish enough to think that ticket could win, but because they hoped to capture enough votes to ensure a Republican victory.

It is a cruel and brazen hoax on the American people to try to tear down their confidence in their Government by means of distortion and lies. Moreover, it is a dangerous hoax. Those who are trafficking in panic and hysteria in order to get votes may well have cause to regret it more if they succeed than if they fail.

I am proud to say that the Democratic candidate for President is conducting his campaign in a manner that shows greater respect for American institutions and for common honesty.

He is talking sense to the American people. He respects their intelligence. He addresses himself to their reason and not to their emotion.

And I want to say to you the reason I am going around the country giving the people the facts and the issues in this campaign is because that is the only way you can get them. I want you to understand exactly what the fight is about. I want you to understand the issues in this campaign, and study them. I am not asking you to stultify yourselves. I want you to vote from your own knowledge.

Vote for your own interests. Vote for the welfare of this great Nation, and vote for the welfare of the free world. If you do that, we will have Adlai Stevenson in the White House for the next 4 years, and we will have good government for this great Republic.

[3.] NEWARK, NEW JERSEY (City Hall, 12:27 p.m.)
Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests:

I am overwhelmed at this magnificent turnout. I did not anticipate it at this time of the day, and I am highly appreciative. You people have done me a very great honor, and I thank you very much for it.

I am out here today campaigning for the Democratic ticket.

This year the Democratic Party has two of the finest candidates in its entire history-Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman.

You have a great candidate for the Senate in Archie Alexander. And I want you to return your good Democratic Congressmen, Peter Rodino and Hugh Addonizio. Elect Martin S. Fox to Congress. They will help Stevenson and Sparkman do the job you want--to carry forward the great programs of economic and social welfare that have been initiated during the last 20 years.

In this campaign the Democrats have been explaining these issues to the people. We have been trying to get the Republicans to take a stand and tell us where they stand on the issues, too. I have been trying to smoke out the Republican candidate on some of these things that are of such concern to the people. At last we are getting some results.

Last week when the Republican candidate for President spoke here, he discussed one of these issues--the issue of civil rights. I am glad to see the Republican candidate is in favor of the principles of civil rights. But he obviously does not know the hard facts of life about the subject at all. He doesn't know what it takes to get something done in this field.

He thinks he will call a conference of Governors to fix things. But I can tell you, it will take more than that to break down the barriers of prejudice.

A good deal of his speech was devoted to attacking me for not doing enough about civil rights. Now, can you beat that? In my political life I have been attacked for many things. I have had a good laugh over many of them. But I have never had a better laugh than the one I had from the Republican candidate, that I was not doing enough about civil rights. People usually tell me I've done too much. The more you think about it, the funnier it is.

Now the Republican candidate made a particular point about segregation in the District of Columbia. He promises to end it if he becomes President.

I'm glad to see the Republican candidate is interested in this subject. But I ought to warn him that the President can't get things done in the District of Columbia by simply waving a wand.

I have been for home rule for the District for years, but I can't get the Congress to agree. Nevertheless, we are making a lot of progress in civil rights in the District of Columbia.

Today, in the theaters, the hotels, and restaurants of the District of Columbia, segregation and discrimination are on the way out.

In the colleges and universities of the District, in the private schools, both secondary and elementary, hundreds of Negro students are enrolled where there were none 5 years ago.

The parks and playgrounds operated by the Interior Department in Washington are completely unsegregated, as they have been for more than 10 years.

The parks and playgrounds operated by the District of Columbia in Washington are being progressively integrated.

Only last month integration of some of our new housing projects was announced.

Just this year the/Medical Association of the District of Columbia opened its membership to qualified Negro physicians. Other professional groups have done the same thing.

My friends, some of these are big steps. They are all steps forward, not backward; and they represent action, not talk.

I understand there are some Republicans who believe in civil rights. I understand you have one of them as Governor of New Jersey. But that is no reason for you to elect, as President, a Republican who thinks it is impossible to use Federal power to insure fair employment practices. That is no reason to elect a Republican candidate who says that a certain amount of segregation is necessary in the Armed Forces, because under integration the competition is too tough for Negroes. And that's what the Republican candidate for President says.

Why put a man in the White House who only wants to call a conference, when you can put in Adlai Stevenson, who moved in with the National Guard to stop the Cicero riots, who abolished segregation in the Illinois National Guard by executive order, who eliminated race from the Illinois State Employment Service forms, and who helped to end segregation in the Illinois public schools ? That is Adlai Stevenson.

Don't be fooled. Look at both candidates. Look at both records. Look at their platforms.

You want to make up your mind. Look at the Congress' record of both parties, and that record is made in the Congress. Study the records of the Republicans in the Congress and the records of the Democrats in Congress. Read the Democratic platform at the Chicago convention. Read the Republican platform at the Chicago convention. You can't help but make up your mind one way, and that is the way to go to the polls on November the 4th and send Adlai Stevenson to the White House for the next 4 years, and we will have good government, and your interests will be protected.

[4.] ELIZABETH, NEW JERSEY (City Hall, 1:12 p.m.)

I am certainly glad to be back once more in Elizabeth. I like this place. Every time I have been here, I have had one of the most cordial welcomes a man could anticipate or expect. I remember with pleasure the generous hospitality of Mayor Kirk here, during my visit in 1948. Elizabeth has prospered under his progressive leadership, and I am confident you will reelect him on November the 4th.

And I want you to send H. Frank Pettit to Washington to represent your 6th Congressional District. A liberal, able lawyer, a veteran, and a man experienced in the problems of government, he will make an outstanding contribution to the 83d Congress.

Your candidate for the Senate, Archie Alexander, served me and all of us with high distinction as a great Under Secretary of the Army. He put through some efficiency programs that saved the taxpayers billions of dollars. Archie Alexander will be a credit to the Senate, so make sure that he gets there when you vote on November the 4th.

Now the Democrats have never presented a better ticket nationally than they have this time, when the convention at Chicago made its nominations. Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman are two of the best men that ever have been before the country for election. Governor Stevenson is rapidly becoming known as the man who put the "candid" in candidate.
The Republican candidate for President, who recently visited New Jersey, seems to be aspiring to the title of the man who put the word "promise" in compromise. He apparently is willing to compromise with anyone in exchange for a promise of votes, and that has brought about some startling results.

In New Jersey he praised his friend and benefactor General Marshall, but in Wisconsin he deleted any reference to General Marshall from his speech. In New Jersey he denounced the bureaucrats in Washington, but in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, he promised Government employees job security if elected.

In New Jersey he proposed abolition of segregation in the District of Columbia, but in Washington he didn't happen to think to mention it.

In New Jersey he denounced the McCarran Act, with its unfair discrimination against the Poles, the Italians, and other nationality groups. But in Indiana and Wisconsin, and other States, he embraced its enthusiastic supporters.

Now, there are many more examples, but the one which should clinch the title is the bargain of Morningside Heights. There the General bought the support of Senator Taft, in exchange for swallowing the Old Guard isolationist Republican foreign policy and the mossback Taft domestic policy, including the good-for-nothing antilabor act passed by that 80th Congress--the Taft-Hartley law. The Republican convention endorsed that act.

If the General's strategy is successful, then the American people are a lot easier to fool than I think they are. The General should take a tip from a truly great Republican, and a man of principle--Abraham Lincoln. He just can't hope to fool all of the people all of the time. They are too smart.

Your city, your State, and your Nation have made great strides under the 20 years of Democratic administration. Our standard of living is higher, we have more purchasing power, more and better jobs, homes, cars, hospitals, schools--and a better life for all our people.

When you weigh all those things and look over the situation as it affects you individually, I want you to do a little thinking. I am going around over the country, calling the attention of the people to the platforms and the thinking of the Republican Party, and urging the people to use their brains.

You ought to do a little thinking. Think a little bit in your own interest. You ought to remember that in the last 20 years your condition in life has been gradually improving all the time. Your standard of living has been going up. The Republicans have not offered you anything to maintain that situation.

Now, I want you to think of your own interests. I want you to think about the welfare of the greatest Nation in the history of the world. I want you to think about the welfare of the free world.

If you do that, you will go to the polls on November the 4th and you will vote the Democratic ticket, and the country will have Adlai Stevenson for President the next 4 years--and we will have good government during that period.

[5.] NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY (Courthouse, 2:06 p.m.)

I certainly do appreciate this turnout. I was told on the way over here that this is one of New Jersey's two Democratic strongholds--and it certainly looks like it. This city and Middlesex County have been strongholds for 20 years. Under the able leadership of my friend Dave Wilentz, we aim to keep it that way. I am confident that you will send John Zimmermann to the Congress and Archie Alexander to the Senate on November the 4th.

Rutgers University here in New Brunswick is one of our oldest and finest educational institutions. Since colonial days, it has represented the freedom of thought and ideas that has made our power and prosperity possible.

In this campaign the Republican Party is encouraging the use of the big lie and slander technique. This technique is a threat not only to the reputation of innocent persons, but also a danger to freedom of thought and expression.

We see this danger in the attempt by the Republican smear artists to make the New Deal and the Fair Deal seem as if it were something alien and subversive.

We see in it the Republican practice of answering criticism by yelling Communist smear. We see in it the attempt to intimidate Government workers through irresponsible and reckless attacks on their loyalty and their reputation.

If these practices are kept up, a lot of people are going to become afraid to express their own views or to express their opposition to powerful men. This danger to free speech is already being felt.

If the Republican candidate is really devoted to the ideals of freedom, he ought to come out against those things. He ought to tell his running mate to stop his slander mill. But no, he is willing to let this sort of thing go on, and to benefit from it in his drive for votes.

In fact, the Republican leaders seem to have a tendency to run out on their friends when they are unjustly attacked by these slander mongers. The Republican candidate for President failed to defend his great benefactor, George Marshall, against the fantastic lies of Jenner and McCarthy. And the Republican Senator in this State, who is running for office again, ran out on his friend, Ambassador Philip Jessup. When Jessup was attacked, Senator Smith knew the attack was without foundation, but he refused to defend him once the slanderers in the Senate had gone after him. It was a sad exhibition of lack of backbone.

We can't expect the Republican Party or the Republican leaders to defend freedom of thought and expression. The records show that they just won't do it.

If you believe in the right of men to say what they believe, and to be free from the slanderous attacks, you had better vote for Adlai Stevenson and the Democratic Party. Adlai Stevenson talks sense to the American people. He expresses exactly what he believes. He makes the same statements of policy in Virginia that he makes in New Jersey. He makes the same statements of policy and what he believes in New York State as he does in California. He doesn't have a statement for every State and 48 different policies to present to the American people. You know where he stands.

I see that you don't know where the Republican candidate stands. On November 4th you are going to vote the Democratic ticket, and this Government will be safe for another 4 years.

[6.] TRENTON, NEW JERSEY (War Memorial Building, 3:20 p.m.)

I appreciate very much this wonderful welcome. I don't know whether you know it or not, but I am not running for office this year. But I am working just as hard as I can for the Democratic ticket. I want to show my appreciation for what they have done for me. I have had every honor a man can have at the hands of the Democratic Party. I am not like a lot of fellows, I don't get high hat and join another party after I've gotten all I want out of a party that has been good to me. I believe in the principles of the Democratic Party. I believe that the Democratic Party is the party of the people-and I am going to be one of the people, as I am going to show you after the 20th of January.

I believe also that this is one of the most important, if not the most important, election since the Civil War. There are many things at stake. You know, I am going up and down this country trying to get the facts before the people, trying to get them to think. And if you will think, you can't do but one thing, and that is to send Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman to Washington on the 4th of November. All you have to do is to listen to Governor Stevenson's speeches. He is really talking sense to the American people--as he said he would.

The Republicans say he is talking over your heads. But that just goes to show how little respect they have for the intelligence of the American people. John Sparkman has spent his whole life in public service, working for the interests of the ordinary man and woman. Stevenson and Sparkman are going to be a team in Washington that will be a credit to the country. But they are going to need help from the best kind of Congress you can send them. I know you people here in Trenton are going to give them that help by electing Archie Alexander to the Senate, and by sending Charlie Howell back to the House of Representatives for another term.

Now I have had a great deal of experience in Washington. I spent 10 years in the Senate. I will have been almost 8 years in the White House when the 20th of January rolls around. I have had all sorts of experience with Congresses of different kinds, and I want to say to you that it isn't very pleasant for a President to have a program to put over and to be balked and frustrated by a Congress that doesn't believe in what he is trying to do.

That is the reason I want you to send these good men from New Jersey to Congress, to support the new President when he comes in.

Back in the spring, before the national conventions, I remember there was quite a stir around here, when your Governor announced that he was for the General and against Senator Taft. A lot of the Taft people hollered pretty loud about that. They said they were double-crossed. But since then things have been happening so thick and fast in the Republican camp that it is getting harder and harder to figure out who double-crossed whom.

Did Governor Driscoll double-cross Senator Taft when he helped get the General nominated at Chicago?
Or did the General double-cross Governor Driscoll, when he swallowed all of Taft's ideas for breakfast up in New York a few weeks ago?

Anyway, it begins to look like all that fuss among the Republicans here in New Jersey was all about nothing. That's the way it always is with the Republicans. Whoever they put up front to try and distract people's attention, they remain the same old party with the same old ideas.

The General has been up here in New Jersey with the Governor, and in New York with Governor Dewey, and he has been talking like a liberal Republican. He has recently been very concerned about social security and civil rights, and fair immigration laws. But when he was out in Ohio and Indiana he was talking like a reactionary isolationist Republican. And in the South he talked exactly like a Dixiecrat.

I just wonder if he and Jimmy Byrnes discussed civil rights when they had lunch together in South Carolina? I'll make you a bet they did not discuss it.

A lot of Republicans are trying to excuse the General by saying all this is just campaign talk to get him elected. Wait till he is in the White House, they say, and then you will see the real Eisenhower.

I don't think the American people want to wait until January 20th to find out what their next President is really like. I don't think you are willing to sign that kind of blank check. I think you want to know, and you have a right to know, now, in advance, just where he stands on the issues.

You don't have any difficulty finding out where Governor Stevenson stands. He has been telling you in some of the finest campaign speeches I have ever heard. He stands squarely for the policies that have made our country strong and prosperous over the last 20 years. And he is going to keep it that way.

Now, the only reason I am going up and down the country--as I told you in the first place--is to show my gratitude to the Democratic Party for what they have done for me. But the principal reason is that I want to put the facts before the people and let them do a little thinking for themselves.

I don't think Governor Stevenson is talking over your heads. I think he is telling you just exactly what you want to hear about what the issues are in this campaign. You can't find out what the issues are when you listen to the Republicans talk, because they are on all sides of every question--48 different things they will tell you in 48 different States. Then they hope that they can fool enough of you not to put these things together so that you will elect them. And then what will happen to you ?

My advice to you is to use your own head. Think this thing through. Find out what is best for the country, what is best for the world, what is best for yourselves. If you will do that, I have every confidence that Adlai Stevenson will be the next President for the next 4 years, and we will have good government, and the world will be safe.
Thank you very much.

[7.] CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY (Roosevelt Plaza, 4:55 p.m.)

I appreciate most highly that wonderful welcome. I remember very well 4 years ago a Welcome similar to this. I don't think there were quite as many here, but they were quite as enthusiastic, and that did a lot of good.

I have been out trying to tell just as many people as I can the facts about the election. Once the facts are known, I have no doubt about the outcome. We will have another Democratic victory.

The Democrats have given you candidates for President and Vice President that you can count on to preserve the gains we have made, and to keep moving forward--instead of trying to turn the clock back.

I hope you have been listening to Governor Stevenson's speeches. He has been telling the American people just where he stands on the great issues, without any ifs, ands, or buts. If you analyze these speeches, you will find that Governor Stevenson understands the policies that have made us strong and prosperous; and he will see to it that we stay that way.

John Sparkman is a perfect partner for Governor Stevenson. His long experience in the Senate has been devoted to the interests of all the people.

You people in New Jersey are fortunate in having a man like Archie Alexander to vote for, for Senator. He is the kind of man who can be counted on to work for your interests in the Senate. I hope you will send Alfred Pierce to Congress as your Representative from Camden. I am sure you will do that.

You know, no matter how hard the Republican campaign orators, and the Republican candidate, try to hide it, there is just no getting away from the fact that this country is more prosperous than it has ever been in history.

Back in Washington last Sunday, I had a chance to look at some of our hometown papers. Here is what one of those Washington papers that supports the Republicans on the front page has to say on the inside page.

"The very rich," says this paper, "have grown poorer, compared to the high incomes they enjoyed 25 to 30 years ago, but the well-to-do have become more numerous. The very poor have become fewer, and the poor have become much better off than ever before." Now that is the Washington Post, Sunday, October 19, section B, page 2. The article concludes, "If a further leveling-up process can be maintained, another depression like that of the 1930's may no longer be in the mill."

I want you to note carefully that big "if." If we can continue the leveling-up process that the Democrats have promoted by such things as farm price supports, protecting labor union organization, social security, and all the other great social advances of the New Deal and the Fair Deal, if we can do that, we can avoid another depression.

Now, which party are you going to trust to make this big if come true? The Republican Party which fought all these measures when they were first introduced, and have fought them ever since? Or the Democratic Party, which made them a reality?

The Democratic Party has demonstrated that it knows the secret of this great prosperity of ours, and it is not afraid to put that knowledge to work. And don't you let anyone come around and tell you it's phony, either.

It has been my experience that when somebody tries to tell you that what you have is not worth very much, he is getting set to do you out of it.

You will find that every time in your experience in trying to trade an automobile, the first thing the fellow does when he tries to buy your car is to tell you it's no good, and the first thing you know he has got it away from you at a price that is not fair to you. And that is just what the Republicans want to do with this situation.

Now I have been going up and down the country telling the people what I think the issues are in this campaign, and I know exactly what the issues are. You can't get anybody on the other side of the fence to discuss the issues with you. They only go up on extraneous matters--side issues--and want anything to come up but the issues. You will find the Republicans always do that along about this time, before an election. They work 4 years exploiting the people and voting against everything that is done for them; and then they will go out and tell you how much they love you, and how much they want to do for you, and what they will do if you put them in office.

If you are taken in by that, you will get just what you deserve.

Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman are not trying to get anything out of you. You can count on them to keep up our high level of prosperity, because they know what makes the American economy tick. They have spent their lives in it, and not in some military camp that is run entirely by different rules.
That is why I know you are going out on November the 4th and vote the Democratic ticket, and put Adlai Stevenson in the White House for the next 4 years--and the country will be safe.

[8.] PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA (Address, Reyburn Plaza, 5:35 p.m., see Item 304)

[9.] BRIDGEPORT, PENNSYLVANIA (Rear platform, 6:50 p.m.)

You know, I appreciate most highly this welcome. I am glad to be back in Bridgeport again. The last time I stopped here was just 4 years ago this month, and you gave me a wonderful turnout that morning.

This year I am out campaigning for another victory in November. If you are not familiar with the fact, I am not running for anything this time. Well, I will tell you why not. You have asked me a question, and I think you are entitled to an answer. The reason I am not is because I think I have had every honor that a man is entitled to from the Democratic Party, and somebody else ought to have a chance.

You have some fine Democrats on the ticket here in Pennsylvania. Judge Bard-who just introduced me--is an able and distinguished citizen of this great State, and he will make you a great Senator. And your candidate for Congress, Frank Keegan, will represent you well in that body. I hope you will vote for these men. They will give you good representation in Washington, and they will be a great asset to the new administration.

I know what it means to have a contrary Congress. I am anxious--very anxious-that the new President shall have a Congress that is in agreement with him.

I hope you will vote for Adlai Stevenson for President and John Sparkman for Vice President. They are two fine men. They are two as fine men as ever were nominated by the Democratic Party. Governor Stevenson has been telling the voters just where he stands on all the great issues that face the country today. If you can tell where the Republican candidate stands, you are better off than I am, for I can't find out--and I am in a position to try to find out.

This election is going to have a lot to do with your future and the future of this great country of ours. You owe it to yourselves to think it over carefully. Think about which party has worked the hardest for your interests for the past 20 years. And think of the gains we have made against Republican opposition.

Remember the shape the Republicans left you in, in 1932? Think back to the record of that terrible Republican 80th Congress. Remember what they did to you on the Taft-Hartley Act. And the Republican record has been no better since.

If you remember when the National Democratic Convention was meeting in Philadelphia, I went there to accept the nomination, way early in the morning, it was about 2:30, I think--and I informed the convention, and the country, that I was calling the Republican 80th Congress back and giving them a chance to implement and put into effect their platform--which was a much better platform then than the one they have now. I called them back--and they didn't do a thing. They just sat there.

Well, I went out and told the people just exactly what was going on, and you know what happened--they got one of the best lickings they ever got in their lives.

I want you to read over the platforms of the two parties this year. I want you to study them carefully. You will find that the Democratic platform is specific. It says exactly what it means. And the nominees for President and Vice President are standing squarely on that platform.

Now, the Republican platform: I have read it and I find it very difficult to find out what it means. In fact, I think it's about the lousiest platform that has ever been presented to the country.

When you read these platforms, and when you study what the candidates have to say, just use your head. Just think about the welfare of this great Nation of ours. Just think what it means to the world--and to you, to have things go wrong.

I am only asking you to inform yourselves. Use your judgment, and your brain. I don't think that any one of the candidates on the Democratic ticket is talking over the heads of the voters. I think the nominee for President is telling you exactly what ought to be done, and he is doing it in language that any intelligent person can understand.

But the Republicans are saying that you can't understand it. They are trying to put out propaganda to confuse you. Don't let them do it. Do what I am inviting you to do.

And the only reason I am going around over this country is to give you the opportunity to think on the issues, to think of the welfare of the free world, think of the welfare of this whole great country, and then think of your own welfare.

When you have studied what these two platforms stand for, and what the two candidates are saying, you can't do anything else on November the 4th but send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and we will have 4 more years of good government in your interest.

[10.] READING, PENNSYLVANIA (Platform near the Outer Reading Railroad Station, 7:58 p.m.)

I am glad to be back here again. You know, I am a citizen of Reading, or I claim to be, anyway. When I was here in 1948 I was made a member of the America's Club, the oldest Democratic club in the country. And I was also made an honorary member of the Rainbow Fire Co. No. 1, the oldest volunteer fire department in the Nation. I am mighty proud of those things.

I have been doing a lot of voluntary firefighting since 1948--Republican fires mostly. That is what I am doing on this trip. I am putting out a lot of Republican fires. The main difficulty is that I haven't found much of a blaze this year, but the Republicans are putting up a lot of smoke--they are putting up a lot of smoke, and I have to get the air cleared before November. I want you to help me do this. I want you to go to the polls on November the 4th and do some firefighting on your own. If you don't--if you let the Republicans get the White House and the Congress, the common ordinary people of this country are going to get burned for sure--and it won't all be smoke.

Now that is the principal reason why I am urging you and everyone else to vote for Stevenson for President, and John Sparkman for Vice President. Adlai Stevenson is the finest new leader this country has produced since Franklin Roosevelt. He has a clear understanding of our domestic problems and our foreign problems. And he knows the art of government as well as any man in America. He is working for peace and for progress and for the future of the young people of our country. His administration will be a young administration. I am sure it will be challenging and rewarding to the youth of America.

Senator Sparkman, the son of an Alabama tenant farmer, has been fighting for the farmer and the small businessman for years. He and Governor Stevenson are men you can put your faith in.

I know that you are going to send George Rhodes of Reading back to Congress this year. He has done a job--and he deserves your support in every way you can give it to him. If we could get more men like George Rhodes in Congress, we could get that terrible Taft-Hartley Act repealed, and that would be a big help. I want you to send Judge Bard to the United States Senate. I think you will find that he is a lot more interested in the welfare of the worker, the farmer, and the small businessman than any military man you are likely to find.

I don't think you people in Pennsylvania want a big business government, or a military government, either. I think you know that it is a good idea to keep a civilian over the military.

You know, you found that out by concrete action here not so long ago when it was necessary for me to relieve a five-star general when he got too big for his britches.

I think you will find that there are generals galore in the Republican hierarchy. You will find General Martin, here in Pennsylvania, you have got General Wedemeyer, you have got General MacArthur, you have got General Electric, General Motors, General Foods. The only general that we have got working in the Democratic Party is general welfare. He has always been with the Democrats. Between you and me and the gatepost, I am perfectly willing to let the Republicans have all the generals they want, but I will take the corporals and the privates and we will win the election.

The reason I am going up and down the country, doing what I am doing, is to give the people an opportunity to have some viewpoint on the issues. I am trying to place the issues before the people of the country so they can understand them. The Republicans don't want to discuss issues. They want to discuss anything but the issues. They bring in a lot of extraneous matters. They don't care about--["l like Ike" chant here]--I do, too, and you won't like him so well if you get him for President.

What I am trying to get you to do is to think a little bit about the welfare of this great Nation of yours. Study the facts and the issues, as they are. Don't listen to a lot of foolishness they will try to give you on side issues that have nothing to do with a political campaign--[cry of "They won't print it"]--they won't, that's the reason I am around telling you about it.

The best thing for you to do is to read the record of the Republicans in the Congress, and the Democrats in the Congress, which you will find in the Congressional Record-the dullest document in the world; but if you will read the fine print, and it's pretty hard to read, you will find that the Democratic record is one that looks out for the people. The Republican record is looking out for special interests in every vote on a specific problem that faces the country.

Since I have been in Washington, and I went there January 3, 1935, and spent 10 years in the Senate, I know the record of most of those birds, and they can't fool me. That is the reason I am around trying to get you to study those records. If you will do that--[another "I like Ike" chant]--these guys can want Ike all they want, and they can't get him--I want you to think a little bit.

Just use your head. Think about the welfare of the free world. Think about the welfare of the greatest and most powerful Republic that the world has ever seen, these United States of America; and then get a little closer to home. Think about your own interests. Think about your own welfare. All I am asking you to do is just that. And study the issues. Go home and pray over them, and think about them, and you can't do anything else on November 4th but send Adlai Stevenson to the White House--and we will have 4 more years of good government in this great Republic.

[11.] POTTSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA (Address at the Pottsville Stadium, 8:30 p.m., see Item 305)