Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York

[I.] BROCKTON, MASSACHUSETTS (Platform on Legion Parkway, 8:18 a.m.)

I am happy to be here this morning in this city which is famous for its shoes, and for its great boxing champion, Rocky Marciano. I imagine that if you were to have your "druthers" as we say in Missouri, you would much rather see Marciano than to be listening to the President make a speech.

This reception at this time of day, however, is a real knockout. And this makes me feel that we are going to knock out the Republicans just as we did in 1948.

You have some fine candidates running on the Democratic ticket this year, and if you want to vote for yourselves and the interests of your great State, you will vote for David Crowley for Congress, Jack Kennedy for the Senate--he has already made a record in the Congress; and of course you are going to reelect my good friend Paul Dever for Governor for another 4 years.

Now believe it or not, I am not running for office this year, even though I almost feel like it from the wonderful way you treat me up here in this great State of Massachusetts.

When I leave the White House next January, I want to see the people of the United States have a President who will fight for their interests, as I have fought for your interests for the last 7 years. I want to see this country--the greatest Republic on the face of the earth--move forward towards greater prosperity, and towards peace in the world.

This year I am campaigning so hard because I believe in my heart that the best way to secure peace in the world, and prosperity at home, is to elect Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. Stevenson and Sparkman will fight for your interests, and they are backed up by a political party that has always stood for the welfare of all the people.

The Republican candidate made a speech up in New Jersey the other day, in which he said it was sheer bunk to say that the Republicans would abandon the great social advances we have made. But the General's own party has a long record of fighting tooth and nail against everything the New Deal and the fair Deal have done for the American people.

Take the minimum wage laws, for example. Back in 1937, when franklin Roosevelt proposed a minimum wage law, the Republicans in Congress squealed like stuck pigs when that law went through.

Listen to what Republican Congressman John Taber said about the minimum wage law: "You are paving the way for the absolute enslavement of labor." Now that is a Republican viewpoint on the minimum wage law. That comes from the man who will be chairman of the powerful Appropriations Committee if the Republicans get control of the Congress.

Listen to what the coauthor of the Taft-Hartley Act, former Representative Fred Hartley, said about the minimum wage law, and I quote him directly: "Pass this bill," he said, "and gone with the wind is local self-government and the sovereignty of the States. Gone with the wind is our democratic system of government, and all the institutions we hold dear."

Well, my friends, gone with the wind is Representative Hartley. He is no longer in Congress--but his kind of thinking still dominates the Republican Party. So don't believe this campaign of hooey that the Republicans give you at every election.

All I want you to do is just look at the record. Look at the record--then make up your mind in your own interests.

The Republican record is made by their votes in the Congress over the past 10 years. The record of the Democrats is made in the Congress during the past 10 years by their votes.

No matter what they say in an election year, what I want you to do is to read the record--and if you do that, you will go down to the polls on election day and you will vote in your own interests.

Use your heads this time. Do a little thinking. That is the only reason I am out doing what I am doing. I could sit in the White House and transact the business of the Government--which I have to transact on the train, anyway--and probably not have so much to do. But I think you ought to know what the facts are, and you can't get the facts unless somebody who knows what they are tells you about them.

If you will study those facts, you will go home and think about this situation, and then you will vote for the welfare of the greatest Republic in the history of the world, you will vote for your own welfare, and you will vote for the welfare of the free world.

And if you do that, Adlai Stevenson will spend the next 4 years in the White House-and the country will be safe for you.

[2.] TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS (Taunton Green, 9:10 a.m.)

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this wonderful reception, and I want to thank the schoolchildren who got that sign up. That is what I need. I remember my very pleasant visit here 4 years ago. This time I am not campaigning for myself. In case you don't know it, I am not running for office. I am out on another errand. I am trying to show to the Democratic Party--which has given me all the honor any man can have in this great Republic--that I am grateful; and I am out trying to get the people to understand just exactly what the issues are-because the Republicans won't talk issues.

You have in this great State a wonderful list of candidates for election. You have a young man running for the Senate who has had experience in the House of Representatives. He has a fine record in the House, and if you elect him to the Senate, you will be well represented in that great deliberative body in which I spent 10 years. You have a candidate for Congress, Edward Doolan, whom you ought to send to Congress this time. Now these Republicans are always screaming for a change. I certainly think this district needs a change in representation in the Congress.

I know you are going to elect my good friend Paul Dever for Governor, because he has made a good Governor over the last 4 years.

The most important thing that you have for consideration at this time is the filling of the Office of the President of the United States. We have the most capable candidate and the best young man running for that office that we have had since franklin Roosevelt--Adlai Stevenson. And I want you to vote for him. He has made an outstanding record as Governor of Illinois. He has served extremely well in a number of important jobs in Washington. He thoroughly understands the complex problems of civilian government, and he will make a great President.

John Sparkman, our candidate for Vice President, has shown by his record of 15 years' service in the House and the Senate that he can be trusted to continue to work for all the people in the great Democratic traditions.

You know, every election year the Republicans start complaining that the Democrats are always running against Herbert Hoover. I don't blame the Republicans for wanting to forget what happened to this country under the Hoover administration, but I can't resist telling you about the latest bit of Republican history that has come to my attention.

Mr. Hoover has published his autobiography, and in the latest volume, on page 195, he tells about the apple-selling that went on during the great depression of his administration.

Now listen--according to Mr. Hoover, people weren't selling apples because they were broke and jobless--not at all. They were selling apples because the apple business was booming. He says that some apple growers' association got the bright idea--I am quoting out of his book--now this is what he says, "... and set up a system of selling apples on the street corners in many cities, thus selling their crop and raising their prices. Many persons left their jobs for the more profitable one of selling apples." And there were only 14 million people out of jobs at that time !

You see, those apple-sellers were just coining money. I wonder if anybody really believes that, and wants to go back to those good old days ?

The Republicans haven't learned much since those terrible times. They still vote against almost every program that worked in the interest of all the people. And then when an election rolls around, they do everything they can to make the people forget the' reactionary Republican record.

For example, take their opposition to the federal power program. During the last 20 years the New Deal and the Fair Deal have helped develop the water resources, of the country for the generation of low-cost electric power. The outstanding example, perhaps, is the Tennessee Valley Authority. These developments have taken place in almost every section of the country--except New England. And whenever they have occurred, they have increased the prosperity of that region.

Now, I have been advocating, ever since I have been President, the establishment of power pools in all the sections of the country. We have a great power pool in the Northwest. We have a great power pool in the Southeast, including the Tennessee Valley Authority. We have a great power pool in the Southwest, with the Colorado River. We have a great power pool in the center of the country, beginning with the Denison Dam on the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma. You have dams that have been built in the northeast corner of Arkansas, the northwest corner of Arkansas, and the northeast corner of Oklahoma. In all those places where we have cheap power, the industrial development has been tremendous.

Now, I have been endeavoring, ever since I have been President, to get you a power pool up here in New England that would do the same thing for you, and I have had the complete opposition of the power trust in this part of the country, and the railroads. They don't want the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Bay of Fundy project built, which would put you on exactly the same basis as these other great places.

Now the Republican Party, in obedience to the wishes of the private power lobby, has joined the opposition. Let us see how that affects you. They tell me you have a splendid publicly-owned electric system here in Taunton, and I am delighted to hear that. But in Massachusetts, wholesale power for public systems like yours costs twice as much as it does in areas where public power is available under federal river basin programs. The result is that you are at a competitive disadvantage, and industries go to other parts of the country. If New England is to prosper as it should, you people will have to see to it that your power resources are fully developed in the public interest. But you had better not depend on the Republicans to help you in this effort. They are still working with the private power lobby to cripple the federal power programs we already have.

Now, to cover up that record of opposition, the Republican candidate for President, and their other campaign orators, go around the country shouting slogans and scare words about "creeping socialism" and "the philosophy of the left." Now I don't know what "the philosophy of the left" means. If it means for the welfare of the country, I am for it.

Well, the American people are much smarter than the Republicans think. The American people won't go for the Republican plan of working 3 years and 11 months with the special interests, and then coming out at election time to tell the people how much they love them. That is what they have done every time.

All you people have to do is just study the record. These fellows just try to cut your throats every year for 3 years and 11 months, and then they come out and tell you how much they think of you, and what they will do for you. Then they will go back and cut your throat again, if you send them to the Congress or the Presidency.

It is your business that is at stake. It is your welfare that is at stake. The only reason I am going around over the country, doing what I am, is to be sure that you understand just exactly what is before the country.

They will cover up. They don't want to discuss the issues. They want to talk about extraneous things that have no bearing on what is going to happen in the next 4 years, because they will do anything on earth to get votes and get into power.

Be sure to use your judgment. If you study the record, use your head and think about what this election means. It is the most important election, in my opinion, since the Civil War.

Your interests are at stake. This great Republic's interests are at stake, and the welfare of the free world is at stake. If you go home and pray over these things, and study them, I will have done my duty in awakening you to the fact that if you are interested in the welfare of the world, the welfare of this Nation, and your own welfare, you can't do anything else but send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and we will have 4 more years of good government.

[3.] FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS (South Park, 10:12 a.m.)
Mr. Chairman, Governor Dever, distinguished candidates for office in Massachusetts, and ladies and gentlemen:

I tell you I enjoyed my visit with you 4 years ago, and I am happy to stop here again. I can't tell you how very much I appreciated what this city of fall River did for the President of the United States in the way of a majority in 1948--and I want you to repeat it for my successor, Adlai Stevenson.

This time I am out working for the Democratic ticket, and not for myself. I think you can be proud of the Democratic slate here in Massachusetts. You couldn't get a better Senator than Jack Kennedy. He has had experience in the House. He will give you service that you will be proud of. For Congress in this 9th District, James O'Neill. For Congress, in the 14th District, Edward f. Doolan, who I understand is a native of fall River--you probably know more about him than I do. But he looks all right to me.

For Governor, my good friend Paul Dever, who needs no recommendation from me, because he has got a reputation of his own up here. He is a good Governor, and I know you are going to put him back.

Now, our candidate for President is one of the finest men in public life in this generation-Adlai Stevenson. He has proved his talents in civilian administration as Governor of Illinois. He is a man of honor and integrity. He has been telling the straight truth to the people, and that is how it should be. He stands on the Democratic platform, and he stands on the Democratic platform in Virginia as well as in Missouri, New York, and New England. You will find him preaching the gospel of a government of and by and for the people. The fellow on the other side has a set of stories for every State in the Union, and tells them where he thinks he can get votes. But I know you are not going to be fooled by that sort of tactics.

Four years ago I told you about the Republican record of opposition to almost every program in the interest of the people. Well, the Republicans haven't reformed since then. They are still voting against the accomplishments of the New Deal and the fair Deal. The only difference is that this year the Republicans have a great military hero as their candidate, and they hope his reputation will cover up their own terrible record.

The Republican candidate for President has been traveling around the country with a big sign on the back of his train which says, "Look ahead, neighbor." I have never been quite sure what those three little words are supposed to mean, but I know what the sign ought to say, it ought to say "Look out, neighbor." Because if the Republicans get into power, you are really going to be in for a lot of trouble.

Do you want to hold on to your job and earn a decent living wage? Well, you had better look out for these Republicans. The Republicans gave you the Taft-Hartley Act--the law that has made it harder for unions to organize. As a result, wages in nonunion parts of the country have been kept down below those paid here, and as you well know, this has made it very attractive for textile companies to move out of New England.

Are you drawing social security benefits? Or have you ever received an unemployment compensation check? Well, you had better look out, neighbor. If you want to keep on having these things, then you had better look out.

Now the Republicans as a class have always been against social security, but I see the Republican candidate for President, after he got out of Chicago, he is coming out for it over here in New Jersey, and that is a good thing because it shows we are right.

The Republicans have opposed these programs every chance they could. Just last spring, two-thirds of the Republican Congressmen tried to block the increase in social security insurance benefits--the increase many of you received in your social security checks this very month.

Do you want to get cheaper power in New England to attract new industries? Well, you had better support the people who have always been for that sort of power. All my time in Congress, from January 3, 1935, through the end of my term as President of the United States, I have been fighting for a power pool for New England. One of the first votes I cast in the Senate was for the St. Lawrence Seaway project.

The Republicans have been working for years now, with the private power lobby, to kill or cripple almost every federal and State program to develop low-cost public power. So, if you want any suggestions about where to look in this election year, you owe it to yourself to spend some time looking at the voting record of both parties.

The only way you can intelligently vote, the only way you can get into this campaign and find out just exactly what it means, is to take what I am telling you and study it. I am not out here to tell you what to do. I am out here telling you what is proper for your own welfare and interest. And all you need do is to know the facts. If you know the facts, and if you know the issues, and if you know what your own interest amounts to, if you know what the welfare of the country amounts to, if you are interested in the free world instead of a slave world, you can't do anything else but go to the polls on November the 4th--and send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and we will have 4 more years of good government.

[4.] PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND (Address, City Hall, 11:35 a.m., see Item 299)

[5.] WESTERLY, RHODE ISLAND (Rear platform, 12:50 p.m.)

Well, it certainly is wonderful to have this most cordial welcome from Westerly, Rhode Island, the last city in which I will stop in Rhode Island. I have been most cordially treated in this great State, and I appreciate it more than I can tell you.

Your officials are friends of mine. John Pastore has made one of your great Senators, and I know you are going to send him back. I have known Theodore Francis Green ever since he was Governor of Rhode Island, and I always did think highly of him. And your candidate for Congress, who is also the incumbent, John Fogarty, has made a wonderful record for himself down in Washington, and I know you can't do anything but send him back.

I told the people down in Providence that I was exceedingly anxious that they should elect Governor Roberts again, because I'll be out of a job on the 20th of January and I would like to have somebody there I knew in the Executive Mansion where I could go, maybe, and get a square meal. I told them also that I had started my acquaintance with Rhode Island with a Governor of Rhode Island, and that was Theodore Francis Green--and he gave me a square meal at the mansion.

On our national ticket we have two of the finest candidates any party ever offered the voters--Adlai Stevenson for President and John Sparkman for Vice President. These men are capable and will give you just exactly the sort of administration that the people ought to have. Both these men have had great experience in public affairs. Both of them have demonstrated by their records that they care about the plain, everyday people of the country--and will work for them and serve them well. These are men you can trust. They will really look out for the interests of the everyday man.

I want you to think this over very carefully. These are men you can trust to look after your interests. That is the true Democratic way of a regular candidate doing business. Our party is the party with a heart for the plain, everyday people of America. But the Republican Party has a cash register for a heart--or a calculating machine--I don't know which. It's the party of the special interests and the lobbyists. It is not especially concerned with the human needs and the welfare of the people.

I want you to think these things over. The only reason I am going around the country as I am is because I want to call your attention to the fact that it is your duty as the Government of the United States--and you are--the power lies with the people, but you don't exercise that power unless you vote; and when you vote you ought to vote intelligently, you ought to study the issues. And the Republicans won't tell you what the issues are, they are trying to cover then up. I am around trying to tell you what the issues are, so you can vote intelligently. If you do that, you will have Adlai Stevenson in the White House for another 4 years, and we will have good government all that time.

[6.] NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT (Rear platform, 1:22 p.m.)

You see, coming to New London is getting to be a habit with me. It is my third trip here in just 4 months. Now the chairman introduced me in a manner that reminds me of an old-time story. A fellow one time was on a hinge and he made the statement that he could whip anybody in the place. He didn't get any takers. Then he said he could whip anybody in the town, but he didn't get any takers. Then he said he could whip anybody in the State, and he didn't get any takers. Then he said he could whip anybody in the world, and one old fellow got up and popped him out on the street. And they asked him how it came about, and he said he took in too much territory.

The first time I came here I came to start an atomic-powered submarine. That was a great day, and a historic day, because that is a start, we think, to the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes. And I know it is going to work, and if they do work, then we will be facing the greatest age in the history of the world.

I visited the Coast Guard Academy in September. That was a great affair, too, from my point of view. But this visit, I guess, is the most important of the three, although the purpose is somewhat different.

I am here today in my capacity as head of the Democratic Party--one of the President's many jobs--and I am here on one of the most important missions of my life, to help elect a Democratic ticket in November. This election, my friends, is one of the most critical this country has ever faced. The future of our country--our prosperity-our hopes for peace--may hang in the balance.

On the one side, there is the Democratic Party, with an unbroken record of service to the people, and one of the finest and best qualified candidates ever offered the voters-Adlai Stevenson, the Governor of Illinois.

And on the other side is the Republican Party, with an unbroken record of opposition to almost everything the New Deal and the fair Deal have accomplished for the people--together with a candidate who has been captured and surrounded by the worst elements of the Old Guard Republican Party.

The choice before you is whether to entrust your future to a tested civilian leader with great experience and high principle or to an untried military man who is nothing but a babe in the woods of Senator Taft-and Taft controls the woods.

I came out here to get you to think. am making this trip so that you people will begin to think about the welfare of the world and the welfare of this Nation. Think it over carefully. Your jobs--your future-and the welfare of the world and this country are at stake. You yourselves control the Government when you exercise your right to vote.

On November the 4th you must be sure before that time comes that you are registered so you can vote, because you are not worth anything to any party unless you are on the books so you can vote. Then when you have thought this thing over from your own viewpoint, from the viewpoint of the welfare of the greatest Republic in the history of the world, and from the viewpoint of the free world as a whole, 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.

[7.] OLD SAYBROOK, CONNECTICUT (Rear platform, 1:55 p.m.)

I am glad to be back in Connecticut again today. I guess all of you are acquainted with the fact that I am doing a little campaigning for the Democratic ticket. I am not working for myself this time, like I was when I was here before. I am trying to help the party that has enabled me to have the highest honor that a man can have in the world. I want to show my gratitude, so I want that party to continue to run the Government.

I know all your candidates here in Connecticut and I think well of them. I have known Bill Benton for a long time, and he has been a good Senator, and you ought to keep him there. Abe Ribicoff has also done an excellent job in the House of Representatives, and I know you will send him to the Senate where he can still do a wonderful job. For Congress Bill Citron will represent you well. And for Congressman at Large, I suggest to you that you send Stanley Pribyson to the Congress. I hope you will elect all these good men, so that they can give you the proper representation in the Congress of the United States--which passes the bills and makes the policy that affects every one of you in some way or another.

One of the great public servants of the United States, I understand, is a native of your town. He was Price Control Administrator, he was Governor of Connecticut, and now I have made him Ambassador to India--and that is Chet Bowles. And he is doing one wonderful job over there. He is one of our best Ambassadors. He has improved the relations with India and us 100 percent since he has been over there.

Now one of the principal things I am interested in are the candidates for President and Vice President--Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. You must send them to Washington this time. It is most important. It is most important that you do that for your own welfare. These are good men, with fine records of public service. They are men you can trust to work for you, and look out for your interests. And I say to you, my friends, in all sincerity, I don't think you can trust the Republican Party to look out for your interests. They never have, and I don't think they ever will.

Regardless of what their good five-star candidate may say, he can't control the Congress. Senator Taft will be the leader in the Congress if the Republicans obtain control of this Government. He will run the Government. You might just as well elect Taft President as to elect that Republican Old Guard general who has been taken over by them.

You should think this over very carefully because it affects you, as I said awhile ago, right down to your pocketbook. It affects your job--it affects the welfare of this country. And it is up to you to see that the welfare of this country and the welfare of the world is maintained on a basis that will bring the greatest age in history. You can do it--if you do the right thing at the polls on November the 4th--and we will have Adlai Stevenson for President the next 4 years and this country will go along as it has gone along--for the welfare of all the people, and not for the special interests.

[8.] NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT (Platform near station, 2:45 p.m.)

I rather liked that slip. You know, I would feel exceedingly bad if everybody felt that they were happy that I was getting out of the White House. It makes me very happy when the vast majority of people feel as your former Congressman did here, that he would like to have me back there. But I weighed that situation very, very carefully long ago and I think it is best for the country. I think it is best for the Democratic Party that we have new leadership. I think it is best, and will cement the party so that we will have 20 more years of progressive government. And I am going to help you to get it.

I have seen a great deal of New England since I left here Thursday morning. I am glad to be back now to talk to you again. You have a wonderful group of men on the Democratic ticket here in Connecticut. Your two candidates for Senator--your present Senator, Bill Benton--and your candidate for Senator, Abe Ribicoff--have been men who have been working in the interests of all the people--in the Congress--and you ought to keep them there. John McGuire will make you an excellent Representative in the House. And Stanley Pribyson will do a job for you that you will be proud of, I am sure of that.

I want to tell you something about our candidate for President--Adlai Stevenson of Illinois. You know he has been Governor of Illinois for 4 years now, and he has done a great job. He has had some other jobs, too, where he has shown how well-qualified he is for the Presidency. I want to tell you about one of them now, a job he did in Italy during the war.

In 1941 Adlai Stevenson came down to Washington as Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. He stayed on that assignment throughout most of the war, working right beside the Secretary on a great number of top-level problems. Then in the fall of 1943 the Italian Government surrendered to the allies. We did not hold all of Italy, but the southern part was in our hands. The Germans had applied the scorched earth policy before they retreated--the port of Naples was a total wreck. President Roosevelt got worried about what was to become of the country and the people. So he borrowed Adlai Stevenson from the Navy Department, and sent him to Italy to survey conditions there.

Stevenson went all over Sicily and southern Italy, and he got a firsthand picture of the poverty and misery in that country. Then he came home and made his report. It was an excellent report--history-making in many ways. For he had grasped clearly in this experience the basic ideas which later came to be known as the Marshall plan.

Stevenson advised us in 1944 that temporary relief for the Italian people was essential, but not enough. He pointed out that we would have to help the Italian people restore essential industry and agriculture and commerce. And unless we did that, he told us, Italy would not become a free country again.

The American Government did take action, first in Italy and later throughout all Western Europe. The Marshall plan itself was a great expansion of the ideas which Stevenson brought back from Italy.

It is fitting and proper that the Democratic Party should have chosen as its new leader a man who understands and helped to build our positive policies toward free Italy and all Western Europe. For it is the Democratic Party that through all the years since World War II has created and administered the programs that have saved Western Europe from the Communists.

In times past we had support from a large segment of the Republicans in Congress, led by Senator Vandenberg. But, since Senator Vandenberg fell ill 3 years ago, his party has swung more and more completely into the hands of the extremists, the Old Guard isolationists--the enemies of our whole foreign policy. These men have voted again and again to cut the funds for the economic and military aid which have saved Europe from communism.

As early as 1949, 70 percent of the Republican Senators and 95 percent of the Republican Congressmen voted for deep cuts in military aid for Italy and other friendly European countries. In 1950 more than four-fifths of the Republican Senators voted, two separate times, for crippling cuts in the Marshall plan. In 1951 the Republican Senators voted 8 and 9 to 1, six different times, to cripple economic aid for Italy and the rest of Europe--and to cut military aid as well. Their colleagues in the House did exactly the same thing. In 1952, this year, mind you, three-fourths of the Republican Senators and nine-tenths of the Republican Congressmen voted for disastrous slashes in economic and military aid for free Europe.

That record makes it perfectly clear that you cannot count on the Republicans in Congress to carry on the fight to save Europe from communism. And the Republican candidate for President has now made it perfectly plain that you can't count on him, either.

When this matter was before the Congress last spring, the General sent word that in his judgment a cut of $1 billion, while unfortunate, could be sustained if necessary. He warned, however, that any further cuts would be, and I quote: "heavily and seriously felt" and would have profound effects on the morale and effort of our allies.

Now that is the opinion of General Eisenhower before he became a candidate. Nevertheless, the Republicans in Congress, with the aid of a few Democrats, proceeded to cut nearly $2 billion from the funds which I had requested.

And shortly after, without a word of protest, without even a murmur, that same general became the Republican candidate for President. And he then endorsed for reelection all the Congressmen and Senators who had ignored his warnings and had ganged up against his task to strengthen Europe.

It is a sad thing that the great General, who was once a symbol to all free Europe, should now emerge as just another Republican politician, the willing captive of the Old Guard isolationists who have opposed everything he was supposed to stand for.

Fortunately, the Democratic Party stands firm in its support for our free allies. It has been our record in the past. It is pledged in our party platform, and it is guaranteed by the character and understanding of our candidate for President.

My friends, I think the lesson is plain. I urge you all to remember what I have told you, and I ask you to vote accordingly. Register today, so that you will be able to go to the polls on November the 4th, and vote in your own interests and in the interests of the country.

Now, you are the Government--as I have told you time and again while I was in Connecticut before--it is up to you. It is up to you to decide whether you want a forward-looking administration of this Government, or whether you want to turn the wheels back to 1896--and I don't think you want to do that.

And if you do it, get yourselves registered, and then vote the Democratic ticket and the country will be safe another 4 years.

[9.] BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT (Rear platform, 3:25 p.m.)

Thank you very much for this wonderful reception. I am happy to be able to visit you again. This time I am campaigning for somebody else and not for myself. I have been highly pleased at the reception I have had in the great State of Connecticut. I have been across it both ways, north and south, and east and west, in the last 2 or 3 days, and I have been cordially received-and I appreciate it.
I have become acquainted with your Democratic candidates here in this State, too, and I am sure they will give you the proper representation in Washington. Bill Benton has been your Senator--or will be, January 3d--6 years, and he has done a wonderful job in the Senate, and I want you to send him back.

Abe Ribicoff is running for the short term of 4 years. He has been a wonderful servant of yours in the House of Representatives, and he will make you a good Senator. You ought to send Joe Lyford to Congress, and you ought to elect Stanley Pribyson as your Congressman at Large. They are both doing a good job.

Now the Democratic Party has two of the finest men of this generation at the head of its ticket--Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. They are men who can stand on their records of achievement in the affairs of civilian government. They are men of honor and integrity, and they have shown that they understand the basic principles that make our country the greatest Republic in all history.

You know, every election year we Democrats have a special problem on our hands. Besides putting our own record and program before the people, we have to make sure that they understand the real record of the Republicans in Congress. We have to do this because over the years the Republicans have developed an amazing talent for remaking history. That's another way of saying that they don't tell the truth.

Between elections, the Republicans in Congress spend their time building up a record of opposition and obstruction to the forward-looking programs of the New Deal and the fair Deal. But a few weeks before an election rolls around, the Republican leaders and the one-party press start to tell the people over and over again that the Republicans were not really opposed to these programs. They finally get to the point of claiming that the Republicans have been in favor of these programs all the time. They are only in favor of them just a short time before the election.

This is the "me too" approach, and the Republicans are trying it this election year, as usual. A good example is the situation with regard to our basic immigration policy. Our present immigration laws are based upon an un-American theory of racial superiority. They say, in effect, that the so-called Nordics from England and northern Europe are superior to persons born in countries like Portugal, Italy, Greece, Hungary, and Poland. So each year our doors are closed to all but a few people from southern and eastern Europe.

The Democratic Party has long been working to correct this disgraceful situation. But the Republican candidate for President has just waked up to the shocking injustice of these restrictions. Last night, at Newark, New Jersey, the Republican candidate finally said "me too" about the discriminatory features of our immigration laws. My friends, it was a good statement, in fact it was taken partly from my veto message. But why did the General take so long to learn about this serious problem and to come around to the position of the Democratic Party? I will tell you why. The Republican record on this subject is bad, and the General wanted to keep quiet about it if he could.

First of all, the present discriminatory provisions of our immigration laws were adopted in the 1920's by a Republican administration. The Republicans invented this unfair system, and apparently most of them are still proud of it.

This year the Congress had a chance once and for all to get rid of the discriminatory provisions in our immigration law. And what happened? Eighty-eight percent of the Republicans in the House and 80 percent of the Republicans in the Senate voted to pass that horrible McCarran Act over my veto. That act is just as biased against immigrants from the countries of southern and eastern Europe, and it gives second-class status to naturalized citizens in this country.

Now it is true that the new law bears the name of a Democrat, but my friends, he is not my kind of a Democrat. He does not speak for the Democratic Party, either. Men like your own Bill Benton fought hard in the Senate against this bill. Our vice-presidential candidate, John Sparkman, voted against it.

The Democratic platform pledges a fight to rid our laws of these shameful restrictions. I have already appointed a special commission to get all the facts, and they have been holding public hearings throughout the country.

Now, what have the Republicans done about it?

They have made one of the Senators who voted to override my veto the Republican candidate for Vice President. The General has embraced on his "great crusade" such expert peddlers of bigotry as Jenner and McCarthy, who also voted to override that veto. I am told that the Republicans of this State are to welcome Senator McCarthy for a second time in the campaign.

The Republican leaders and the candidates for the Senate, to their shame, openly embraced him here in Bridgeport a couple of weeks ago. Even though they may welcome his fraudulent attacks on Senator Benton and on former Senator Brien McMahon, how can they reconcile their welcome of him with his fierce and savage attack on former Senator Raymond Baldwin, now Justice Baldwin of your Supreme Court?

With utter disregard for Senator Baldwin's Republican record as your Governor and Senator, McCarthy assailed him viciously on the floor of the Senate. He called him "criminally responsible" in the Malmedy massacre case. It was Senator McMahon, a Democrat, who sprang to his feet to defend Senator Baldwin.

For reasons of his own, McCarthy fought for the Nazis who, during the Battle of the Bulge, had 'perpetrated this infamous massacre of our American soldiers. He attacked Senator Baldwin for defending our American soldiers who, after the war, sought to bring the Nazi murderers to justice.
He treated Justice Baldwin with the same ruthless disregard of the truth as he has shown throughout his career in the Senate. There are those in the Senate and many elsewhere who think that Senator Baldwin's resignation from the Senate was precipitated by McCarthy's vilification of him.

This is the man, McCarthy, whom the Republicans of Connecticut are now willing to endorse "without reservations," as their national committeeman put it, right here in your Klein Memorial Hall.

Now I don't believe in that sort of business. There are plenty of people that I don't approve of. I don't care what their politics are--if they are wrong, I'm "agin 'em." If they are right, I don't care what their politics are, I'm "for 'em."

And I have made that perfectly plain all over this United States, and I am out here now trying to let the people of the country know the men and the party that they can trust to handle their immigration problems, and all the other important issues in accordance with the principles that have made us the greatest and most prosperous country in the history of the world.

That is why, on November the 4th, if you will use a little judgment, if you will use a little thought, if you understand the issues and look at them--the Republicans won't tell you what they are, they are trying to cover them up because they can't afford to have them published--if you will inform yourselves and vote for the welfare of the free world, vote for the welfare of the greatest Nation in the history of the world, and vote for your own interests--if you do that, we will have Adlai Stevenson in the President's Office for the next 4 years, and the country will be safe.

[10.] NORWALK, CONNECTICUT (Rear platform, 4 p.m.)

I am most happy to be here this afternoon, and I appreciate the politeness and kind reception of these young men over here--they are being properly raised, I am sure.
I have come here to ask you to vote for the Democratic ticket for President and Vice president, and for the Senate and the Congress. The Democratic Party in Connecticut is putting up some of the finest men I have ever seen as candidates for the Congress. Your present Senator, Bill Benton, is a very able person. He has done you a good job in the United States Senate; and your candidate for Senator is an able Congressman: Abe Ribicoff, who is replacing your other great Senator, Brien McMahon. You have a candidate for Congress in Joe Lyford, who is a wonderful fellow and I am sure that Stanley Pribyson will make you a good Congressman at Large.

Now the presidential candidate is the finest new leader to come along since franklin Roosevelt in 1932. You know, the President of the United States has to make some of the most important decisions, decisions that can make the difference between prosperity or depression, the difference between peace and war. He is the man who has to decide about using the atomic bomb.

With Adlai Stevenson in the White House, you will have a President who thinks always of what is best for all of us, and the whole country. He has learned a great deal about civil government in Washington, and in the United Nations, and as Governor of a great State. And he won't have to take the word of any rich man's lobbyist, or any Old Guard Senator about what is good for the American people.

I could not talk to the people of Norwalk without a word of tribute to your great son, Brien McMahon. He was an outstanding Senator. His loss will be felt not only among you people here in Connecticut, but by all Americans and by the ordinary people all over the world.

All of you remember the great fight Brien McMahon waged to take atomic energy out of the hands of the military and put it under civilian control. He won that fight, and thanks to his victory, we have made amazing progress in the development of our atomic power. And we have made it safely, without entrusting that awful power to military men untrained in the arts of peace.

And here it is, only 2 months since Brien McMahon's death, and we are being asked to turn that power back to the generals.

The American people, through their Congress, said in 1946 that they don't want the power in military hands, they want it under firm civilian control, in line with the American tradition that military men take orders from the people, and not the other way around. I don't think we are ready to reverse that decision or that tradition in this election.

Senator McMahon had another vision. He knew what was needed to build a lasting peace in the world. Brien McMahon was no timid politician who was willing to compromise his own ideas for the sake of gaining votes. He spoke out boldly and clearly. He urged us to extend the helping hand of friendship and support to all the free peoples of the world. He didn't dodge the fact that this might be expensive. He was willing to pay the price. And he didn't duck the issue when elections came around.

Now contrast his vision and his statesmanship with the brand of pussyfooting and confusion that is coming from the Republican camp. Since the Republican candidate made his great surrender to Taft and Jenner and McCarthy, he has turned his back on all the things he has stood for when he was Army Chief of Staff and Commander of the NATO forces in Europe. He has adopted the old Republican line about slashing military spending and aid to our allies. That means that he has endorsed the stand of the Old Guard Republicans.

These are the men who voted for weakening our defenses in 1941, before Pearl Harbor. They voted to weaken our security in 1949 and 1950, before Korea. And just this year, they voted to cut deeply and painfully into the NATO program their candidate used to command.

I have said before, that I made a mistake about the Republican candidate. I once thought he believed in the things we were all working for. But he has shown in this campaign that he didn't believe in them very deeply. He did not believe in them enough to stand up for them against the pressure of the worst, isolationist, Old Guard elements in his own party.

Now remember that. Remember that. Be sure you remember that, because if you don't remember it, you will put yourselves in the position that you will wish you weren't in--in less than 1 year.

All you need do is to go home and think about the issues that are before this great country. If you will do that, if you will study them, if you will study your own interests, if you will study the welfare of the Nation, if you will study the welfare of the free world, you will find that the only thing that is left for you to do is to send Adlai Stevenson to the White House, and the country will be safe for another 4 years.

[11.] STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT (Rear platform, 4:25 p.m.)

Thank you very much for that most cordial, courteous reception. I appreciate it most highly. I have come here to ask you to vote the Democratic ticket for President and Vice President, and to send Democrats to the Senate and the Congress.

The Democratic Party in Connecticut is putting up some of the finest men I have ever seen as candidates for Congress. For Senator, Bill Benton who has served you 6 years, and he has done a good job of it. For the other Senator to succeed Brien McMahon, you have Abe Ribicoff, who has a record in Congress that is beyond compare--he will do you a good job as Senator. You also have an excellent young man in Joe Lyford for Congress. For Congressman at Large, Stanley Pribyson. I am sure they will do you a wonderful job.

Now the presidential candidate is the finest new leader to come along since franklin Roosevelt in 1932. You know, the President of the United States has to make some of the most important decisions--decisions that can make the difference between prosperity or depression, the difference between peace or war. He is the man who has to decide about the use of the atomic bomb. With Adlai Stevenson in the White House, you will have a President who thinks always of what is best for you and for the country. He has learned a great deal about civil government in Washington, in the United Nations, and as Governor of a great State. And he won't have to take the word of any rich man's lobbyist or any Old Guard Senator about what is good for the American people.

I could not talk to you without advertising the fact that this part of the world is absolutely essential to the welfare of the whole country. You have in this great State of Connecticut, which I have been traveling around for the last--oh, I have been across Connecticut north and south, and I have been across it east and west, and I have never seen a more prosperous looking country. And the Republicans say that we are going to the dogs--we don't have anything worthwhile--we don't have any jobs. We have only got 62 million jobs in this country. They said we never could do that.

We are living in an eventful period in the Nation's history, and we must have in the White House a man endowed with a knowledge of civilian affairs and an understanding of the great American principles of patience and integrity.

Adlai Stevenson has shown that he possesses these qualities, but I am sorry to say the same cannot be said about the Republican candidate for President. He is a great military leader, but he has had no experience, and he has not shown the qualities that are required for a man to live the next 4 years in the White House.

And that's up to you. You have got to make up your mind--you are very, very courteous people--you have got to make up your mind what you want for this country's welfare for the next 4 years. And it is up to you. I am only going around the country, giving you the facts as they affect your welfare for the next 4 years.

I know more about what is necessary for the continuation of the present situation of prosperity--the welfare of the world and peace in the world--I think, than any other man in this country. And I felt that I owed it to the people of this country to let them know just exactly what the facts are.

And the only way you can find them out is for me to tell you about them. That is what I am doing.

Now, go home. Study the situation. Look up the records of the candidates. Find out what they know, and what they don't know. Find out the records of the candidates for Congress on the Republican side, and on the Democratic side.

And if you do that, you can't do but one thing and that is to vote for the welfare of the free world, the welfare of the greatest Nation in the history of the world, and for your own welfare right here at home.

And if you do that, we will have Adlai Stevenson in the White House the next 4 years.

[12.] NEW ROCHELLE, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 5 p.m.)

I appreciate that very much. Thank you for that welcome back into this great State of New York. The mayor tells me that he has been the Democratic mayor of this Republican city for 13 years. I congratulate him. Now, they tell me that Westchester County is about the richest county in the world--and I think it is. It looks like that to me, anyway. And I don't know how you can believe those Republican scare-stories that our country is going to the dogs. I am just as sure as I stand here that you can't believe them.

Now I don't know whether you are aware of the fact or not, but I am not running for office. I have had everything that a man can expect from the great Democratic Party, and I am campaigning now just as if I were running for office, to show that I am grateful for what the Democratic Party has done for me. I am also doing that because I think this is one of the most important elections, if not the most important election, since the Civil War. In fact, I am saying to you that I am much more interested in a victory this time, if it is possible, than I was in 1948--and I was pretty anxious for a victory then.

The Democratic nominee for President is the finest new leader to come forward since New York State produced Franklin Roosevelt back in 1932. He has made a great record as Governor of Illinois, just as Franklin Roosevelt made a great record as Governor of New York.

Governor Stevenson is a man of principle. He lets you know where he stands on the issues, and he doesn't run around the country taking one position in New York, and another position in New Orleans.

My friends, I want to bring it home to you, if I may, that the most powerful office in the world--the most powerful office in the history of the world, is the Presidential Office of the United States of America. The man who holds that job must make many grave decisions which may determine whether or not we shall live in a peaceful world. The making of these decisions calls for courage and a deep understanding of the great issues of our time.

It is necessary for a man in the position of President of the United States to understand completely world affairs all the way around the world, because we have become-whether we like it or not--the most powerful Nation in the history of the world, and with that power goes responsibility. And responsibility requires that the man who has to make the decisions in the Presidential Office must know the whole picture. He not only must know his own country from Maine to California, and from the State of Washington to Florida, he must also know what constitutes freedom for the free nations of the world--and how to maintain it.

And I am asking you to inform yourselves on these subjects. They are most important. I am very fond, and always have been, of the Republican candidate for President. I made him Chief of Staff. I appointed him to command the free nations' rehabilitation of their military affairs in Europe. He has been my military adviser since--he became one of my military advisers and one in whom I had the utmost confidence since I became President of the United States.

He has been a part of the foreign policy which we have been carrying on in an effort to maintain peace in the world, and to prevent the Communists from controlling the world. He knows the facts in connection with what is taking place. He understands thoroughly and completely why the policies have been pursued, because he has been a part of them, and I had every confidence that he would stick by that situation.

Until he had his interview with Taft here in New York, he was on the side of the forward-looking people who want to maintain peace in the world.

After he talked to Taft, he changed his position, and I never had anything in the world to make me as sad as what he did. I thought he would be pressure-proof. But I have found--I have found, after studying history, and after this experience I have had, that generals are not pressure-proof in politics. They have had no experience in what to do in politics.

Now, after the Republican convention, Ike said that he was going to start on a "great crusade." And I wondered what that crusade would be. And I waited and I waited, but Ike--as is usual with a general in command of troops--was waiting for higher authority to tell him what to do.

After Taft and the Old Guard Republicans had told him what he ought to do, he started out on a crusade, and that crusade pointed one way in New York City, it pointed another way in Missouri, it pointed another way in New Orleans, it pointed another way in the Northwest. And I still don't know what Ike's crusade is.

The facts in the case are that there never was a time in the history of the world when a country--a Republic such as ours--has been in the condition of prosperity that it is in now. There are more people in jobs than ever before in the history of the world. We have 62 million jobs in this country. And the Republicans have always been advocating the theme of the Soviet Union, that we would go to pieces after the end of World War II. We did not. We improved our condition after the end of the Second World War--and that condition has been improving ever since.

What I am anxious to get over to you is an effort on your part to use your brains in this campaign. I want you to inform yourselves. I want you to find out what the facts are. The only reason I came out on this campaign--as I told you to begin with--is because I am grateful for what the Democratic Party has done for me. And I also wanted to set the people to thinking. I want them to think about their responsibilities. The people of this country are the Government. They exercise the power of the Government when they go to the polls on election day. And unless you inform yourselves on exactly what the issues are, and what the position of the two parties may be, you can't vote intelligently.

I am asking you to study the record of the Republicans in Congress. That is the record on which we have to run.

I am asking you to study the record of the Democrats in the Congress. That is the record on which we have to run.

And if you do that, and inform yourselves, as you should, you will find that the welfare of this country, and our future position in the world, is necessarily in the hands of the Democratic Party for the next 4 years.

All I am asking you to do--all I am asking you to do is not to listen to sentimental reasons. Don't vote for somebody because he has worn a brass hat. Don't vote for somebody because he has been a Governor. Vote for somebody who has the principle to stand on the Democratic platform which concretely states what this country needs. There is no equivocation in that platform. It is right on all the issues, and it states all the issues plainly

Now the Republican platform--as I have said before--is about the lousiest platform I have read since I have been in politics. It tries to mean all things to all people. You can't do that. You have got to take a stand on what you think is right. And if it is right, you can go out and sell it to the people, and they will be with you.

Now what I am trying to do is tell you that your interests are at stake. If you use good judgment, and use your brains, you can't do anything else but send John Cashmore to the Senate, elect this young lady here to the Congress--and put Adlai Stevenson in the White House, and we will be on safe ground for another 4 years.

[13.] NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK (10th Street and 2d Avenue, 7:32 p.m.)
Mr. Congressman, ladies and gentlemen:

I consider this a very, very, very great honor. It is the first time I have ever had an experience like this--and I have been through a lot of things in the last 30 years in politics.

I want to say to you that I am now making an endeavor to get the facts to the people so they will understand just exactly what this campaign means, and how important it is.

I am not running for anything. I want to impress that upon you. I will be out of a job on the 20th of January, but I am one of those fellows who is not ungrateful to the great party that has given me the chance to attain the highest honor in the history of the world--and that is the Presidency of the United States, the most powerful office in the world.

I am grateful, and I am trying to show that gratefulness by helping the Democratic Party in this campaign. It is not usual for people who get everything in the world from a party to be grateful. They always want something more. I don't. I have had all I deserve.

Now, after you understand that, I want to impress upon you that if you want this country to continue in its present prosperous condition, you want to be sure and examine the issues in this campaign. I want you to inform yourselves. That's all I ask you. I am going around over the country stating the facts and the record. You have to know the record of the Republicans in Congress, and that is the basis on which you can decide what is best for you. You ought to know the record of the Democrats in Congress, and that is the basis on which you can decide which is best for you.

I am telling you that the record of the Republicans has not been in the interests of the people. They have been against those things which are best for the country, which are best for you, and which are best for the world.

I am very anxious--very anxious--for you to inform yourselves. Now you have a chance here to send a man to the United States Senate who will cooperate with Senator Lehman--who has always been on the right side of all the questions where the people are concerned. You have a delegation in Congress--one of whom just introduced me--that are the same sort of people; and unless the Congress is the right sort of Congress, it doesn't do you much good to have a man in the White House except as a block when they try to put something over that is wrong.

I want to say to you if I hadn't been in the White House when that "good-for-nothing" Both Congress was down there, there wouldn't be anything left of the New Deal or the Fair Deal.

Now, that is what you are faced with right now. That is exactly what you are faced with right now.

If you turn the White House and the Congress both over to the Republicans, whose interests are selfish, who work for the lobbies, who work for the special interests, then you get just exactly what you deserve,

Now I want to tell you something. I hope you will consider all these things--all these vitally important things. I hope you will go home and pray over it. I hope you will then decide to do the thing that is best for you, that is best for this great Nation of ours, that is best for peace in the world.

And if you do that, Adlai Stevenson will spend the next 4 years in the White House-and the country will be safe.

[14.] NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK (Williamsburg Bridge Plaza, 8 p.m.)

I can't tell you--words fail me. I don't think that I have ever had such a reception-and I have had many a reception, both here and at home. But I believe this is the greatest of them all.

I am highly pleased with the way the people have been turning out on this trip which I have been making around over the country. It shows that they want to hear about the real issues, and they want the truth in this campaign--and that is what I am giving them. I am giving them the facts, and the truth--and they haven't had a chance to get them any other way.

Now I have been in elective public office in these United States of ours for 30 years. In every office I have served, I have tried to do the best I can. That is the only thing I know how to do, is just to do the best I can. I am not a genius, or anything of that kind.

But now I have served as President of the United States for the last 7 years. I have given it all I have. I think 30 years in elective public office is quite enough for one man. And I am hoping that I am making a contribution for the continuation of the policies which have been pursued by Franklin Roosevelt and myself for the past 20 years.

I am grateful to the Democratic Party for what it has done for me. I am not like some of these birds who get everything they can out of a party, and get rich, and go to another party. The party has given me everything I could ever hope to have--and I didn't get rich at it, either. But as long as I live, I expect to make every contribution I possibly can for the welfare of this country. And I am going to be a Democrat until I die.

Now, you have a fine slate of Democratic candidates. We need these men in the Congress. Men like John Cashmore in the Senate, and Arthur Klein in the House, and Louis Heller and the other fine Congressmen from this neighborhood.

The Democratic Party this year is headed by two of the finest men in public life--Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. My friends, they understand the basic principles which make our country the greatest Republic in the history of the world. And they are running for office on a party platform that is built around one basic objective; and that objective is the welfare of the whole people, not just a few of them, but all the people. I want you to listen to me carefully. We need a Democratic President in the White House, and a solid Democratic Congress to work with him. There are many reasons for this, but I want to tell you about one of them here tonight.

I want to tell you about the situation regarding our immigration laws. They are in disgraceful shape, and we must have action to improve them. These laws are based upon the theory of racial superiority. They discriminate against the peoples from southern and eastern Europe. They give a second-class status to all naturalized citizens. Now this is a terrible, un-American business.

Now, how did that immigration law get into such bad shape? To begin with, the principle of racial superiority was first developed by a Republican Congress and a Republican administration in 1924. The Republicans invented the idea, and they still believe in it. That is shown by the way they act whenever an immigration bill comes before the Congress. There, this year, the Congress passed--over my veto--a law known as the McCarran Act, which reenacted these provisions discriminating against people from certain countries.

Now it is true that this new law bears the name of a Democratic Senator. It is also true that it was supported by some Democrats as well as Republicans. But if the Republicans in the Senate had done as well as the Democrats, my veto would have been sustained. Good Democrats like Herbert Lehman voted against this discriminatory law. So did our candidate for Vice President, John Sparkman. Senator Sparkman is a true friend of the people. You can count on him to be on your side every time.

At our convention in July, the Democratic Party wrote into our platform a pledge to rewrite this McCarran Act. I have already set up a commission to get the facts on how this unfair law operates.

Last night--now this is most interesting-most interesting--last night, at Newark, New Jersey, the Republican candidate for President said he too believed we must end the rank injustice in our immigration laws. Now I am delighted to learn that the General has finally seen the light. Of course, he could have understood the whole issue months ago, if he just read my veto message on the McCarran bill. But I doubt if the General would be able to deliver on his belated promise to get rid of these unfair restrictions. First of all, his party did not think enough of the whole problem to even mention it in their party platform. And he himself has endorsed for reelection--now listen to this--Senator Revercomb of West Virginia--a man Tom Dewey refused to support in 1948 because of this issue.

And then there is this matter of the General's handpicked running mate, his candidate for Vice President, who voted with Revercomb in 1948, and with McCarran in 1952. Now that's the kind of man that's running for Vice President on the Republican ticket.

And also, there are Jenner and McCarthy, whom the General now supports, along with all the other Republican Senators who voted to put this wicked law on the books. I really don't think we can expect much help from the Republicans in correcting the injustices in the immigration laws.

Now this is the kind of story that can be repeated on issue after issue. That is why a Democratic victory is so important to you. Every issue that has been for the welfare of the people--like public housing--the Republicans have been against. I asked for 75,000 units of public housing, and they cut it down to 5,000. And I had an awful time getting about 35,000 or 40,000 units, and they were against it to a man.

Just read the record. If you will do that on all these things--social security, or any other thing that the Democrats have been for in the fair Deal and the New Deal, that is for the benefit of the people--you will find the Republicans almost unanimously against it. And now they are trying to take over. They say that social security is a bipartisan affair. If you will look up social security when it was passed, you will find they all voted against it in the Congress. It turned out to be a good thing. Now they would like to take credit for it, but I think you are too smart to let them do it. At least, I hope you are.

Now this election, in my opinion, is the most important election since the Civil War. This election decides our policy toward the world--toward the free world. This election decides the domestic policy, as to whether we are going to have a government that is for the people, or whether we are going to have a government of special interests.

It is your interests that are at stake. I want you to study these issues. I want you to look at the record carefully. I want you to go home and pray over them, and then I want you to think--think of your interests, think of the welfare of the greatest Nation in the history of the world, think what this means to the free world if we go isolationist, and that is what is ahead of us if we elect a Republican President.

When you have thought these things over, when you have studied them carefully, then go to the polls and vote the Democratic ticket, and we will have Adlai Stevenson for President for the next 4 years--and the country will be safe.

[15.] BROOKLYN, NEW YORK (Address at the Eastern Parkway Arena, 9:30 p.m., see Item 300)