Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in New Hampshire and Massachusetts

[1.] PORTSMOUTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Rear platform, 8 a.m.)

Well, I see that New England has the same habit that we have in Missouri. You get up at the right time of day. I took a walk around your city this morning, and I certainly wish I had time to stay here and see it all; but as you know, I am out on a program to help elect the Democratic ticket this fall, so I can't stay in Portsmouth very long, as much as I would like to. I expect to come back here, though, when I get out of the great white jail, and maybe stay for as long as I want to.

You have some very fine men on the Democratic ticket in this town in this great State of New Hampshire. For Congress, you have just met the candidate for Congress-Peter Poirier; and you have met your candidate for Governor--William Craig. And I am delighted to know you have a good Democrat ready to take over from poor Sherman Adams, who is running himself ragged losing battles to the Old Guard on that Republican train. That is just too bad.

The Democratic Party has at the head of its ticket this year two of the finest men in public life today: Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. They both can stand on their proven records of public service. They are men of honor and integrity. They are skilled in the ways of civil government. And from the very beginning of this campaign, they have been giving the people the facts and the truth about the issues in this election.

You know, it has been exceedingly difficult to get the issues before the people. That is one of the principal reasons why I am out. I am trying to put the issues up to you, so you can do a little thinking in your own interest.

The campaign, when it first started out from the other side of the fence, was one of extraneous things that had nothing to do with the issues in this campaign. I am sorry to say that the Republican candidate for President has not given the people a very straight story on the issues. It has really surprised me to find the General treating some of these problems with such carelessness about the facts, when actually he should--and I believe he does--know better.

Take the General's statements about Government spending and taxes, as an example. Right here in Portsmouth you have the Navy Yard, so you know at first hand the great cost involved in running this installation to help keep our fleet in good shape. And the General knows that, too, from his years in the Army--and what it costs to keep the military forces in condition. When I was making budgets, I never had any instructions from the General when he was Chief of Staff to cut anything. He always wanted more money.

Since he has become a candidate for office, he has been talking about budget cuts that could only mean gravely weakening our national defense. And he knows that. He first talked about a $40 billion cut. Now he is talking about a $20 billion cut; and maybe next week he will cut it to $10 billion--and maybe next week he will call for an increase; but either one, a $10 or $20 billion cut would just spell disaster for the military and foreign aid programs on which we depend for our own survival as a free nation. The General knows all this. He was faced with these very same problems only recently, when he was giving great service to this country as a military leader. But apparently the General is now convinced that in politics the best approach is to tell the people only the things they want to hear, and to make any kind of promises if he thinks he can get a few votes out of it.

I believe the General has made a big mistake. The people are smarter than he thinks. They want the whole story. They want to make up their own minds on the basis of facts; and that is the reason I am going around over the country telling them what the facts are. That is why the people of this country are going to vote for Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman this November. They are going to send to Washington, men who will give them the facts, and tell the people straight from the shoulder what they are going to be able to do on the basis of those facts.

In your own interests--now, if you will do a little thinking, just in your own interest study the record. Get the facts for yourselves. Go home and study them and then make up your own mind. Make up your own mind, then vote for the best interests of yourself. Vote for the best interests and welfare of the greatest Republic in the history of the world, and vote for the keeping of the free world free. That is what it amounts to. This is the most important election since the Civil War, and that is the reason I am out trying to give you the facts, trying to get you to think for yourselves and get the facts on the situation.

And when you do that, you will go to the polls on November the 4th and you will elect the Democratic ticket from top to bottom, and you will have 4 years of good government, and safety for this great Nation of ours.

[2.] SOMERSWORTH, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Municipal Building, 9:45 a.m.)

I am certainly happy to be here this morning, and to be greeted by all this wonderful crowd here. I understand that Stratford County has gone Democratic in every election since 1932, and I think that is a wonderful thing. I wish we could persuade all the rest of the counties in New Hampshire to do the same thing this year. I am more than appreciative of the fact that you voted for me in 1948. I needed it then and I need it now, because I want you to send a successor to the White House who will carry on the policies the Democratic Party has stood for during the last 20 years--Adlai Stevenson.

I have just had a wonderful visit with a very great friend of mine, with whom I served in the United States Senate, Fred Brown. Fred used to sit by me in the Senate-or I used to sit by him, whichever way you want to put it. I have always been proud to know him, because he has one of the best records of public service of any man that I know. I told him this morning that I had made his Senate speech on public power and public utilities here in Manchester last night. He made the best speech on that subject that ever was made in the Senate, and it carried the bill through the Senate. I never heard him make but one speech, and that was it; but that accomplished more in the public service than any other one thing that I think Fred ever did.

He has been mayor of this town, United States attorney for New Hampshire, Governor of New Hampshire, Comptroller General of the United States, and a member of the United States Tariff Commission, and the best United States Senator this great State ever had--and I say that advisedly.

Fred Brown represented New Hampshire to the best advantage in the world when he was in the Senate. He served his country well. He never showed any sign of a narrow sectional attitude. For that reason, Fred Brown showed exactly what a good Democrat could do in the public service. As far back as 1934, Fred Brown was fighting for the St. Lawrence Seaway project. He knew that New Hampshire profited from every undertaking that added materially to the welfare of all New England and all the Nation. Fred Brown voted in the interests of all the people of this country. That, my friends, is the mark of statesmanship, and it is the philosophy that moves the whole Democratic Party.

I remember how Fred Brown fought for the regulation of the public utility holding companies. That is the speech I was telling you about that I made. I remember how he stood up against the greed and selfishness of the power lobby, and the other special interests that try to milk the public for every cent they can.

But Fred Brown knew that the people have to look to their Government for protection. And it is due to men like him that the Democratic Party looks out for the people. That is the 'policy of the Democratic Party. That is the difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democratic Party is working in the interests of all the plain everyday people of this country. With us the people come first. With the Republicans property and profits come first, ahead of the people. The Republican Party is the party of the great money interests-the big banks, the insurance companies, the utilities, the railroads, the real estate lobby, and all the rest. These are the boys that pay the bills for the GOP, and they are the ones that call the tune for the GOP.
That is why this election is so important for you, and so important for the whole country. You must remember that the power of the Government reposes in you, and when you neglect your duty, when you don't register and vote on election day, you are throwing away the greatest privilege in the history of the world that you fought for on a dozen different occasions, when you neglect it.

Now in 1948 only 51 percent of the people entitled to vote voted in this great country of ours. I think that is a disgrace. I am going around the country trying to give you something to think about. I want you to inform yourselves. I want you to find out what this is all about. I want you to know the issues. The Republicans don't want you to know the issues. I want you to know them, and I want you to make up your mind in your own interest.

If you will just do that I haven't any doubt in the world that we will have Adlai Stevenson in the White House, and 4 more years of good government for this great country.

[3.] DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE (City Hall, 10:10 a.m.)

I can't tell you how much I appreciate these early morning cordial welcomes I am getting here in New Hampshire. I never saw anything like it. You are the most hospitable people I ever saw, and I am taking Missouri into consideration when I say that, too.

I don't know whether you are right sure why I am going around all over the country this way, so I am going to let you in on the secret. I am campaigning for the Democratic ticket. I have been told by the people here who ought to know, that this country has gone Democratic right straight along since 1932, and I want you to keep it up for the next 20 years.

You have got a slate of candidates running here in this State that impresses me immensely. I have been riding with Peter Poirier and with your candidate for Governor, Mr. William Craig, and I am highly impressed with these gentlemen. I think New Hampshire would be much to the good if they elected people like that to the Congress and to the Governor's chair.

We have a great candidate for President this year, too--Adlai Stevenson. He is a fine and able man, and he will give this country good government and real leadership. Adlai Stevenson has served as the Governor of his great State. He has proved his talents as a civilian administrator. He knows the problems of the people, and that is one of the most important things you want to be sure of when you elect a President. His experience in Illinois shows that he knows how to make the Government work for the people. More than that, he is a man you can trust.

I have been in politics for 40 years or more--have been in elective public office for 30 years--and in all those years I have found that you can always count on one sure thing. The Republicans will spend 4 years in Washington building up a bad record of votes against the interests of all the people, and the Democrats have to go there and straighten them out. Now for the last 20 years the Republicans haven't been able to fool anybody, but every time election time rolls around, they try every trick in the book to cover up the record they have made in the Congress, and fool the public into giving them 4 more years to work for the special interests.

That is what they are trying to do now, they are trying to turn the country over to people who want to exploit the everyday man. They don't like to see prosperity under the Democrats. It's just about to drive them crazy. They have resorted to all of the oldest tricks in this game. They have realized that their record in Congress is so bad--so much against the accomplishments of the New Deal and the Fair Deal--that their party wouldn't have a chance unless they could ride into office on the military reputation of a national hero.
That is why they picked a great general for their candidate for President. But I think they made a great mistake in doing that, because it has raised a whole new issue in this campaign. It has raised the issue of whether we can afford to have a professional military man at the head of our civilian government of this great Republic.

You know, the Constitution was very particular to set up a government divided into three sections: the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch. And they were very careful to see that the civilian executive of this great Republic of ours is the Commander in Chief of all the armed forces; and that is so a man on horseback couldn't take the country over.

We have only had two professional soldiers as Presidents, and neither one of them did very well. I think that is to be expected, because, you see, there is very little in common between running a civilian government and running an army.

Now the President of the United States-I have said many a time--has to be the best public relations man in the country, because he has to get all sorts of people to agree to go along on a situation that is best for the whole country. He spends most of his time arguing with people and laying the facts before people to get them to do what they ought to do without being talked to.

Well, a soldier has the habit of saying, "This is it. You go and do it," and if you don't do it you can get court-martialed. But you can't court-martial a Secretary of State or a Secretary of the Treasury of the Government of the United States; you have to persuade them that that is the way it ought to be done. That is what I spend my time doing. That is what you pay me for. That is the reason I am out now, doing a public relations job, to bring home to you your responsibilities.

Our professional Army officers are trained to fight and to command. They are trained to give orders and to follow orders. They are trained in the arts of war, that is the way they ought to be, but they are not trained in what it takes to run a civilian government. And while they have plenty of cares and worries of their own, they never get much experience with the problems of people in civilian life.

Now, when you take a man who has spent his whole life in the Army and put him in politics, he's just like a fish out of water. It would be just the same as if I would take the mayor of my hometown and put him in command of NATO in France. He wouldn't be any more at sea than Eisenhower is right now.

That is what has happened already to the Republican candidate for President, and proves how true my statements are. In just 3 months he has let the Old Guard Republican politicians take him over. They are writing his marching orders and he is carrying them out--just like he used to carry out mine, when he was working for me as Commander in Chief.

If he has gone this far just since July, I would hate to think what would happen during 4 years in the White House. If he ever got to be President, you can't tell who would call the signals, or what they might give him to do, or get him into.

We do know what happened the last time we had a professional general for President. That was Ulysses S. Grant. He was a good general. He was an honorable man. But the politicians were too smart for him, and he made a mess of his administration, much to the regret of everybody that loved him.

I really cannot think of a worse combination in the White House than a professional soldier, surrounded and controlled by the Old Guard reactionary Republicans who work for the big lobbies in this country. That is not the kind of government you want. That is not the kind that will do you any good, and I am advising you as I have advised everybody where I have been--to use your head, inform yourselves, get the records of the Republicans in the Congress and the Democrats in Congress, and see which one of those parties has voted for your interests, and for the welfare of this great Nation. That's all I am asking you to do. I am not out here trying to tell you what to do. I am trying to give you the issues, asking you to inform yourselves on what the issues are. And then you won't have anything to do but vote in your own interests and vote for the welfare of this great Republic, and vote for the welfare of the free world as a whole.

That is your duty. That is your job. If you do what I am telling you to do, I know you will only do one thing: you will send Adlai Stevenson to the White House and you will elect this great man here Governor of New Hampshire.

[4.] ROCKINGHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Rear platform, 10:55 a.m.)

We have had a wonderful drive this morning around over this part of New Hampshire, and I never saw so many people up so early in the morning as I have seen this morning.

And I want to say to you that I am highly appreciative of the courtesies that have been shown me here in this great State.

I have been trying to get people to do a little thinking, and the best way in the world that you can show whether you believe what I have been saying or not is to put New Hampshire in the Democratic column on election day, and that will please everybody.

[5.] EXETER, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Rear platform, 11:18 a.m.)

Now I see that a great many of you young people are out here to have a good time, and I am glad to have you have a good time. But I have something to say to you that will cause you to think, I am sure, and I would like for you to listen so you can do a little thinking. And then if you want to holler for Ike, I will be glad for you to do it, because I like Ike, too--but I like him in the Army.

I only wish I had time to stop and see your city and your famous academy. I guess you know that I am on a campaign trip, and that doesn't leave me much time to stay any one place for very long. I am working, of course, as hard as I can for a Democratic victory in November. I am doing that because I honestly believe that this is one of the most important elections we have ever had--important for the country's future, and it is important for the future of the whole world, and it is important for your future--and that is the reason I want you to think about it.

You yourselves will be running the country in the next generation, and if you inform yourselves completely on the necessities of how a government should be run, then you will be ready to take over. It doesn't make any difference which party you take over with--if you do take over--you want to have yourself informed so that you can do a job that will continue the greatest Republic in the history of the world through the greatest period that we are now faced with. That is the reason I am anxious for you to inform yourselves, and I want you to listen to me, and then do all the yelling you want to--I won't care.

I have been riding around over this part of New Hampshire with the two Democrats who have just been introduced to you. I have been highly impressed with those two gentlemen, and I think they will make you good public servants. That is Peter Poirier and William Craig, your candidate for Governor.

And on our national ticket we have for President a man who is one of the greatest young men to come forward for public recognition by a party in my recollection since the time of franklin D. Roosevelt--and that is Adlai Stevenson of Chicago. And John Sparkman for Vice President--he is a fine man. I served in the Senate while he was serving in the House. He has been in the Senate for quite some time and he has a record that is beyond reproach.

Now these two candidates--the finest any party ever put before the public--are men of proven character and experience, with excellent records of public service. I hope you have been listening to Governor Stevenson's speeches, or reading them in the papers. They show a man who is honest with himself and with the people. Adlai Stevenson is talking sense to the American people, just as he promised to do when he was drafted for the nomination. He has spoken out on all the issues. He has taken a stand, without fear or favor toward any group or individual.

I only wish his opponent was talking like Stevenson is. I wish the General were sticking to his principles and standing by his record. He is not. And this to me has saddened me very much, and been a great disappointment for me, because I appointed the General Chief of Staff of the United States Army. I put him in charge of NATO because I thought he was best fitted for that job--and he is. He did a good job. I am saying nothing about the General as a general. But I think that he is an amateur in politics.

It would be just the same if I would take one of you boys and send you over there to command NATO. You would have just as much idea of what was going on as to take a general who spent 40 years in the Army and put him right in the midst of a political party that is torn all to pieces. He doesn't know which way to turn. I feel sorry for him.

The good work that he has done in building up the forces of Europe against communism is one of the reasons I once thought he would make a good President. I think it is also the reason so many liberal Republicans asked him to make a fight for their party's nomination. Now, just 3 months later, he has laid aside all the things we thought he stood for and believed in. He has surrendered to Senator Taft. He has swallowed Taft's isolationist foreign policy in the guise of a budget cut. Taft has taken him completely into camp. He is doing exactly what Taft wants him to do. The Old Guard version of isolationism is now what he is for.

What has become of the great victory the liberal Republicans thought they had won at Chicago? I will tell you. They have been kicked off the platform and into the bushes. Senator Taft, whom they defeated, is now enthroned as the master of the General's house.

I am not given ordinarily to quoting columnists. You know I have a yen on for most columnists, but I have to quote one this morning.

Waiter Lippmann in his column put the matter so well that I want to read to you what he has to say:

"It would be helpful, I think"--now this is Walter Lippmann speaking, in his column in the Herald-Tribune of October 16--that is very recent, you can get it and read it for yourself, if you don't believe what I am telling you. "It would be helpful, I think, if the General would now consider," says Walter Lippmann, "the anguish of his friends. Then he would take the risk of making at least one small public demonstration of how, as the leader of his party, he would resist pressure rather than yield to it. This would buck up his friends, would fortify them and sustain them against the growing suspicion in the country that that man Stevenson may not only be speaking in the accents of greatness, but that he may perhaps embody some of the qualities of a great American leader."

Now Mr. Lippmann, as is his custom, I think, fails to give "that man Stevenson" due credit. And I am afraid that Lippmann will wait in vain for a convincing demonstration that the Republican candidate can stand up for the principles we once thought he held. I don't think he is going to come out and say that.

It is too bad. It is a tragedy to see this man, so competent in the military field, destroying his own reputation by cheap politics.

But it is fortunate that this is happening during the campaign. We have learned exactly how he believes before it is too late, and we are fortunate in the fact that we have found real, constructive leadership in the Democratic Party.

Now I want you boys to do a little studying. I am anxious for you boys--not the kind that you are used to--this is studying for citizenship. I want you to study just exactly what this great Government stands for. You know, you are a part and will be in control of the greatest Government in the history of the world. The President of the United States is the most powerful executive that has ever existed on earth. And if you have studied your history, you know there have been a great many of them.

In order that the Government shall continue to be yours when you come to the point where you can take it over, you must prepare yourselves. You must do some thinking for your own benefit and welfare. It won't hurt you--it will do you good. When you get to the point where I am, after you are 69 years old, you will be glad you have done it. I hope all of you will live to be 69. I hope you will have a chance to take part in your Government, locally, with the State, or in the Nation. I have been from precinct to President over the last 40 years, and I know what I am talking about.

It is the greatest business in the world, this business of government. And the Government is in the hands of the people who vote. And when they don't vote, and when they don't inform themselves, when they don't exercise their right to vote intelligently and they get bad government, then they have nobody in the world to blame but themselves.

So do a little thinking. Go home and talk to your daddy and your mother, and find out just exactly what the situation is in this thing. And if you do that, in the next 4 years we will have Adlai Stevenson in the White House, and a good government.

[6.] PLAISTOW, NEW HAMPSHIRE, (Rear platform, 11:50 a.m.)

I appreciate your coming down to the train to see me this morning. I have had a very pleasant morning in New Hampshire. It has been a pleasure to see and talk to the people. I wish I could stay longer, but I expect that you know I have got a busy schedule ahead of me.

If somebody hasn't already whispered to you the secret of what I am doing out here, I will tell you that I am out campaigning for a Democratic victory in November.

You here in New Hampshire have some wonderful men running for office on the Democratic ticket in this State. I hope you will elect them. You have just been introduced to your candidate for Congress, Peter Poirier, and your candidate for Governor, William Craig. They are fine men. I have become very well acquainted with them on this trip around over your great State. I know you will make no mistake if you vote for them.

As for our national ticket, I think Adlai Stevenson will be one of our greatest Presidents, if you elect him. He has had the experience. And I hope you have been following his speeches. He is talking sense to the American people, just as he promised he would do when he was drafted for the nomination. He is telling you just exactly where he stands on all the issues facing us today. He is showing real moral courage, the courage to resist pressures--the courage to speak his mind without fear or favor. And I think the people will reward him for it.

Now he doesn't go down South and make one brand of speech because he thinks he might get votes down there, and then come back up North and make one exactly opposite to it because he thinks that will get votes. He says the same thing in Massachusetts and in North Carolina. And that is, my friends, a quality that you have to have when you are President of the United States.

In the last 3 weeks I have traveled from coast to coast. I have seen a great part of our country, and I want to tell you one thing: This is a most prosperous land. The standard of living all across America must be seen to be appreciated and believed.

You see it especially in the children--well dressed, well fed, healthy looking children-in every town, in every State. They are the happiest and luckiest young people on the face of the earth today.
You have no idea how happy they should be--if you had seen some of the things which I have seen in other countries. Children that haven't enough to cat, children that are barefoot--that have no clothing that is warm enough in the wintertime--children that have rickets and everything else of that sort in these countries that have been overrun by this great war.

And here we are, with plenty to eat, plenty to wear, and everything in the world that anybody could wish for.

Yet, some of us are inclined to be selfish on that line, and not want to help those people who need help.

I hope you are not in that frame of mind. I hope you will do your duty to help feed the people who are out of food, when you have more than you need.

Of course, at almost every stop I have made, the local newspapers are put aboard the train. That has given me a chance to read what the Republican candidates are saying these days. I have been astonished to read that, according to the Republicans, the good conditions I have seen with my own eyes are a sham and a delusion. They say this country is going to wrack and ruin. They say we are bankrupt. They say all those children are bowed down under the weight of unbearable debt that will crush them and ruin their lives.

One of the main themes of the Republican campaign this year is bankruptcy. It's the same song that Alf Landon used to sing, the same thing that Willkie used to talk about, and the same thing that Dewey followed me around the United States with in 1948 and talked about.

As a matter of fact, you could take the Republican speeches for any of the last four campaigns, and they would read just about like most of the same speeches you are hearing today. I think they go and dig them up and say them over.

All this talk about bankruptcy and economic disaster is just as phony this time as it was in all the past Republican campaigns. The American people know this. They can see for themselves that conditions are prosperous, like I can--and just like you can.

I don't believe the people are going to he fooled by scare words, slogans, and easy promises this year any more than they have in the past.

I want you to think about these things. Think about them seriously. Think about what the Democratic Party has done for the welfare of this country in the last 20 years. And think about your own situation. If you will look at the record and think about it, I believe you will agree that the Democratic Party--which I head--has done a good job. And you will find that a majority of the Republicans have been against almost everything we have done for the benefit of the people.

In the face of that record, I don't see how you can do anything except look at your own welfare carefully. Do a little thinking, and study the situation. Study the record--study your own condition--study the condition of the country--study the condition of the world. And then, if you do that, you will go to the polls on November the 4th, and you will elect Adlai Stevenson President of the United States, and we will have 4 more years that are for the good of the world, for the good of the country, and for your own welfare and benefit.
Thank you very much.

[7.] HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS (Platform in Railroad Square, 12:15 p.m.)

I am very happy indeed to be able to stop in the "Queen Shoe City." I understand that your city has earned that name because of the skill of your workers, and they have every right to be proud of that accomplishment.

I am out campaigning for the Democratic ticket, and I hope you will all vote for it. You have an excellent Democratic ticket here in this great State. You couldn't send a better man to the Senate than Jack Kennedy. He has already made a record as a legislator in the House, and he will make you an excellent Senator.

Of course, I don't need to tell you about your own good Governor. He has shown you already what he can do, and I know you are going to put him back in the Governor's chair.

The Democratic Party is very fortunate to have as its candidate for President one of the finest men in public life today--and that is Adlai Stevenson. He is well-qualified for the great responsibilities of the Office of the President of the United States. And John Sparkman, our vice-presidential candidate, can be counted on to continue his work in the interest of all the people of our country.

They tell me that William Howard Taft was the last President who visited Haverhill, and that was way back in March 1912. We have made a lot of progress in the United States since 1912, but I am not quite sure that the Republican Party has made any progress. Moreover, the Republican politicians don't seem to be able to recognize progress when they see it.

Let me read you something the Republican candidate for President said 2 weeks ago in Peoria, Illinois. He was giving his standard lecture to convince his audience just how bad off they were, and he told them they had to "get off"--these are his exact words--"get off the national treadmill that keeps the people of this Nation standing still while giving them the illusion of moving forward."

"The national treadmill that keeps the people of this Nation standing still"--that is what he said. Well, let's take a look at that treadmill. I want you to listen to me now, because it is important to all of you.

You are on a treadmill going backward, evidently. Here is an article printed in the June 15, 1951, issue of a magazine called U.S. News and World Report. Now remember, this article was not written in an election year. And this magazine can never be accused of being partial to the Democratic administration. In fact, it is' wholeheartedly against us.

The article contains the results of extensive research on the rise in the standard of living of the American people. That magazine was amazed at its own findings. It found, and I quote, "most of the people are better fed, better housed, better clothed, enjoy more leisure, enjoy more comforts than at any other time in history."

Among other things, the article reports that from 1941 to 1951 in each 100 homes, the number having electricity increased from 79 in each 100 to 96 in each 100; those having passenger cars, from 72 in each 100 to 82 in
each 100; those having electric refrigerators, from 46 in each 100 to 78 in each 100. You are not going to like him so well when I get through. The electric washing machines increased from 44 in each 100 to 65 in each 100.

Now remember, all this took place in the past 10 years, when the people were marching on that "national treadmill" of the Republican General.

I have just made a trip across the country and back, and I can tell you that today, in 1952, our people are just as well off as they were a year ago. Our economy is sound and healthy, and our people look forward to even greater advancements.

It's the same story every 4 years. The Republicans in Congress have made a voting record that is entirely against the people, but when election year comes, the propaganda machines start rolling to convince the people that the Republican reactionary is the little man's best friend.

Well, the American people haven't fallen for this line for 20 years now, and they are not going to fall for it again this year.

I want you young people--you young people who are doing so much yelling down there to do a little thinking, and you wouldn't yell so loud. If you would just exercise your brains, instead of your voices, you would find out something for your own welfare.

What you need to do is to study the record. Just study the record in your own interest. Look what the Republicans have done in the Congress. That is a record on which they have to run. They won't tell you about it. Then look at the Democratic record-the record the Democrats are running on, and you will find that it has been in your interests, and not for the special interests and the lobbies.

Study those things, so that you can vote in your own interests, so that you can vote for the welfare of this Nation as a whole, and so that you can vote for the welfare of the free world in the future.

If you do that, and I am sure all of you will do it--you have got plenty of time to study the record--just go home and study it--and if you do that, I will tell you what you will do. You will go to the polls on election day and you will wake up the next morning and Adlai Stevenson will be President of the United States, and we will be safe for another 4 years.

[8.] LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS (Campagnone Memorial Common, 1:22 p.m.)

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate that most cordial welcome. I don't think I have ever seen so many people in one place in my life, and I have been a good many places where there have been big crowds.

Now I suppose all of you understand that I am no longer a candidate for office. Back in March 1952 1 announced to the world that I expected to retire from the Presidential Office on January 20th. Now I am not campaigning for myself; I am campaigning for the Democratic Party, to which I owe everything I have ever had politically. I have had all that I can ask from the American people and the Democratic Party. I am not asking for votes for myself, but I am asking you to vote the Democratic ticket, which in my opinion is the party that can do most for the country in the next 4 years.

I am asking you to vote for the Democratic candidates in this State: for young Jack Kennedy for the Senate, for Tom Lane for the House of Representatives, and for my good friend Paul Dever for Governor.

I am also asking you as earnestly as I know how to vote for the Democratic nominees for President and Vice President--Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman.

These two men are two of the best candidates that the Democratic Party has ever offered to the American people. Adlai Stevenson will, I am sure, make a great President--an honest, courageous, and wise President who will stand on the side of the people.

I believe this election is one of the most critical that this country has ever faced. My conviction on this point has grown stronger as the campaign progressed.

I am deeply alarmed at the position the Republican Party has assumed and the pledges and promises they have made.

On the domestic front, it is clear that the Republican Party is dominated by its most reactionary wing--running on the most reactionary platform it has had in recent history.

What I want to talk to you about, however, is not the threat which the Republican Party presents to our domestic economy-which certainly is bad enough--but I want to spell out the danger which a Republican victory would mean in our fight against communism.

I do not think I have to explain to you that the peace of the world and the future of our civilization are greatly menaced by Soviet communism. You know as well as I do what this godless creed would do to us if it achieved world domination. Before an audience in Massachusetts, I do not have to justify the efforts that this Government is making to curb that menace, and I do not have to apologize for what that effort is costing you. You know too well the value of what is at stake in this struggle.

Since the end of the war we have built a gigantic framework of international security against this terrible Soviet threat.

We have been determined that Soviet conquest would not absorb the people of Europe. Europe is not only essential to our military security, it is also the land of our origins. We know that the people there have faith in God, we know that they have faith in freedom, and that they deserve our help against the menace that overshadows them.

We have given that help, and we have changed the whole situation. In 1946 the way lay open to Communist subversion and aggression all across Western Europe. Today, those gates are closed. As a result of our aid, the European nations stand firm in their determination to resist the establishment of communism.

In the far East we have helped to create and strengthen a ring of new and independent nations from India to Japan. We have helped 600 million people to make their way from colonial subjection or dependency to independent self-government.

Baffled in Europe, the masters of the Kremlin redoubled their efforts in Asia. They dared to do there what they were afraid to do in Europe. Their puppet armies crossed an international boundary in an effort to gobble up an independent country.

This was the first step in a process that meant world war III if it was not stopped.

We met this threat and if it had not been met I am just as sure as I stand here the Soviets would have marched all over Europe. We stopped aggression in its tracks and drove it back.

This has cost us much in resources and money and in brave lives. But we have held firm, and behind the shield of our defense the free nations have been growing in power and determination to resist further Communist advances.

This whole program of resisting Communist aggression from Germany around the world to Japan has been created by this Democratic administration. It has also had the support of a number of decent Republicans. We have welcomed that support. But it has had the continuing and bitter opposition of the men who now lead and control the Republican Party, and who dominate the Republicans in Congress.

Despite Republican opposition, we have put our program into effect, and it has brought the Communist drive to a standstill.

This bitter opposition comes from the isolationist wing of the Republican Party. And this wing is composed of men who are as blind to the real significance of the Communist threat as they were to the threat of Hitler. They are the same men who thought we could do business with Hitler before the war. You may remember how they wanted to abolish the draft just a few weeks before Pearl Harbor.

To these men the danger of communism, and the security of the country, are dim and distant concepts. What bulks large in their view of world affairs is their pocketbooks and the pocketbooks of their friends and followers. They are against communism if it doesn't cost much to be against it. They are in favor of defense only if it doesn't mean high taxes.

For years these isolationists were kept in the background by the integrity and the force of character of Senator Vandenberg. When he died, they emerged again and sought to control the Republican Party. Their great effort was made at the Republican convention this year, and everyone thought they had been defeated. But now we find the Republican candidate for President accepting and adopting their arguments, and making the same attacks on our foreign policy that they have been making for years. The liberal Republicans lost the nomination, and the Old Guard Republicans captured that nomination--and they also captured the nominee.

There is a real danger in this, my friends-a grave and terrible danger. I want to explain to you just what this is, if you are interested--and I know you are because it affects you right down to the home.

The policy of the isolationists is the policy of appeasement. Of course, they do not use that word. They do not even admit it to themselves. But that is what their recommendations add up to.

They do not say, "Let America stay weak, while the Soviet empire grows strong." But they recommend that we cut back our defense program--they recommend tax cuts and budget cuts which would weaken our Army and Navy and Air force. And this amounts to appeasement.

They do not say, "Let's abandon our allies and let them sink." But they try to cut down our programs for making our allies strong enough to stand on their own feet and resist Communist aggression. And that amounts to appeasement.

They do not say, "Let the Soviet communism overrun and conquer any little country that can't preserve its freedom by its own efforts." But they do say, "Let Europeans fight Europeans"--"Let Asians fight Asians." They do say, "We ought to keep our Armed forces at home." And that amounts to appeasement.

Now, let's get this matter straight. Our firm policy is to make the free nations strong enough to defend themselves. But as the world is today, many of these countries simply cannot protect themselves against communism without the help of our Armed forces.

Either we let the Soviet empire gobble up these countries, or we send our forces in to aid in their defense, and fight if need be. The choice is that simple. It is a choice between resisting Communist aggression or appeasing it.

And the road of appeasement leads to bitter defeat. We all know that.

Now these isolationist policies have been thrashed over in public debate in this country, for some years past. The American people know them for what they are--either a foolish delusion or a cheap way of trying to get votes.

Now, toward the end of this campaign, the Republican candidate for President appears to have adopted them. Now he knows better. That is what makes me sad. He knows better. He has been a part of the program by which we have been holding these Communists back--and he knows better. He has worked to build up our national security here and abroad. He knows, or ought to know, the danger we face. In fact, he has told me what the danger we face is, time and time again. But he appears to be willing to undermine our safety if that will get him elected President.
Look at the positions he has taken.

He has urged that we cut our defense spending.
He has urged that we cut taxes.

He has sneered at our specific programs of military and economic aid to Europe.

And now, in recent days, he is apparently suggesting that we pull our troops out of Korea and let the South Koreans do all the fighting.

Now I want to give you some facts about this last proposal.

I have never seen anything cheaper in politics. We cannot do what he suggests-without appeasing communism in Korea-and he knows it.

Of course, every one of us would like to be able to bring the boys back home. Nothing weighs more heavily on our minds and hearts than the sacrifices and the casualties our forces are suffering there. If I could order them home without endangering our country, without imperiling our homes, I assure you, I would do it. But it cannot be done. And I cannot do it. And neither can the Republican candidate for President--and he knows it.

Now the Republican candidate for President is talking as if he had a new idea in the training of South Koreans to do the fighting in Korea. This, my friends, is just a shameless pretence.

He knows that one of the major features of our policy in Korea--and one of the major achievements of our Armed forces there during the last 18 months--has been the creation and training of a strong Korean ground army.

This is one of the greatest benefits we have obtained during the lull in fighting that resulted from the truce talks--the truce talks which the Republican candidate has cheaply and falsely called a "bear trap."

The United States is now supporting the Republic of Korea military forces totaling approximately 400,000 men. Our training schools are turning out 14,000 South Korean soldiers each month. There are 50 percent more Korean troops in the battle lines today than there are Americans. But the kept press in this country has never told you that.

The creation of these large and capable forces is the result of our intensive training program. This program is going ahead as fast as General Mark Clark and General Van fleet can make it go.

It takes a long time to make good officers. It takes a good while to train men to handle modern weapons and to service them. But we are making excellent progress.

The Koreans want to defend their own country. They have shown that they are capable of fighting bravely and well. Anybody who has read the newspaper headlines the last few days--instead of the speeches of the Republican candidate--has seen how the South Koreans have met and turned back a new Communist offensive. But we have to give them more than rifles and uniforms if they are to win victories. It is sheer demagoguery to assert otherwise.

Today, the South Koreans are facing not only the North Koreans but the Chinese Communist armies. And behind those Communist armies are the vast supplies, weapons of war, and skilled technicians of the Soviet Union itself. If we mean to hold Korea, if we mean to hold the line there against international aggression, there must be no loose talk now about pulling our soldiers out.

As a result of the training of the South Koreans, we have been able to give our men less duty at the front, and to carry out a rotation policy for our soldiers. Ultimately, it is our objective to have a Korean Republic completely able to defend itself. But this will not be possible so long as the offensive power of the Communist conspiracy is concentrated on South Korea.

Now these, my friends, are hard military facts, and, of all people, the Republican candidate for President ought to know them. Yet, in speech after speech, he leaves the impression that if he is elected he will majestically let the Koreans take over all the fighting, and bring our boys home. While he is on the back platform of his train, holding out this glowing hope, his staff are in the press car pointing out to the reporters that he has not said when he would be able to do this. And he knows very wall he can't do it, without surrendering Korea--until the present Korean conflict is at an end, and he knows it. But he doesn't mind leading people to think he can do it as soon as he is elected.

He said that he knows a remedy for Korea. Wall now, my friends, I made him Chief of Staff of the United States Army. I put him in command of the NATO troops in Europe. He has been my military adviser officially ever since World War II was over. And if he had information which would be valuable to me in helping to wind up the Korean business, he ought to give it to me and let's do it now, and save a lot of lives, and not wait--not do a lot of demagoguery and say that he can do it after he is elected. If he can do it after he is elected, we can do it now.

My friends, the great danger of these false promises--the great danger of all these isolationist attacks on our foreign policy--is that they give aid and comfort to the Communists.

The Communists want us to cut down our defense effort. They want us to pull out of Korea. They want us to go soft and take it easy. They are hoping that we will get tired of the effort we are making, that we will become impatient with our allies, that we will slow down the creation of a strong defense in Europe and give up in Asia.

That is their strategy for us. That is the Communist strategy for us. That is the real bear trap the Republicans are likely to lead us into.
The Soviet foreign Minister got off the boat in New York a few days ago--listen to this carefully, now, this is the Soviet foreign Minister--he was asked whether he agreed with the proposal of the Republican candidate for President that we should withdraw our troops from Korea. He replied that he agreed with the proposal that the United States troops should be withdrawn from Korea. He said we should not have been there in the first place.

Naturally! That has long been the Communist line.

In the strains and stresses of our election year, there is danger we may make decisions which conform to the Soviet strategy for our destruction. That is why I say this is a most critical election.

The only sure defense of this country, the only sure path to peace, is the policy of firm resistance to communism which we have been following--a policy of avoiding another great war on the one hand and of avoiding appeasement on the other. This is a very hard and difficult path to follow, my friends. There are no shortcuts--no easy way--in the present situation to meet what we are faced with.

We have already achieved great gains through following this policy. We have already saved our civilization from a disaster that seemed almost inevitable a few years ago. But bear this in mind. We are still in danger. We cannot expect to win easily in this struggle against forces so menacing and so evil that they seem like the forces of Antichrist.

In this election, we should choose the man and the party who see our danger clearly, and face it with courage and determination. We should choose the candidate who is not afraid to talk about it frankly to all the people. And we should choose that candidate on the basis of what is best for this great Republic, the greatest in the history of the world.

The Presidency is the most powerful office that has ever existed in the history of the world. You must have a man in that office who has a level head, who is not a demagogue, who thinks of the people first, and who thinks of the welfare of this great country, who thinks of saving the free world from communism.

And if you think of these things as you should, and use your head in your own interests-and in the interests of this great Nation of ours, you will elect Adlai Stevenson President of the United States, and we will have 4 good years.

[9.] MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS (Rear platform, 2:42 p.m.)

I am very, very happy to be here. I am here today campaigning for a Democratic victory in November. Your city here, and Massachusetts, are very lucky people. You have a slate of candidates on the Democratic ticket here in Massachusetts that any State in the Union could be proud of. You have a candidate for Senator, the very able young man who has made a great record for himself in the Congress of the United States. He will make you a great Senator, and that is Jack Kennedy. Your candidate for Congress, John Carr, is a man who will do you credit in that great organization down in Washington that makes the laws that govern you.

And I don't need to say anything about your Governor, because you have had him as Governor--you know his ability, you know how he runs the office, you know that he is a public servant; and I hope you will reelect my friend Paul Dever.

We have on our national ticket two of the best qualified candidates any party ever offered to the voters; that is, Adlai Stevenson and John Sparkman. They are fine gentlemen. They are fine men with a great deal of experience in public service. They have made outstanding records in the Government and in politics. They have demonstrated that they understand and care about and work for the interests of the plain, every* day people of this country. These men you can trust all the way, because they let you know what they believe in, in every section of the United States; and they believe in the Democratic platform.

I have been traveling around the country now for 3 weeks, telling the people the facts and the truth about what is at stake for them in this election. I have explained that the Republican Old Guard who run that party are no friends of the plain, everyday people. The Old Guard leadership has fought against practically every good thing the New Deal and the fair Deal ever did for the people.

You read the Congressional Record in the Congress, as I have done--I read it every day--and you will know that I am right. The Old Guard Republicans voted against social security. They voted against minimum wage. They voted against housing. They voted against rent control. They voted against price control.

And what have they voted for? Well, I am going to tell you the few things they have voted for--and they weren't in your interests. They voted for Taft-Hartley. They put the loopholes in the tax bill for the rich, and price increases for big industry, and special favors for just about every special interest you can think of.

Now, you know, down in Washington there is the real estate lobby, there is the China lobby, there is the lobby for the National Association of Manufacturers, there is the lobby for the chamber of commerce. There is a lobby for every big interest in the country. And you know, the only lobbyist that the people of the United States have in Washington that looks after their interests is the President of the United States.

So if you are going to send a man down there for President who is also a lobbyist for these big interests, where are you going to be? There won't be anybody to look after your interests. So you had better be darn well careful how you go to the polls and vote this time.

Now, my friends, the Republicans of course don't want to talk about their record. They know they can't win if you remember how they have been voting, instead of how they have been promising. So they are trying to divert your attention from the facts by lots of ballyhoo and propaganda.

You know the Republican candidate for President said he was going to try to win by appealing to the emotions of the voters instead of to their reason. You may have heard how the Republicans organized the crowds that go out to cheer their candidate. I am told that they send 60 advance men ahead of them to work up these celebrations, and 2 of these men--and this is most interesting-have exclusive charge of the confetti concession.

Then there is the Republican appeal to the plain, everyday people. That is where they try to prove they are just like the rest of us.

Now, I want to read you a letter, a copy of which I have, and it shows how they work. This is a letter which was sent by a doctor down in Nashville, Tennessee, to a bunch of other doctors down there, and it reads as follows.

This is most interesting. This is in quotes--now here is the doctor's letter. It says, "Dear Doctor: I have been asked as a member of Senator Nixon's parade committee to ask a few of my friends to drive their cars in the Nixon parade on Saturday, September the 27th. We want to count on you to be there, or if you can't participate, have someone come in your place. In order to make the best impression on the general public, we are asking you to use a small car, if that is possible."

We Democrats sure have been tough on the Republicans when so many of them have to ride around in big cars, and don't have a small car for their parades.

Now I am afraid you will have to take the Democrats straight, whether they happen to have a big car, or a small car, or no car at all.

We believe in standing on our record--and we don't want to try to hide it.

I am sure you people are not going to give your vote to the big car Republican phonies. They are not your friends, and never have been. They won't look out for your interests, they won't protect your jobs, they don't know what it takes to keep this country prosperous and safe.

Now, what I want you to do, and why I am going up and down this country when I can sit in the White House and not do as much work as usual, and the only reason I am going up and down this country like I am--and I am carrying on the business of the Presidency just the same as if I were in the White House; the pouch follows me every day and goes back every day, and I have to transact all the business--is to try to convince you people that you have got a personal interest in this election.

This is one of the most important elections we have had since the Civil War. All I am trying to do is to get the everyday citizen who controls this country by his vote to consider the situation with which we are faced. I want you to study what is before the country. I want you to study the foreign affairs policy of this country. I want you to study the domestic program that has been carried out for the last 20 years by the New Deal and the fair Deal. I want you to think what is ahead. I want you yourselves to read the record. I want you to read the record of the Republicans in Congress, because that will be the policy, if the Republicans get control-and Taft will make that policy.

I want you to read the record of the Democrats in the Congress, and then on election day I want you to vote for your own interests-which is the interest of this great Republic. I want you to look out for the welfare of the greatest Republic in the history of the world. I want you to look out for the welfare of the free world. The whole free world depends upon the policies pursued by the President of the United States, because he is the most powerful executive in the world--the most powerful executive in the history of the world. And he has to have a heart, he has to have a head, and he has to think of the people first. And he has to think of the welfare of the free world--before he thinks of anything else--that we want to maintain it.

Now, study these things. I am only asking you to think. I am not asking you to do anything but think for your own interests. Think for the welfare of this Nation.

And if you do that, you will go to the polls on November the 4th and we will have Adlai Stevenson for President the next 4 years-and the country will be safe.