Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in New York

[1.] ALBANY, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 8:25 a.m.)

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, for that introduction, I appreciate it most highly. I am very glad to be in Albany this morning, and I want to say to you that this is the first real Democratic day we have had on this trip.

I am more than happy to have your Mayor, your Congressman William T. Byrne and State Senator Peter Dalesandro here on the platform with me. The Mayor of Baltimore has almost that same name, and I always have trouble saying it.

I understand that Peter Dalesandro owns the Congressional Medal of Honor for valor in combat against the enemies of the United States. I hung that medal around his neck at the White House about 2 years ago, and I told him at that time that I would much rather have that Medal of Honor than to be President, and I feel the same way about it today. That is the greatest honor that can come to any man. That means that he is willing, and has been willing, to do things outside the line of duty in the service of his country. Since I have been President of the United States, it has been my privilege to present that medal to more heroes than it has ever been presented to before. I have had some wonderful conversations with these men about their ideas and what they believe about the welfare of the world and their country. Every one of them is a solid citizen of the United States, and believes in what this Government stands for--and that is a wonderful thing.

I have been told that Albany is a very prosperous city. You know, the main issue in this campaign is simple. Are we going to keep on the high road to prosperity together, or are we going to let ourselves be bamboozled into another depression.

Here in New York State, the Republican Party has been forced to take a few steps along progressive lines, laid down by Alfred E. Smith, Herbert Lehman and Franklin D. Roosevelt. They had to go along whether they wanted to or not. But the Republican Party still stands for the old policies of taking care of the rich and letting the rest of us shift for ourselves.

The people of Albany know the difference between a Republican administration and a Democratic administration. You know it, because you have been voting for Democratic candidates in your city for a long, long time. I know that most of you will recall the difference in prosperity under the Republicans and the Democrats.

In 1946 under a Democratic administration, and before the Republicans killed our price control bill and brought on high prices, the total personal income of New York residents amounted to nearly $23 billion. In 1932 it amounted to $8 billion. You are getting three times as much income now in the State of New York as you did under the Republicans.

Do you want to go back to that situation? All right then, you had better vote the Democratic ticket!

The total national income is now $217 billion. Sixty-one million people have jobs-more people at work than ever before in the history of the country.

The farmers are more prosperous, the businessmen are more prosperous. Why in the world do you want to upset the apple cart now and throw the administration out that brought on this situation ?

The total national income of $217 billion is the greatest in the history of all the world, and that income is distributed on a fair basis, everybody gets his fair share of that income. It is not a special privilege distribution. That is the reason the Republicans don't like it.

We also believe in making investments for peace. The Democratic Party has taken the lead in working to create conditions of peace throughout the world. The first requirements of peace are sound and prosperous free nations all over the world. We are rebuilding war-torn countries, and strengthening the free nations against communism by such programs as the policy in Greece and Turkey, the Marshall plan, and the extension of the Reciprocal Trade Agreements. The Republicans at this last session tried to hamstring the Reciprocal Trade Agreements. That is just the first step back to isolationism. They haven't changed a bit in their policies, and you cannot afford to take a chance on this situation now.

We are faced with the greatest campaign so far as the people are concerned, in the history of this country for a long, long time. This is merely a campaign in the interests of the people against the special interests--and that is your interest.

I am not asking you to vote for me, particularly, on election day. I am asking you to go out and vote for yourselves. Vote for the interests of the United States. Vote for the interests of the people of the United States. And when you do that you will just walk into that booth early in the morning of November 2d, and vote a straight Democratic ticket, and then you will be safe and sound.

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate your willingness to turn out at this time of day on a morning like this. It shows that you are really interested in the welfare of this country. Keep it up, now, until November 2d.

[2.] SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK (10 a.m.)

Thank you very much. I appreciate this welcome more than I can tell you. I appreciate the high compliment that your good Mayor has paid to me, and I hope that I can live up to it for the next 4 years. I think I Can.

You know, I have been going up and down these United States of America, meeting people, talking to people, and telling the people just what the issues are in this campaign, and telling them in very plain language just where I stand on those issues. I think you are entitled to know what those issues are. This is one of the most important campaigns in the history of the country. You are going to make a decision on election day as to whether you want your Government operated for special privilege or whether you want it operated in the interests of the people, as it has been for the last 16 years. I base those statements on facts which have taken place as a result of two-thirds of you staying at home in 1946 and electing this awful Both Congress which has tried its best to give the country back to the special interests. If I had not been standing there with the veto, they would have succeeded in it.

One of the first things they did was to pass a law putting a halter on labor. Then they passed that awful Taft-Hartley bill which takes some of the liberties away from labor-it's a step in the direction in which they want to go.

You see, when the Democrats got control of the Government in 1933, one of the first things that they did was to pass a bill of rights for labor, known as the Wagner Labor Act--Senator Wagner of New York sponsored that bill. That bill has been in effect for 16 years, and it has made the workingman prosperous. When that bill went into effect, there were 3 million members of labor unions. Today there are nearly 17 million men in labor unions that are working for the benefit of the country.

The next thing that they attempted to do was to put the farmers out of business. Now, the farmer's interests and the laboringman's interests and the small businessman's interests are all the same. When farmers and laborers are prosperous, the country is prosperous. In 1932 we had 15 million people walking the streets trying to find someplace to work. We now have 61 million people at work, and any man who wants a job can have it, and his rights are protected under the laws put on the books by the Democratic administration during the last 16 years.

I understand you have a very fine college here in this town, and that you have got a very able professor running for Congress. I want to say a word or two to you about the educational situation in this country.

The educational plant in this country has become, to some extent, obsolete, because there are so many more people interested in education now than ever before in the history of the country. Young people have found out that there is one thing that cannot be taken away from them and that is the brains they have in their heads. If they organize those brains and educate them as they should, their outlook on life is much better for the country and for themselves.

Well now, the educational plant of the country and the pay of teachers is below what it ought to be for a country as rich and prosperous as we are. But we inaugurated the Federal aid to education bill, and that bill passed the Senate but the Republicans killed it in the House. They don't want Federal aid to education. I am anxious to see that educational bill become the law, so that every young man and young woman in this country who wants it may have an education that will fit him for his future in life.

That is the best safeguard there is against communism. When you have an educated people, communism hasn't a chance in the world.

So, let's go to work, and get that educational bill. Let's protect the farmer, let's protect the laboringman, and in order to do that you must get yourselves registered now and get on the books. You have got today and tomorrow to do that in this part of New York. Get on the books because if you are not you cannot vote.

I don't want to see the electorate stay at home this time. Your responsibility is the Government of the United States, and if you exercise that responsibility you are bound to have good government.

I can't begin to tell you how very much I appreciate this turnout in this great city. I have been here on several occasions, inspecting plants during the war when I was chairman of the committee to examine the national defense program. I always had a welcome here. Way back in 1935 when I first went to the Senate, I came here to Schenectady and made a farm speech. That farm speech is just as good today as the day I made it. If the farmers look after their own interests, they will still be for the man who made that speech here in Schenectady in 1935.

I could stand here and discuss with you the issues in this campaign from now until noon, but I haven't got time and there are several things I have not mentioned, but I want you to get your book out and study these issues and then make up your mind in your own interest.

When you go to the polls, you are not voting for me. When you vote the Democratic ticket, you are voting for yourselves-you are voting for your own best interests. Just think that one over.

If you do that--there are a lot of things I could have talked to you about--if you do that, I won't be troubled with the housing shortage, I will stay in the White House for another 4 years.

[3.] AMSTERDAM, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 10:30 a.m.)

Ladies and gentlemen:

You know, I certainly do highly appreciate this turnout. I thank Mayor Carter most sincerely for that fine introduction, and I hope he is a good prophet, that I will be the next President of the United States--and I think he is right.

This is a very happy day for me to be in your city of Amsterdam. During the war, it was my business as chairman of the special Senate committee investigating the defense program to become somewhat familiar with your factories here in this city. You made a great contribution to the war effort. You turned your factories over from warwork to peace work and you did it expeditiously. I want to express my appreciation as President of the United States for the contribution that you made.

Now, this campaign that I am making up and down the country is a campaign in the interests of the people. This is a campaign in which I am trying to explain to you that it is your own interest that you vote for on November 2d. It is not necessarily me you are electing President, you are voting for your own interests--for this campaign is a campaign of the people against the special interests. The Republican Congress conclusively proved that, as soon as they got control.

What was the first thing they did when they got control of the Congress of the United States? They immediately began to tear up labor's bill of rights. The first thing they did was to try and amend the Wagner Labor Act so it would no longer work in the interests of labor, but would work in the interests of special privilege.

I vetoed that, and I hope every one of you will read that veto message, because it strikes at the fundamental foundation of the Democratic plan to make the Government for all the people.

The next thing they did was to try to tear up the farm program. They tried to leave the farmer out on a limb so he could no longer have a floor under his prices, and they are trying to tell the people that that floor under prices to the farmers is causing the high cost of living. That is not true. You cannot tell how much the price support program has been worth to this great country of ours, because the farmer was willing to go out and raise tremendous crops that have been necessary to feed the world and to keep enough in this country so that prices would not go sky high.

If these people had been willing to give me the necessary controls for allocation of these things, everybody would have had his fair share, and prices would not have been out of sight.

I want you to weigh these things. I want you to consider very carefully the record of the Congressman in this district, then I think you will want to vote for Professor Murphy for Congressman from this district, who knows what these issues are and has been trying to tell you what they are.

The best interests are the people's interests-in voting for a government that is of the people and for the people.

Now, you are the Government. You are yourselves the Government, when you exercise your rights to vote. When you do not exercise that right to vote, you are shirking your duty.

In 1946 two-thirds of the people of the United States who were entitled to vote stayed away from the polls--and look what they received as a result of that! They got a Congress that immediately began working for special privilege. There were more lobbyists and more higher paid lobbyists around this 80th Congress than ever before in the history of the country. And those lobbyists got just what they wanted. The real estate lobby kept the housing bill from going through. The big corporation lobbyists got the Taft-Hartley bill through. Mr. Taft said that he wrote that bill for the benefit of employers. I don't think that is anything to brag about.

I want you to study all the things for special privilege that would have gone through if I had not been standing there in the interests of the people with the veto. Why, I vetoed more bills than any other President since Grover Cleveland, and I am proud of that record because I was working in the interests of the everyday man in this country.

Now, let me give you just a good piece of advice. I understand that today and tomorrow are the last days for registration. I want to get every voter who is entitled to the privilege on the books, then I want him on the 2d of November to get up very early in the morning to go to the polls and vote the Democratic ticket straight--then the country will be safe for another 4 years and I won't have a housing problem myself.

[4.] LITTLE FALLS, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 11:25 a.m.)

Thank you. Thank you very, very much. You know, it is very, very encouraging when people are willing to come out on a morning like this to get information on what the issues are in this political campaign. In nearly every place we have been this morning, the weather has been just like this, yet it looks as if everybody in the surrounding territory had come out to look at their President, to see what he looks like, and hear what he has to say. That is most encouraging.

You know, this is quite a community. I was in the Senate for about 10 years. A long time ago, you used to make a lot of good cheese here. The Senator from Wisconsin-his name was Ryan Duffy--brought a cheese down to the Senate that was about that high, and about as big around as a wagon wheel--weighed 300 pounds; and the Senator from New York who at that time was Dr. Royal Copeland, said he knew a place in New York where he could get a better cheese and that he would get it on his next trip back--and he did. But you make other things here now. Naturally, the world moves along.

That is what I am trying to get over to you in this campaign. We don't want to turn the clock back, and go back--go back. We want to go forward--go forward. But you can't go forward when you have a legislative body that is made up of a lot of pull-backs as that Both Congress is.

Please don't send another Congress to Washington like that, because if you do, you will get just what you deserve. You know, some two-thirds of the people of the United States stayed away from the polls on election day in 1946, and they sent that Congress there by a one-third vote of the United States. That Congress immediately began to turn the clock back. You can't turn the clock back. In the 1920's, we tried our best to turn the clock back, and go back into our shells, go back to 1908. It didn't work.

Now we are faced with another situation where it is necessary to have that clock move forward and in order to have that clock move forward you must have people in charge of the Government who have a forward-looking outlook.

Just as soon as this 80th Congress got to Washington, it began to tear up the labor laws, it tried to tie the hands of labor again so they could not collectively bargain effectively with industry. The Wagner Act, as you know, was named after Senator Wagner of New York which gave labor its bill of rights. That bill of rights has been successful over this 10-year period.

In 1932 there were just about 3 million men who were organized. There are 17 million now. In 1932 there were some 12 to 15 million people who didn't have any jobs. There isn't anybody now that hasn't a job if he wants it. There are 61,200,000 people at work in this country--the greatest labor force in the history of the world; and that doesn't include the military, or anything like that, that means people who are working productively for the welfare of this country.

Now, I want to keep that going. I want to keep the clock running forward, I don't want to turn it back.

This Both Congress was not satisfied with trying to cut the throat of labor, it went to work on the farmer. The farmers were in an awful fix in 1932. One hundred and twenty-three thousand of them were kicked off their farms because they couldn't pay the interest on the mortgages. Do you know how many farmers lost their farms last year for that reason? Less than 800. The farmers' income at that time, in 1932, was $4,500 million. You know what it was last year? It was $18 billion.

The income of the whole Nation in 1947 was $217 billion--the greatest income any country ever had in the history of the world; and that income has been reasonably distributed. That income has been distributed so that labor had its fair share, so that the farmer had his fair share, so that small business had its fair share, and so that big business had its fair share--but it wants more than its fair share now.

You know, the profits of big business in 1939 were about $5 billion--they were $8 billion in 1943--they were $17 billion in 1947, and they are going to run over 20 billions now. They will try to run that up at the expense of the farmers and the laboring people. They will use a Congress like the 80th Congress to do that. You can't afford to let that happen to you.

When you go to the polls on the second of November, you ought to elect this good man who is running on the Democratic ticket here in your district because he will go along with me for the next 4 years and work for the people.

Vote for yourselves on election day--that's all you need to do. You not only vote for me but you vote for yourselves. Don't forget that now.

Get yourselves registered in these last 2 days and then go out on election day and vote for your own interests. When you do that, you will vote the Democratic ticket straight.

Thank you very much.

[5.] UTICA, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 12:10 p.m.)

Mr. Mayor, and fellow Democrats of Utica:

This is certainly heartening and encouraging, when the citizens of this great country are interested enough in the views of the president of the United States, to turn out at this time of day and on a day like this-although this is Democratic weather.

I have been most agreeably surprised and heartened at the way the people have turned out since I started to tour the United States and instruct them on just what the issues are in this campaign. They are very grave issues, and you must study them very carefully--and then I want to urge you to vote in your own interest. If you know what your interests are, and if you know what the issues are, you can't help but do just one thing on election day, and that is to vote for yourselves--and if you do that, you will vote the Democratic ticket.

Over the last 15 to 16 years, the Democratic Party has been in control of the Government, and we took some very forward-looking steps while we had control of the Congress. We passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, better known as the Wagner Labor Relations Act. That act was labor's Magna Carta, that act gave labor certain rights and privileges. Then, in addition to that, we abolished child labor--we put a floor under wages--we passed the farm program which has caused the farmers to become more prosperous than they ever were in the history of the world.

We so arranged things and passed laws to prevent monopolies from taking over the entire business of the country. Well now, in 1946, about one-third of the people exercised that privilege to vote. You are a shirker when you don't exercise your voting privilege, because you are the Government. When you exercise that voting privilege, you run the Government. When you don't exercise it, you get just what you got in 1946 you got this backward-looking Congress, the 80th Congress, which has been going to turn the clock back ever since they met in January 1947.

The very first thing they did was to hogtie labor by passing the Taft-Hartley Act which I vetoed. I wish you would read that veto message, you would find out just exact!y--I haven't the time to tell you-exactly what that Taft-Hartley Act did to labor's rights.

Now, under the Republicans, up to 1932, we had about 3 million people organized. Under the policies pursued by the Democratic administration, there are some 16 million people organized. At that time, in 1932, there were about 12 to 15 million men who weren't working at all, and when the Democrats came in, we began to put measures into effect which abolished that idleness of labor. Now there are 61 million people at work in this country and any man who wants a job can get one now at reasonably fair pay. There were only 3 million people in 1932--12 to 15 million walking the streets, trying to get a job.

Now, the income of the man who worked in 1932 was less than a third of what it is now. People who work are receiving somewhere in the neighborhood of $134 billion in income. It was less than 31 billions in 1932.

The farmers in 1932 received about 4 1/2 billions in income. Now they are receiving 18 billion, and they are not afraid that they are going to get kicked off their farms the next day. There have been fewer farm foreclosures in 1947 than ever before in the history of the country.

There are fewer people now out of work than ever before in the history of the country, and your lifetime savings are guaranteed. We haven't had a bank failure in this country in 3 years. Back in 1932, you were afraid to go into a bank for fear it would blow up in your face. That doesn't happen any more.

Now, I want you to weigh all these things and consider that the Republican policies haven't changed one little bit. They immediately began to show what they thought as soon as they went in there. They began to want to turn the clock back. You can't turn the clock back. We have got to go forward with progress, or we have got to go backward into the ditch.

Now, it is to your interests to study all these issues, and I know you are interested in them or you wouldn't be out here to listen to me this morning. Study those issues, and then as I said before, vote for yourselves-vote in your own interest.

When you do that you will send Jack Davies to Congress and you will send a whole Democratic Congress there for the next 4 years, and I won't have the trouble I have had in the last 2 years.

Why, I had to exercise my power of veto oftener than any other President of the United States except Grover Cleveland. I did that in the public interest. If somebody hadn't been standing there looking out for the interest of the people, you wouldn't have any by this time, for that good-for-nothing 80th Congress, I can tell you that.

Now, just you get on the books. I understand that today and tomorrow are the last days for registration in this great part of the State of New York. If you are not on the books, you haven't any right to quarrel with the Government if you don't vote. It is your fault if the Government goes wrong and you stayed at home on election day.

Now, get out there first thing on election morning and be sure you're right by just voting the Democratic ticket straight--the country will be safe for another 4 years, and I won't have any housing problem.

[6.] ROME, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 12:43 p.m.)

Thank you very much. Thank you very much.

I was discussing where we were awhile ago in this great State of New York and somebody said we would be in Rome in 20 minutes, and I said, "That's mighty quick-to be in Rome in 20 minutes." And he said, "Oh, I mean Rome, N.Y." But I want to say to you that we are living in an age where that would not be beyond the bounds of possibility for the simple reason that we have gone forward at a terrific rate in the last decade, and in the last 30 years so much that you cannot recognize the same country when you go into it.

I was out in Iowa at the beginning of this tour I have been taking around the United States, and they were having a plowing contest, and there were 100,000 farmers at that meeting. And I asked them if there was any possibility of my having a chance to drive a four-mule team to a two-gang plow, and they said, "No, that's obsolete. You're living in a past age. We have no mules on the place. You'll have to go to Missouri to get one." I said, "All right, I'm not one to turn the clock back." I wouldn't attempt to do that because when we try to turn the clock back we never profit by that procedure.

And from 1933 until the present day we have been turning the clock forward. We have been doing things for the welfare of the people as a whole. We gave labor a bill of rights. We gave the farmer a farm program which has made him more prosperous than he has ever been in his history. We so arranged things that the distribution of the income of this country is on a fair basis for everybody. Now, I want to keep that condition going forward.

But in 1946 a great many of the voters of this great country, and one-third of the people entitled to vote, elected a Congress that wants to turn the clock back. The first thing that 80th Congress did when it got in was to try to put a halter on labor. They wanted to repeal labor's bill of rights, the Fair Labor Standards Act--or the Wagner Act, as it is commonly known. The first thing they did was to pass the Taft-Hartley Act just as quickly as they could get to it, and they said they passed it so as to put labor in its place. Now, I think labor is in its place when labor is prosperous, along with industry and along with the farmers.

There were only 3 million people in labor organizations in 1932. There are about 16 million in those organizations now and they are getting about three times the pay they did in that day. The farmer is getting more income this year than he ever got in his history. They only received about 4½ billion in 1932. Last year they had 18 billion-and they weren't expecting to be sold out every minute either.

You know, there were 123,000 farmers taken off their farms in 1932. There were less than 800 in last year. The farm debt has been reduced. Labor is in a better condition than it has ever been in the history of the country. There are 61 million people at work in this country. Nearly anybody who wants a job can get one in this day and age. There were some 12 or 15 million people walking the streets back in 1932, wondering where the next breadcrumb was going to come from, that they could live on.

The Republicans, I think, would like to take you back to that condition, and I don't want to do it, and if you have your own interests at heart, you won't let them do it. You'll turn out on election day and you'll see that there is a Democratic administration returned to office to continue forward and not turn the clock back. That's in your own personal interest.

I have been most happily and agreeably surprised in coming across this great State of New York this morning. I thought that with the weather in the condition it is nobody would be interested in hearing what the President had to say about the issues. But I am here to tell you that the turnouts this morning have been equal to any on this trip. People are interested in the welfare of this country. They want to know what the issues are, and I'm sure they are going to use their God-given intelligence in their own interests.

When you vote on election day you are voting for yourselves if you do your duty, because you are the Government; and if you vote the Democratic ticket you will do yourselves just as much good as you will me-and if you do that I'll still stay in the White House for another 4 years and won't have to go out house hunting, and that will be a very fine thing.

I want to thank you very much for this wonderful turnout. It is a compliment to the President, and I appreciate it. I want to thank our Legion friends over here for coming out here this morning. I am going to go down to Miami on the 17th and see the whole gang. I have been going to Legion Conventions for the last--well, I hate to say how long--30 years, I guess.

[7.] ONEIDA, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 1:10 p.m.)

Thank you, Mr. Abbott. It certainly is exhilarating and uplifting to see the people come out because they are interested in the welfare of this great Nation of ours. I don't think you would come out here on a day like this to listen to the President unless you were interested in the welfare of the country and interested in what is happening to the country.

I have been going all over the United States, from one end to the other--east and west and north and south--telling the people just exactly what the issues are in this campaign.

There is one big issue--and that issue is the people against special interests. That issue can be met if you people do your duty on election day. And you can do your duty very easily if you get yourself registered and on the books in these 2 days that are set aside for that purpose, and then get up early in the morning on election day and go down to the polls and just vote a straight Democratic ticket. Then you will be voting in your own interest.

There are a great many issues in this campaign. I wish I were in a position and had time to discuss all of them with you, but it would take all afternoon if f would start in to tell you just exactly what happens when forward-looking people are in charge of the Government and what happens when backward-looking people are in charge of the Government.

Your Government is the government of the people. You are the Government if you exercise the privilege that the Constitution gives you. But if you do like you did in 1946 and are too indifferent to get out and vote on election day and one-third of the backward-looking people elect a Congress that tries to turn the clock back, you have nobody to blame but yourself for the conditions that we are now faced with. I want all of you to vote this time, and then I know that the country will be in safe hands, because when the people are aroused and when the people know what the issues are we have never had any difficulty making this Government run in the interests of the people, for the people, and by the people. I am going all up and down this country telling you that your interests and my interests and the interests of all the people are at stake in this campaign.

Now, this Republican Congress--this 80th Congress, this backward-looking Congress-made an attempt to turn the clock back. And if you hadn't had an advocate in the White House looking after your interests, who was perfectly willing to use the veto power which the Constitution gives him, then there is no telling what would have happened in the last 2 years.

They tried to put a halter on labor. They tried to undermine the farm program, and they have tried with everything at their command to turn the country over to the special interests. I hope you won't let that happen, really. I hope you, here in this great progressive community, will study these issues. I hope you will carefully fill your minds with the facts. Then I don't have to fear what the result will be.

You know, what pleases me most at these meetings is to see so many young people, young men and young women, out here listening and gauging the situation. That's a healthy sign because this country is going to be in your hands in the next generation, and if you are well informed I will be perfectly willing to turn it over to you because I know you'll go forward and not back.

We can't go backwards. We tried it in 1920. This Republican Congress tried it again in 1947, but it didn't work because they couldn't carry out their program. They tried their level best.

I hope you will profit by that example. And remember, if you want to go forward with forward-looking people, you'll go to the polls on election day and vote a straight Democratic ticket.

[8.] SYRACUSE, NEW YORK (1:50 p.m.)

Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chairman, and fellow Democrats of Syracuse, New York:

If you will bear with me, I will try not to keep you in this rain but a few minutes. I appreciate most highly your willingness to come out here and stand in this downpour in order to see and hear your President, but I will be as quick and as fast as I can in getting this thing over, but I want you to listen to me for just a little while.

I am glad to be in this great industrial city which is surrounded on all sides by wonderfully prosperous farm country. I know that the farmers around here and the city people here in Syracuse are pulling together as a team to provide this country with the greatest prosperity it has ever known.

The Democratic Party believes in that kind of teamwork--in that kind of unity. I want to see farmers and workers prosper side by side. There are some Republicans, however, who talk unity out of one side of their mouth, then do their best to set the people in the cities against the people on the farms. That is one of the things they are trying to do in this campaign. You must listen to the facts and not allow that to happen, because your interests are mutual. Whatever makes the farmer prosperous makes you prosper. What makes the everyday man prosperous makes the farmer prosper. It is mutual.

They are telling the city people that we have high prices because the farmer is getting too much for his crop and then they go out and tell the farmers that prices are high because workers are getting too much money in wages.

That is not the truth. It is a very peculiar brand of unity. It is not my brand.

I believe that the farmers can be prosperous only when workers in the cities are getting good wages, and I believe that you people in the cities will be prosperous only when the people out on the farms have enough money to buy what you have to sell.

I wish I could talk to you about all the issues in this campaign. I have been on a crusade, going around the country, telling the people just exactly what the Democratic Party stands for, and where I stand.

I would like you to get the Republicans to tell you where they stand on that subject. You just can't find out where the Republicans stand, for they won't tell you. They just talk in platitudes and not in facts.

I do not have time to talk about all the issues, but there is one I want to discuss here in this city which is famous for its great educational institutions--Syracuse University and LeMoyne College.

I might say right here that I am exceedingly happy to see so many of you young people out here from these schools for the simple reason that that shows you are interested in your Government and in the welfare of this country. If you will inform yourselves, you will make better future citizens, and you can also do something for your country by preventing it from going backward.

Now, the issue I want to discuss with you today is the issue of Federal aid to education. Schools all over the country are terribly crowded. There is a shortage of teachers. Teachers are so badly underpaid in many places that they are having to leave school and get other jobs. I consider that a tragedy; for the future welfare of the country depends on the education that you young people get.

I believe that every American, regardless of race or creed, color or national origin, or whether he lives in a poor area or a rich area should be entitled to and should get an education.

I believe that the Federal Government should provide generous assistance to States to help them improve their educational systems. I have repeatedly asked the Congress to provide Federal aid to States. In my last budget, I asked for $300 million to be provided for that purpose. But the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives killed that bill. They saw to it that the Federal aid to education bill did not even come to a vote in the House. They wouldn't let the House vote on it, because the House would have passed it, I think.

What do you think would happen to our schools if the Republicans got complete control of the Government next January? Let me read you what the Democratic Party platform says on that subject. This is the Democratic platform: "We advocate Federal aid for education administered by and under control of the State. We vigorously support the authorization which was so shockingly ignored by the Republican 80th Congress for the appropriation of $300 million as a beginning of Federal aid to the States, to assist them in meeting the present educational needs. We insist upon the right of every American child to obtain a good education."

Now, now, I want you to listen to the Republican platform. Listen to this Republican platform and see if you get anything out of it: "We favor equality of educational opportunity, and the improvement of education and educational facilities."

That's all they say. They don't say much, or how to do it or how they will do it, or what they will do. They just make a lot of platitudes just like they have in their campaigns. The Republican Party ducked the issue. I do not see any hope of Federal aid to the State for education if the Republican Party gets control of the Government.

You know that the present Republican leadership of your great State of New York claims to have done wonders for your New York schools since 1942. They even said that State assistance for schools has been increased by 80 percent since 1942. I am afraid that is not quite an accurate statement. State aid to schools in New York last year represented an actual payment increase of only 28 percent over the year the present Governor took office. It seems to me there is a big difference between 80 percent and 28 percent. Educational experts have compiled figures which show that this great State of New York is now trailing in 37th place in the adjustment for pupil expenditures to the rising costs between 1940 and 1947.

Now, New York State shouldn't do that. If New York State had a forward-looking Governor, it wouldn't do that. New York State aid to schools, in proportion to local support, has actually dropped since 1940. The true facts are that even the State of New York under Republican rule has not provided additional funds for education sufficient to meet increased costs. When you see what has been happening in so prosperous a State as yours, I am sure you can understand why the Democratic Party believes that Federal aid to education is vitally necessary.

I wish I could talk to you about more of these issues which you are faced with in this campaign--about extending social security, raising minimum wages, providing a national health program, and our needs for comprehensive housing laws which would give us better housing at prices people can afford to pay.

I want you to study the record on each one of these issues. You will find that the Republican Party stands for those policies which would unify us under the rule of big business and special privilege. But the Democratic Party stands for 'progress--for programs which will unify our people in the interests of the whole Nation and the whole world.

Now, you have got one great privilege in this country, and that is the privilege of controlling your Government. The way to control your Government is to do your duty on election day and vote.

In 1946, just one-third of the voters in this country exercised that privilege--the greatest of all privileges--participating in that Government. They didn't vote, two-thirds of them didn't--and look what you got, you got this 80th Congress. You got just what you deserved because you didn't do your duty.

Now, don't do that this time. Get yourselves registered in the books, and on the 2d day of November get up early and go to the polls, vote the Democratic ticket straight, and the country will be in safe hands--and I won't have a housing shortage myself.

[9.] AUBURN, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 3:21 p.m.)

I understand that you need rain. I'm sincerely sorry that this shower could not have held off for another 5 minutes, and I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this courtesy which you have extended to me on a day like this. It's just simply wonderful, and I'll try to be as brief and as fast as I possibly can so you won't have to stand here and get wet.

I am making a crusade over the country in the interests of the common, everyday man. I am trying to win this election because I think it's in the public interest.

On my way to Auburn I noticed with a great deal of pleasure the soil conservation measures taken by the farmers of this great county. I'm always interested in farms because I'm a Missouri farmer myself. I understand that soil conservation plans have developed on more than 200 farms in this county totaling about 30,000 acres.

You have my sympathy. I'm glad I am not out there.

You know, the Republicans have opposed every law that has been in the public interest, and I'm sorry to say that your Congressman from this district has used a butcher knife and a sabre and a meat-axe on the appropriations that have been in the public interest both for the farmers, for rural electrification, and for every other forward-looking program that has come before the Congress. I saw a cartoon the other day called "The Sabre Dance," in which they showed a big man with a sabre cutting the heads off all the appropriation for the Interior Department and the Department of Agriculture. Well, I have a better name than that. I named it "The Taber Dance."

Now, this district will be given a choice in November. You can elect a man who doesn't care about the welfare of the people, or you can elect a man who does care about the welfare of the people, if you elect Francis J. Souhan, who will work for the benefit of the farmer and the worker alike.

I wish I could stand here on a clear, sunshiny day and discuss with you all the issues in this campaign, but obviously I can't do that because if I keep you standing here in this rain any longer you will be against anything I want, and I wouldn't blame you. But I understand that you need the rain worse than you need to listen to any Presidential speech.

It is awfully nice for you to come out here. I can't tell you how very much I appreciate it, and I hope you'll turn out just like this on election day and vote the Democratic ticket straight.

I appreciate all these Posts that have turned out in my honor today. I wish I could come down and shake hands with every one of them, but if I could get down there I couldn't get back up, and I might get wet myself and then I couldn't finish this program.

[At this point the President was presented with an honorary membership card from American Legion Posts and Veterans of Foreign Wars Posts in Auburn. He then resumed speaking.]

Well, thank you very much. I appreciate this very much. I've been a member of the Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars ever since 1919, 30 years. That's a long, long time. And I'm glad to have this honorary membership in the Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars here in Auburn, and I'll treasure it all the rest of my life; and I hope that sometime all of you will come and visit me at my Post No. 35 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, named after the 35th Division, and Post No. 21, Independence, Mo., of the American Legion.

[At this point the President was presented with an honorary membership card in the Italian American Veterans of Auburn. He then resumed speaking.]

Thank you very much. I appreciate that very highly. You know, we have been doing a great deal for the Italian people since this war ended. In fact, we have been spending a billion a year, this Government has, so that the Italians could recover. And you know, that is something new in the history of the world--when a victorious nation spends its time and its money and its effort to see that their former enemies get a fair deal in the world.

[10.] SENECA FALLS, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 4:06 p.m.)

Thank you very much. I certainly appreciate most highly this cordial reception which you have accorded to me as your President. I believe it indicates that you are vitally interested in the welfare of this great country of ours and that you are interested in knowing what the issues in this campaign are. I have been trying to tell the citizens of New York all day long, ever since we started out at Albany this morning, just what I think the issues are and how important I think it is that you become, yourself, familiar with those issues.

Now, I have heard of this city of Seneca Fails all my life. I heard that this is the town where they invented bloomers; and that this is the town, the first town, where the woman suffrage movement really got its kickoff to a successful conclusion, when the women got the vote. I think that is a great thing and I think that is a great thing for Seneca Fails, to be a starting point for a great movement like that. Now, I want you to be the starting point in New York for a great movement toward the Democratic Party. I think New York needs the Democratic Party and the principles of the Democratic Party.

You are in the center of a great farming community here, and the welfare of the farmer has been fundamental with the Democratic Party. In 1932 all the farmers in the country were going broke. They were losing their farms so fast that the courts really didn't have the time to act on them. One hundred and twenty-three thousand farmers were dispossessed in 1932. Now, last year there were less than 800 farmers who lost their farms because they couldn't pay the interest on their mortgages. And those mortgages have been reduced by more than 50 percent. The farmer's income has been increased from $4,500 million to $18 billion in 1947--and he will have a greater income this year because he has a bigger crop and is getting a fair price for it. The Republicans would like to tear that price support program down if they could, and they made every effort to do that in this Congress.

Now, there are a number of issues in this campaign that I would like to discuss with you, but I want to say just a word or two, in addition to what I have said about the farmer, about the servicemen.

The Democratic administration assured our servicemen and women as early as 1943 that they would not get the treatment that the veterans of World War I received from the Republican administration. The Veterans Bureau in the early 1920's was unfortunately used as an opportunity for grafters and shysters to get rich. Dishonesty in the Veterans Bureau in the 1920's cost the Government $200 million, and several officials went to jail. The head of the Veterans Bureau went to jail in the 1920's.

This time the story has been different. President Roosevelt and I have assured the veterans of their rights, and we have had outstanding men handling the largest administrative job in the world. The Veterans Bureau is the largest administrative job in this country.

The Democratic program for veterans is a 4-point program which has proved an outstanding success. Veterans received mustering-out pay and readjustment allowances to help fit them back into civilian life; and second, there has been an excellent medical care program for the wounded and the sick. Third, the veterans have received educational and vocational training so that they may be prepared for the best possible jobs-and you know, we had a terrible time getting that educational program implemented. The heads of colleges in this country decided that the veteran wouldn't be a good student, that he would be a nuisance, that he would cause them trouble because in a lot of cases he was married and he would have to have his family at school with him. But that has been entirely disproven. The best students at our universities right now are those veterans who are profiting by that educational program instituted by the Democratic Party. And of course, veterans receive financial help for establishing homes, launching businesses, and beginning new careers.

That is the kind of program that the Democratic Party believes in--one that will help the people of this country. We do not believe that the Government exists just to serve one class--big business. We think every segment of the population ought to have equal service from their Government. And it is your Government. It will be your Government if you exercise the privilege of voting, as you should. You didn't do that in 1946. You stayed at home. Two-thirds of you stayed at home, and you elected a Congress that has been trying to turn the clock back ever since January 3, 1947. And if you hadn't had a President in the White House who was looking after the interests of the people, and who exercised his veto powers to the limit, there is no telling what would have happened in this Congress. They had more lobbyists there than there ever have been in Washington in the history of the country, and that Congress obeyed the button pressure that those lobbies put upon them.

I want you to profit by that experience. I want you to study these issues, and I don't want you to stay at home this time. Let's all three-thirds of you go to the polls this time and exercise the privilege that you have of running your Government.

Study these issues. If you study the issues you will go to the polls and vote for yourself, and when you vote for yourself you will elect a Congress that is the exact opposite of this Both Congress--and you'll leave me in the White House for another 4 years, and I myself won't be troubled with the housing problem then.

[11.] GENEVA, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 4:45 p.m.)

Mr. Chairman:

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this wonderful turnout here in this great city of Geneva. I have been here many a time, and I like the place. They have some wonderful scenery around here, with some wonderful farms, but you have other things here that are important to the welfare of this great Nation.

The people around here, at this time, are all apparently very well off, and a lot of them seem not to be interested in the election this year. You know, that is usually the case when people become prosperous--they think the country will go along, anyway, without their taking any interest in things. But that is not the case, that is what you did in 1946--and look what you got. You got the 80th Republican "do-nothing" Congress, because you stayed at home and didn't vote.

Now, I am on a crusade through this country to wake the people up and make them see what they have at stake in this election. You have everything at stake in this election. Your own welfare is at stake, and if you let it go by default, there won't be anybody to blame but yourself, because when you exercise your right to vote you control your Government. That makes you the Government. When you don't exercise your right to vote, a minority controls the Government, and you can expect things that are in the interests of the minority. And that is what happened in 1946.

The newspapers and the million dollar propagandists misrepresent the President. They are trying to keep you from knowing the issues in this campaign. They are trying to tell you that I don't know what I am talking about, but I am going to prove to you before I get through with this campaign that I do know what I am talking about. I think the majority of the people will know it, too, when I get through in spite of all the propaganda they can put out. That is why I have come to see you. That is why I am trying to give you a chance to know the truth. I want you to analyze these issues and then make up your own mind. I am throwing some light on the fog of Republican propaganda.

In spite of the bad weather today we have had the finest turnouts that I have ever seen anywhere, and I appreciate it. It shows you are interested, or you wouldn't come out in weather like this to hear anybody at all. You are interested in the welfare of this country or you wouldn't be here today. And that is what pleases me to death, because if you get interested you can't help but do the right thing for your own interests.

The Republican leaders like to keep you in the dark. Democratic administrations believe in bringing light to the people.

A good example, take this Rural Electrification Administration. You have electric lines financed by REA, in operation right here in your own county. You know that REA means light for farmers, that 93 percent of the farmers of New York now have electricity. Less than one-third of the farmers had electricity in 1935.

Who created the Rural Electrification Administration? A Democratic Congress acting on the recommendation of Franklin Roosevelt.

Now, who fought the REA, who fought the efforts of the REA cooperatives to give you back those areas that private power companies would not serve? It was the power lobby, and they fought that rural electrification through the Republican Party.

Let me give you some facts and figures about REA in this great State. REA has approved loans totaling nearly $5 million in New York to borrowers, for construction of more than 4,000 miles of line.

If you want that kind of government, the kind of government that developed REA and all these other forward-looking things that have taken place in the last 16 years, you can't help but go to the polls on election day and vote for yourselves.

If you vote for yourselves, you will vote the straight Democratic ticket, and that will leave me in the White House for another 4 years.

[12.] ROCHESTER, NEW YORK (6:40 p.m.)

Thank you very much. I am very glad to be with you this evening. I have been here before. I came here before with Burton K. Wheeler and tried to explain to the Chamber of Commerce of Rochester what the Transportation Act of 1940 stood for. I helped to write that act. But I don't think they ever did understand it. I don't know whether that was my fault or theirs.

I wish I could stay here and discuss all the issues of the campaign, but I know that's not possible.

I have been traveling all over the country, telling people the truth about this coming election, and the truth needs to be told. You see, there is a great propaganda machine in this country trying to tell you people something that isn't so about this election. Therefore, your President had to get out and exert himself to see that you do know 'the issues, and that is what I am doing now. What they are telling you is just as far from the truth as it can be. The men who pretend that there aren't any issues are trying to hide the truth from you. You don't want to let them do that. It is most important that you know the facts in this campaign.

The future prosperity of the country is at stake, and your future is at stake. This election will decide whether the Government is going to be run by the people themselves, or whether it is going to be run by the lobbies of the special interests, as they ran this good-for-nothing 80th Congress.

The whole country is prosperous after 16 years under the Democrats. That's because the Democratic policies have been designed to promote the welfare of all groups of citizens--factory workers, farmers, small businessmen, and white-collar workers. Now, everybody has had a fair share of the national income in this country under the Democrats. Last year, we had the greatest income in the history of any Nation in the history of the world--$217 billion--and every segment of the population, no matter what class, got his fair share of that income. That has never happened before. But there are people who believe that the Government should be run for special interests, and they had control of this 80th Congress I have been talking about.

Let me tell you all about some of the things that Congress did. Then I think you will understand what I mean when I talk about the danger to your future if a Republican administration is elected in this coming November. Then you will understand what I mean when I say that the Republican Party is the party of special privilege.

That Republican Congress refused to take action against high prices because high prices benefited most of their big business lobbies-and they told them what to do.

That Republican Congress refused to pass a health bill to provide for more hospitals, more doctors, more medical research, because there was a lobby there working on these fellows to keep that bill from passing.

The Republican Congress buried a bill to provide Federal aid to States in meeting their educational problems, because a few narrow-minded lobbies opposed that bill. And you know, I've got a notion in the back of my head that education is the most important thing in the life of our citizens. That's the reason I am so happy that at all these speeches I see college boys and young people out, because they are interested in the welfare of this country. You know, the best insurance against communism in this country is education. The Communists can't stand education.

Now, to go on a little further; this Republican Congress deprived a great many farmers of price supports in order that the grain speculators could make a killing. They couldn't come out, you know, and take price supports away publicly. But when they wrote a new charter for the Commodity Credit Corporation, they prevented the Commodity Credit Corporation from furnishing storage for grain on which they were making loans. And corn now in the Middle West is selling for 47 cents under the support price, and the speculators are getting the difference between that and the price way above the support price that corn is bringing on the farm market.

That Republican Congress crippled our electrical program for the benefit of the power lobby. You know, there are certain great developments in this country. The St. Lawrence Waterway is one of those great developments that I would like to see carried to its proper conclusion. But there are great developments all over this country which furnish public power to municipalities at the cost at the dam by having power lines to take that power to those municipalities. This Republican Congress cut all the appropriations to build those power lines. They did that because the power lobby was working on that.

My veto stopped the Republican Congress from passing the tidelands oil bill for the benefit of the oil lobby. You know, there has been a great deal of talk about these tidelands. You know what the tidelands are? Tidelands are the lands from high tide to low tide, and nobody has ever made the contention that the tidelands did not belong to the States--that is, from high tide to low tide. But the people of the United States own the resources under the land outside that low tide, and it ought to go to all the people and not to a few oil millionaires. That's what I'm fighting for. Now, this Republican Congress passed a rich man's tax bill over my veto. I vetoed that bill three times. It was a terrible bill when it first came to me and it was a terrible bill the last time it came to me, but it wasn't quite as bad then as it was the first two times I vetoed it. They passed that bill for the benefit of the rich. Fellows making $100,000 a year saved $16,000 on that rich man's tax bill; and the fellow making $60 a week saved $1.50 a week--and that $1.50 a week went for high prices which they wouldn't help me control.

That Republican Congress took away, over my veto, social security benefits for a million people. And they said, in their platform of 1944, that they wanted to spread social security. That's just like the platform they wrote in Philadelphia--that hypocritical platform that I gave them a chance to carry out in that special session, which they didn't do.

I have told you now what they have done to the taxpayer and what they have done to the farmer. The next crack they took was at labor.

You see, we passed a labor act in 1935 known as the Magna Carta of labor. That's the Fair Labor Standards Act, better known as the Wagner Labor Act. Well, you know what they did. They passed the Taft-Hartley law which put a halter on labor, which tied labor up. Mr. Taft himself said he did everything that the employers wanted.

Now, that Wagner Act has helped to create the prosperity in this country, just as the Farm Support Act helped to create prosperity among the farmers. In 1932 there were 3 million people who were organized. Last year there were 16 million people who were organized, and they were getting three times the pay they got in 1932--and if you remember, there were 12 million people walking in the streets trying to get jobs, and they couldn't get them. Now we have got 61 million people at work, and nobody has to do without a job. If he wants to work, he can get it.

Now, that's a condition that never has been in this country before, to my memory, and it happened under a Democratic administration.

Well, I told you part of the record of that 80th Congress. I wish I had time to stand here all night and tell you all about it. It would take me all night to do it. They didn't do a thing in your favor--I can tell you that.

Now, it is your duty to go to the polls in November and elect a Congress that will be genuinely interested in legislation for the welfare of the country as a whole, and not for just a few people. Legislation ought to be for the whole people--the whole 145 million of you--and not for just a few fellows who want to exploit the rest of you. That is the sort of thing you'll get if you stay at home, as you did in 1946. Right here in this town you stayed at home in 1946, and if you hadn't stayed at home, you might still have Rogers in Congress and have some representation that will work for your benefit.

I have the figures here, and I'm going to assure you that I know exactly what I was talking about w-hen I said that two-thirds of the people stayed away from the polls. These are the figures: In 1944, this town cast 90,000 votes--this town cast 93,369 votes for the Democrats and 88,762 for the Republicans. In 1946, because you were fat and lazy and didn't think it would make any difference, 55,531 Democrats voted and 84,862 Republicans voted. Now, there were 4,000 fewer Republicans who voted in 1946 than voted in 1944, but there were 45,000 Democrats who didn't vote. And they got just exactly what they deserved-they got the 80th "do-nothing" Congress.

Now, when you do go to the polls in November, I want to tell you what you ought to vote for. You ought to vote for a party that believes in holding down prices to a fair level, and vote for a party that believes in providing Federal aid to education. That is the best antidote to communism I know of. Vote for extending social security instead of cutting it down. Vote for permanent farm legislation to insure farm prosperity, because unless the farmers and laborers and small business and white-collar people are prosperous the country can't be prosperous if just one of them exploits the other. That's what the Democratic Party stands for. The Democratic Party stands for the people. The Democratic Party is your party. It is the party of the everyday man. Its interest is in the whole people and not just one segment of the population.

When you go to the polls, vote for yourself. Vote for yourself, and if you vote for yourself, you'll vote the Democratic ticket-and I'll stay in the White House another 4 years, and won't be troubled with the housing shortage.

[13.] BATAVIA, NEW YORK (Rear platform, 7:40 p.m.)

Mr. Chairman:

Thank you very much. It certainly is uplifting to come out here and see all these good people who have come out to find out just exactly what the President looks like, and what he believes, and what he is trying to do. I have had a most pleasant day across this great State of New York today. The weather has not been what it should be, in nearly every place except Rochester and here it has been pouring down rain every time the train stopped, yet people came out in spite of the rain because they are interested in the issues in this campaign, and they want to find out just what their President thinks. I think they want to find out what he looks like and I think they want to find out whether all this propaganda that has been put out--about the President not being able to do his job--is true or not.

Now, what I want you to do is to study the issues in this campaign. The Republicans say there are no issues and they are talking platitudes about home, about home and mother, and what a wonderful thing unity is, and a lot of other things that have nothing whatever to do with the issues in this campaign. You see, they are ashamed of that 80th Congress, they don't like to talk about its record, so they talk about something else.

I don't. I talk about the record of that 80th Congress, and I talk about the record of the Democratic Party. I like the people to know where I stand. See if you can find out where the other fellow stands. I bet you can't. I bet he won't answer any questions that you put to him on the issues in this campaign.

When you come out this way, I know that you are interested in the welfare of this Nation. You are interested in whether this Government is run by those who believe in special privilege, or whether it is run in the interest of the people; and that is the issue in this campaign--the people against special privilege. That has been the issue right along between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The Democrats have always stood for the people. They still stand for the people, and it has been conclusively proven by the actions of this last Congress.

You know, for 16 years--it will be 16 years on the 20th of January--the first Monday in March, because President Roosevelt was sworn in under the old law--in March it will be 16 years that the Democrats have been in control of this Government. They took it over when things were at their very lowest. There were 12 million unemployed. Farmers were losing their farms wholesale. Banks were closing so fast that you were afraid to go into one for fear it would blow up in your face. That was true all down the line.

When the Democrats took over in March 1933, they began immediately to put legislation on the books which would cure all those ills. One of the first things they did was to pass a farm support act. That farm act took the farmers out of their doldrums. Instead of 123 thousand farmers losing their farms as they did in 1932, last year less than 800 farms were foreclosed. The farmers' income in 1932 was about $4 1/2 billion. Last year it was $18 billion. There were 12 million unemployed. There were 3 million members in labor unions in 1932. Last year there were 16 million members in labor unions. This year there are 61 million people employed, and if a fellow wants a job he doesn't have to walk the streets, he can get one. That was not true in 1932.

Now, these people are asking you to go back to that situation. These people who have been in control of the 80th Congress want to turn the clock back. The clock won't run backwards, it runs forwards, and you want to go forward with the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party is the forward-looking party, it is the party that looks after the people. It is the party that you should vote for, because you will be voting for your own interests when you do that. You won't be voting for me, you will be voting for yourself.

Go to the polls and vote to keep the forward-looking party in control of your Government for another 4 years. I think that is just exactly what you are going to do, or you wouldn't be turning out this way.

You won't find out the facts from Republican platitudes, you won't find out the facts from Republican press, because they don't want you to know the facts. They know that you will do the right thing if you know the facts and vote the Democratic ticket. Now, be sure and go to the polls on the 2d of November and vote for yourself and your own interest, and then I will stay in the White House another 4 years and I won't be troubled with the housing shortage.

Again, I can't tell you how very much I appreciate your interest in the welfare of this country. I think that is what the turnouts mean. I think you are interested in the welfare of the country. I am particularly interested when I see young people here, because the young people are going to run this country in the next 20 or 30 years. I wish I were 14 instead of 64 so I could see the next 50 years of development in this country. I think we are facing the greatest age in history, and if you don't turn things back to those people who want to turn the clock back, you will see the greatest age in history.

Of course, if you want to go backwards, go on backward, but you won't go that way long. Go to the polls, now, on November 2d, and vote for yourself. Vote the straight Democratic ticket, and the country will be safe for another 4 years, I can assure you of that.