Rear Platform and Other Informal Remarks in Oklahoma and Missouri

[1.] SHAWNEE, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 7:35 a.m.)

Governor, and fellow Democrats of Shawnee:

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this wonderful turnout at this time of day-and the train 15 minutes ahead of time. You know, that's the most unusual thing in history--for a train to run 15 minutes ahead of time.

I wonder if the color-bearers would let the flags rest on the ground until I get through speaking, so the people behind can see. Thank you very much.

I have been acquainted with Shawnee for a long time. You've got a Baptist school here, and I am a Baptist myself. Not only that. In years past Shawnee was, and still is, one of the oil capitals of this great oil State of Oklahoma.

But Shawnee decided that the fundamentals come out of the top of the ground, in the form of farm products; and I'm informed that there are more than 4,400 farms and 500,000 acres in cultivation around this great agricultural center and that you are, from year to year, producing more and more of the things that go to make up the good things in life--which is fiber, grain, and things of that sort--and we have, in this campaign, a very decided and clear drawn issue. It is the people against the special interests. And this last Congress made a sincere effort for the special interests to abolish our farm program. I just want to give you some statistics on things that happened in the House of Representatives in this last Congress.

The Republican House Appropriations Committee, headed by one of the worst old mossbacks in Congress, John Taber of New York, said, "To hell with the farmers out West." That's an exact quote from him. And they voted to cut the funds of the Department of Agriculture by 37 percent. The cuts they made put the axe to your program of rural electrification, school lunches, and small farm loans and soil conservation. Those are among the most important things to the farmer that ever have been on the law books of the country.

Then my friend Clarence Cannon, a great Democrat and your neighbor over here in Missouri, who used to be Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, tried to get those cuts restored; and he was supported by every one of the Democrats on the Committee and every one of the Democrats in the House, including all the Representatives from the great State of Oklahoma. The Republicans ganged up against us and they defeated that attempt to put those appropriations back, by 180 to 174. But there happened to be a very good bunch of fighting Democrats in the Senate, and they got most of it restored.

But it just goes to show you that if these Republicans could get complete control of the Government of the United States I don't think the farmer would have a chance. They'd take every gain that the farmers made in the last 16 years away from him. I'm just as sure of that as I'm standing here; and I started out this campaign on this trip at Des Moines, Iowa, and explained to the farmers just exactly where they stood with these Republicans. Stassen has made it very plain that they want to revise the price support program down to the point where the farmer won't have a chance in these high markets.

I hope you weigh these things very carefully and that you'll consider your own interests when you go to the polls on November 2d and vote for yourselves. Vote for yourselves as well as vote for the Democratic ticket, and when you do that you'll be sure that the country is in safe hands.

Now, I'm particularly interested in these young people who come out to these meetings. These young people are going to be in a position to run the country the next generation, and I think we are facing the greatest age in history; and as I said time and again, I wish I was 14 instead of 64 so I could see what was going to happen in the next 50 years, because f think we are going to face a situation, when you get all the wonderful inventions and the harnessing of atomic energy, to the point where the world will be the happiest place to live in possible-if we can just succeed in getting a few contrary people to understand that peace is much more profitable than war. And I think we're going to get that done before we get through. If you really want to implement these policies, if you really want to do the proper thing for the most people in the United States of America, you'll send Bob Kerr to the Senate and you'll send my good friend Steed, here, to the House of Representatives. And Steed knows his way around Washington. He has been secretary to three Congressmen, and if he doesn't know where all the places are it's not his fault. Secretaries, you know, do most of the work for Congressmen.

[2.] SEMINOLE, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 8:25 a.m.)

This is a wonderful morning to be in one of the oil capitals of Oklahoma this early and to see that everybody is out. That's what pleases me--and to see that you're all so happy.

I've had a most pleasant trip from the Red River to Oklahoma City and across the Rock Island to eastern Oklahoma. Your Governor has been a perfect host. He has seen to it that the President has had every courtesy. He and Mrs. Turner made it so pleasant for us last night in Oklahoma City. I was told that they had one of the finest meetings for women there that's ever been held in any part of the United States, and I suggested that the managers of that meeting go up to Kansas City and show them how to do it.

You people are interested in the issues that are before the country in this campaign or you wouldn't be out here this morning to listen to what your President has to say. And these issues are clearly drawn. It 'means special privilege against the people. The Republicans have always stood for special privilege. They conclusively proved, in this last meeting of the Congress which they controlled, that their ideal is for those people who are at the top. They're not interested in the welfare of the people as a whole.

It has been the policy of the Democratic Party, from the beginning, to work in the interests of the country as a whole. You know, this last year we had the greatest income in the history of the world--$217 billion--and that income was so distributed that the farmer got his fair share, the workingman got his fair share, and the businessman got his fair share. There wasn't any distribution of that wealth so that the hogs could get the best of it.

But the Republicans are trying to repeal that situation. They have begun immediately to undermine the farm program, to take the liberties away from labor, and to absolutely smother the small businessman. That's the issue in this campaign. I want you to bear that in mind. I want you to study those issues. I'm trying to put them to you boldly so you can understand exactly what we are doing.

As President of the United States I represent all the people in the country. I don't represent any special interest. But you'll find that this 80th Congress was completely surrounded by lobbies from every special interest in the country, and they listened to those lobbies, as the results show. They tried to tear up the rural electrification program. They cut the appropriations for the farmers to the point where it was almost necessary to close up shop. If it hadn't been for the fighting Democrats in the Senate of the United States the farm appropriation would have been cut 37 percent.

Now, you're interested in soil conservation. You're interested in farm support prices. You're interested in REA. I am, too. I want to continue those things. I want to continue them on a basis so that instead of having 65 percent of the farms in the United States with rural electrification I want 100 percent of them to have it.

Now, you didn't have any rural electrification before the Democrats came along and gave it to you. And now if you want to throw it away, the best way to do it is to take these special privilege fellows and let them take it away from you and give it to the power trust. That's what they want to do. They cut out the appropriations for the feeder lines from the dams where most of this power is developed for rural electrification, and tried their best to make it possible for the power trust to take that power at the dam and then charge you whatever they pleased for it.

I'm against that. I think the Government is for the people and I've tried to show that all over the country. You know where I stand. Try and find out where the other people stand. They'll give you a lot of double talk, and talk about home and mother and what a beautiful country this is; but they won't tell you what the issues are in this campaign, because they're afraid. They know very well that if the people understand what the issues are they haven't a chance to win on November 2d.

And I want to tell you something: If you want to help this situation you want to turn out en masse on election day and see that Bob Kerr and Tom Steed go to the Congress. They're two fighting men and they're Democrats and they believe in the same principles of government that I do.

Now, this is a crucial campaign. wouldn't be making this crusade across this country and working from daylight to dark trying to tell you people exactly what the issues are if I didn't believe that it was absolutely necessary.

So it's your interests that you're voting for. You're not only voting for me for President of the United States, but you are voting for yourselves and your own interests when you vote the Democratic ticket straight--which I know you're going to do on November the 2d.

I can't tell you again how much I appreciate this turnout.

[3.] WEWOKA, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 8:45 a.m.)

Thank you, Governor. It certainly is a pleasure to see so many smiling faces at this time of the day in this oil city of Oklahoma. I am more than pleased to have a chance to face the citizens of Oklahoma and give them some idea of what I stand for, so that they can vote intelligently on election day.

First, I want to thank this Harrison Bell Post of the American Legion of Wewoka for making me an honorary member. I shall treasure that membership, and sometime or other, I may want an extra vote in the convention, and I will have it from the Wewoka Post.

All day we have been traveling through the rich oil fields and farms of your State, and it is a most inspiring sight. Being from Missouri, I kinda rate Missouri as the best farm State, but there seems to be some argument about it in Oklahoma, Iowa, and some of the other States; but we are, of course, loyal to our own States.

Well, I find this: in Iowa, in Missouri, in Nebraska, in Kansas, in Oklahoma, and everywhere else in the United States, the farms are more prosperous than ever before. That was not an accident. That is due to the policy of the Democratic Party which went into power in 1933 and which adopted a farm policy that has put the farmers in their proper place in the Government of the United States.

Now you have got to decide whether you want that prosperity to continue, and it is up to you to decide, and decide that on November the 2d, whether you want a Democratic administration or a Democratic Congress devoted to the interests of the farmer and the interests of all the people, or whether you want to change the Government back into the hands of the special interests.

That is the only issue in this campaign. You know, the 80th Congress was a Republican Congress that acted as a bunch of messenger boys for big business.

Take rural housing, that is a good example of how big business runs the Republican Party. It is no secret that the American farm family is inadequately housed all over the United States. One out of every five houses is structurally unsound, and four out of five lack one or more of the facilities considered to be basic in American living standards. About 3 million new homes are required over the next 10 years.

The Democratic Party has a plan for meeting this need and tried to get this plan through the Both Congress. There was a bill called the Taft-Ellender-Wagner bill which the Senate signed and passed this spring, after long drawn-out attempts on the part of the real estate lobby to have it killed. If we could have gotten that bill, it would have authorized $300 million to be used for the benefit of the construction of farm homes. This program held bright promise of breaking the back of the farm housing problem, but the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives killed that bill deader than a doornail. They didn't even let the House vote on it. When it came right down to brass tacks, the name of that bill was Taft-Ellender-Wagner, and Senator Taft ran out on his own bill when the showdown came. He could have gotten that bill passed, if he had wanted to.

If the Republicans get control of the Senate and House, you know, Senator Taft is going to be one of the leaders in the Senate in the next Congress, and he is going to be most influential in top legislation. You don't want to let them do that. Send Bob Kerr to the Senate, and send Tom Steed here to the House. If you do that in Oklahoma, and all over the United States, the Republicans won't have a chance to sabotage the people's program in the next session. The actions of the 80th Congress is the treatment that the people of the United States can expect from a Republican Congress and a Republican President. Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover are so far back in history that we have almost forgotten what Republican administrations were like.

Well, that 80th "do-nothing" Republican Congress refreshed our memory. They showed you just exactly how Republicans act when they get into power. That 80th Congress will go down in history, I think, as one of the worst they ever had. I think it is one of the most lobbied Congresses in the history of Washington.

It is a crying shame that the people didn't have any lobby. If you didn't have a President of the United States in there, looking after the interests of the people, you would be in one terrible fix. And now these people want to get complete control. You can't afford to let them do that. You just can't afford that.

This is a great Democratic stronghold. You must get out and vote. Every Democrat and everybody who is interested in the welfare of the people must vote the Democratic ticket, so that we will roll up such a majority in Oklahoma that they will understand just exactly where Oklahoma stands on the issue of the special interests against the people. Don't forget that.

Now I am more than pleased to see all these young people out here this morning, these schoolchildren, because the next generation is going to suffer or it is going to profit from the results of this election. I wish I were about 14 years old instead of 64. I would like to see the next 50 years, because I think it is going to be the greatest in history, once we get this atomic age working as it should.

You talk about inventions that have taken place in the last 50 years, it will be nothing compared to what we will have in the next 50, if we just get peace in the world. That is what I am working for, if we can get peace in the world. We are facing the greatest age in the history of the world. There is plenty for everybody in the world, and it will be happy if we will just try to abide by the rules of living--live and let the other people live.

You know, the Constitution is rounded on the Bill of Rights, and that is what we are fighting for. And I am here to assure you that I am doing everything I possibly can to help bring about that great age.

[4.] HOLDENVILLE, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 9:11 a.m.)

Thank you very much, Governor.

It certainly is heartening to see all these smiling faces here at Holdenville this morning. You certainly must be interested in the welfare of your country, you must be interested in the issues in this campaign, or you wouldn't turn out like this to hear what I have to say about them.

These issues are well known. As I've said time and again all over the country, the issue is the people against special privilege; and this Both Congress conclusively proved that that is the issue.

I just want to discuss one particular in which I know you are vitally interested in this farm community, and that's the soil conservation issue. You're more interested in that in Oklahoma, I think, than in any other part of the farm program.

Oklahoma is sort of like Missouri. This good topsoil of this great State has washed away and blown away to the extent that if we don't commence to do something about it very soon we won't have any soil; and that's true in Missouri--I think Missouri and Oklahoma would lose one county after another down the Mississippi River.

Back in the Harding-Coolidge-Hoover days soil conservation was something with which the Government wasn't supposed to have anything to do. Soil was just another of those natural resources that was just there to be plundered. You people here in Oklahoma know better than anybody, because you know what happened under that system. You remember the dust storms when good, hard-working farmers in this State and others saw the soil, on which their livelihood depended, blown away, and the rich farmlands were about to become a desert.

That was one of the great crises faced by President Roosevelt when he took office in 1933. He saw that our land would have to be saved if our Nation were going to be saved. He initiated a great soil conservation program, unprecedented in the Nation's history. That program has been continued by me. We have only just begun to right this battle of the land.

The Republicans have never gotten away from their Hoover philosophy. They still are doing their best to stop my efforts for soil conservation so that our land and your land cannot be plundered.

Look at the record of the Both Congress. House Republicans cut the appropriation for soil conservation one-third. Fortunately, we got most of this cut back in the Senate. Again in 1948 the House voted to cut the soil conservation appropriation. One hundred percent of the Democrats voted for that appropriation, and 95 percent of the Republicans voted against it. That shows how they stand. In the Senate the Democratic leaders over there got these cuts restored. One hundred percent of the Democrats in the Senate voted to support that restoration, and 93 percent of the Republicans voted against it. The result was that $37.5 million, or 12 percent, of the soil conservation payments proposed by this administration were cut out by the 80th Congress.

Can anyone doubt what a Republican Congress and a Republican President would do to these very Democratic farm programs if they get into power? You can see now what I've been saying: that the Republican Party belongs to big business and the Democratic Party belongs to the people.

That's why I urge you, here in this great Democratic county, to get out on election day. Get up early and get out and roll up a majority in Oklahoma that will let these special privilege fellows know where you stand. If you do that you'll have Bob Kerr in the Senate and Tom Steed in the House, and you can't go wrong.

I want to express my appreciation to these young people and these schoolchildren who come out to see their President, because this campaign and the issues in this campaign will affect you for the next generation if the Republicans get control of the country. Remember that, and bear it in mind, and when you grow up you'll be saying that President Truman either saved the country from special privilege or special privilege overwhelmed the country. Bear that in mind, you young people, because you'll be talking about it for a generation.

Thank you a lot.

[5.] McALESTER, OKLAHOMA (10:45 a.m.)

Governor Turner, and fellow Democrats of McAlester and surrounding territory:

It certainly is a pleasure to be here this morning. I have been agreeably surprised at the warmth and cordiality of the welcome I have received across the country in every State and in every city where we have stopped. It looked as if everybody in the surrounding counties had come around to look at their President, and to listen to him; and that is a healthy sign in this great Republic of ours, for that means that you are interested in your Government, and it means that you are anxious to know what the issues are, and I have been telling the people straight from the shoulder what the issues are, and where I stand on them.

I hope you can get the opposition to tell you, but they haven't been able to do it yet. They are afraid to assume a position on these issues.

There is just one great issue in this campaign, and that is the people against special privilege--special privilege against the people from the Republican standpoint. They represent special privilege. The Democrats represent the people.

All morning we have been riding through some of the richest farming country I have ever seen--next to Missouri. You are enjoying real farm prosperity now. The farmers of Pittsburg County are making six times as much money as they did in the last Republican depression year of 1932; and that is true all over the country. The farmers never were in such good condition as they are now.

The farm income in 1932 for this county was only $1 million, and now it is over $6 million.

The national income of the farmers in 1932 was $4 1/2 billion. Last year it was $18 billion. Think of that!

That is the difference between poverty and prosperity. Such prosperity is good for everybody. I want to make sure that we keep that prosperity in the United States. If the farmers and the laboringmen have their fair share of the income, the country is always prosperous.

There were 61 million people at work in this country this year--more than 61 million people at work, and they are receiving better wages and better living conditions than they ever had before in the history of the world.

If we just had this price spiral stopped, everybody would be happy. I tried to get the Congress to help me stop that, but they wouldn't do it.

You know, and I know, that much of this prosperity is due to the programs--this farm prosperity--of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. They have put that into effect farm price support, rural electrification, soil conservation, flood control, farm tenant purchase program, and a lot of other fine farm programs that never were heard of until the Democrats took over the Government.

One of these programs is farm price supports, which is at the very heart of farm prosperity here in Oklahoma, and all over the country. Farm price supports benefit the farmer with a guarantee that the price of the things he sells will be high enough to cover the cost of the things that he must buy. The American farmers no longer have to sell cheap and buy high. They are on a par and on a level with all the rest of the segments of the population of this great country.

That is just the way it ought to be. And that is no accident! That is a policy of the Democratic administration. It is a party principle, this is, since it was begun at the start of President Roosevelt's administration, and it has helped lift the farmers of this country out of the worst depression in history. It encouraged the highest farm production in our history to meet the war and postwar emergency food needs of the entire world.

You don't suppose we would have had these great and magnificent crops if the farmer had not been sure he wasn't going to have his throat cut when it came time to sell. It has prevented a farm depression like the one we had after the last war.

The Republicans haven't had a chance to wring the farmers out, after this war, yet, but they will try if you give them a chance to do it; and that will be your fault. If you vote the Republican ticket, that is what you will get, too.

Now, listen to this: the farm price support program has not cost the Government one red cent. The Republicans would like to make you believe that that is a contribution. It is nothing of the kind. On the contrary, since 1933 the farm price support program has made money for the Government. The farm price support program has made the taxpayers over $80 million.

The Republicans never told you that. They never tell you anything that is good for the country. They are always working for special interests, and they like to put out propaganda, they like to talk about innocuous things that have nothing to do with the issues in this campaign.

Before I get through with 'em, I am going to smoke 'em out, and we are going to know where they stand.

Your Governor tells me that you people out here in Oklahoma are worried about what the Republicans would do to the Democratic price support program, if they get control of the Government. I don't blame you for being worried about it.

Governor Stassen started the attack on the farm support program on his boss's doorstep in Albany, N.Y. The Wall Street Journal-I don't know that the Wall Street Journal ever cared anything much about what happened to the farmers--the Wall Street Journal, and there it is, right there [indicating], for September 4, 1948, said editorially: "Mr. Stassen is in fact proposing a far-reaching reform of the price support policy, or he doesn't make sense."

This is in that editorial right there, and that is the Republican propaganda program. They are going to trim the farmers, if they ever get control of the Government. They would have done it this time, if I hadn't been standing there to keep them from doing it.

It was that same paper which revealed on August 21st that "Republican Congressmen were considering cutting supports under farm products in 1949."

I can think of no greater authority on the Republicans, and what they believe, than this same Wall Street Journal which I just now showed you. That is the Republican bible-that is the special interests publication, published in New York City every day. They use half their editorial columns giving me hell, because I am for the people.

You people of Oklahoma have to decide on November the 2d whether you want a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress, working hard on the side of the farmer and of the American people to sustain and increase the prosperity we all have won for this country since 1932.

Now that is what is before you, and if you people down here don't send Carl Albert to the Congress, and Bob Kerr to the Senate, you are not doing the best thing for your own interest.

I want to see Oklahoma send a full Democratic delegation to the Congress. You have had some very sad experiences with these backward-pulling Republicans in this State. I could name some of the worst fellows that have been to the Congress, so far as the public interest was concerned--they came right from this State. And I have got one or two from Missouri that are just as bad, too.

Whether you want a Republican President or a Republican Congress, determined to knock the props out from under the farm price support program, and the American people, it is absolutely up to you.

Now this is a great Democratic community in this great State, and you have a habit just like several other great Democratic communities in Missouri, of having to fight in the primaries but staying at home on election day.

You must not do that this time. You must go out and roll up the vote necessary. The people still want a government of the people and not the special interests.

So, go and vote on election day, all of you.

The Republicans are scared to death that the people are coming out and vote. They don't want the people to come out and vote.

They admit that if as many as 55 million people come out and vote, they are whipped.

I want to see 65 million people vote this time, and whip them good--and we won't have any more trouble the next 4 years.

Again I want to thank all you good people for the courtesies you have shown me. Your Governor met me at Bonham, Tex., the home of Sam Rayburn, and he and Mrs. Turner were with us all day yesterday. Mrs. Turner couldn't come this morning, she had to stay in Oklahoma City. Your Governor has been steadily with us, and I have never met a more hospitable Governor, I have known him a long time. He really has turned the State over to me. I like Oklahoma hospitality.

Now, if you like me, go out and vote on election day, that is all I ask you.

[6.] EUFAULA, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 11:44 a.m.)

Thank you very much, Governor.

Well, the welcome gets warmer all the time. Oklahoma is certainly a hospitable State. I came into it yesterday, and the Governor met me down at Bonham, Tex., at the home of Sam Rayburn--he and Mrs. Turner--and we've been coming across the State of Oklahoma ever since, and it looks to me like everybody's anxious to get a look at the President, and I'm very happy over that. I am pleased. I appreciate it, and I want to thank you very much for it.

Eufaula, here, is in the center of a great farming community and is interested, like all the rest of the cities in Oklahoma, in the consummation of the farm program which the Democrats inaugurated back in 1933, and which we have been carrying on ever since.

I've been telling the people in Oklahoma just exactly what this "do-nothing" Republican 80th Congress has tried to do to the farm program. They've tried to sabotage it. But the fact that they didn't have control of the White House and that there were a few fighting Democrats in the Congress prevented them from doing just that. Now they are on the road to getting it done, unless you people look out for your own interests. I want to see you send that good Democrat from this district back to the Congress. I want to see you send Bob Kerr to the Senate. And I would like to see the whole Oklahoma delegation be on the side of the people and not on the side of the special interests, as some of your Congressmen from this great State are, and as some from my State of Missouri are--which I don't like very much.

I want to thank you again for all the courtesies you have shown to me, and I want to urge you with everything I am capable of to get out and cast your ballot on election day. You know, that's the greatest privilege that you have. This is a government of the people. You are the Government. You elect your Representatives in Congress. You elect your Senator. You elect the President of the United States. Therefore, when it comes right down to the grass roots, the people are the Government. But if you don't exercise that ballot you are not the part of the Government that you ought to be; you're a shirker.

Now, in 1946 just one-third of the people who were entitled to vote in this country elected that "do-nothing," good-for-nothing 80th Congress. And see what you got. I won't feel a bit sorry for those people who stay at home and don't vote and then complain about what they're getting out of this Republican Congress. They haven't got a kick coming. Don't do that this time. Over in this part of Oklahoma I want to see you pile up a majority that will let the world know that Oklahoma is for a Government of the people, and that means a Government by the Democratic Party. If you do that I won't be troubled with the housing shortage, because I'll stay in the White House for another 4 years.

You know, what pleases me immensely at all these meetings is the young people that come out--the future voters of America. They're coming out and getting information, getting education, getting acquainted with your President. And in the next generation we're going to have some people who understand what the Government is all about, if I have anything to do with it. It shows your interest, and I compliment you on coming out, and I appreciate your coming out, because I like to meet the young people. They're facing the greatest age in history, if things go well, and I think they will.

I am putting forth every effort possible that the President is capable of to get peace in the world so that the next generation will see the greatest age in history--and I believe it will. I wish I could see it with you. I'm going to try to see some of it because I expect to live to be a hundred years old, and I want to go along with you and be as happy as you are in this great Republic of ours which, in my opinion, is the greatest one the sun has ever shone on--and it has the greatest Government in the history of the world.

Now, let's keep that Government as it is. Don't turn it over to the special interests and run it downhill, like we did in the 1920's.

Thank you very much.

[7.] MUSKOGEE, OKLAHOMA (Spaulding Park, 1 p.m.)

Thank you very much. I certainly am most happy to be in this wonderful town of Muskogee this morning. I don't know where all the people come from. There must be everybody in Oklahoma here this morning. It makes me feel very happy when you people turn out to listen to your President and to get acquainted with him and to find out where he stands on the issues that are before the country. You have a right to know just what my plans and programs are. You have a right to examine my record as President of the United States, and then it is up to you to make up your minds as to what you want to do for the country.

The issues are clearly drawn. There is just one issue in this campaign, and that is the special privilege interest against the people. The Republicans have always stood for special interests, and they haven't changed one little bit.

All day our train has been riding through the rich farming country of this great State. I could tell by looking at your rich farms on our way into Muskogee that you people-like everybody else in the country--are having good times.

Back in the Republican depression days, the total cash returns from Muskogee County farmers were less than $2 million. In this year of 1948 you will have almost $10 million, an increase of 500 percent. Now that is true all over the United States.

The farm income in 1932 for the whole United States was about $4 ¼ billion. Last year it was 18 billions.

The farmers have more assets than they ever had before in their history.

In 1932, 123,000 farmers were displaced from their farms--that many were displaced in 1932. Last year there were less than 800.

The farmers only owed about 50 percent of what they owed in 1932.

They are prosperous. They are happy. If they look after their own interests, they are going to continue to be prosperous and happy.

If you are going to continue to be prosperous and happy, you had better send Bob Kerr back to the Senate, and Bill Stigler to the House.

In county after county throughout the United States, those stories of prosperity have been repeated.

And it was not an accident. It was due to a policy--the policy of the Democratic administration which took office in 1933 when we elected Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Now I wonder if you want to exchange this streamlined 1949 model of Democratic farm prosperity for a 1929 model T under the Republicans? That is what they are asking you to do.

One of the big reasons for the prosperity in your county and your farms is the farm price support program. You know that much better than I do. That is why I was so deeply concerned a couple of weeks ago when, after a conference with the Republican candidate, Governor Stassen came out with an attack on the farm price program. And here is what the Wall Street Journal says. The Wall Street Journal doesn't represent the farmer. The Wall Street Journal speaks for the Republican Party and the special interests. And they called Mr. Stassen's statement an attack on the price support system, and it said further, "Mr. Stassen is in fact proposing a far-reaching reform of the farm policy, or else he doesn't make sense."

I think he knew what he was talking about, and I think he was talking under orders.

The hue and cry that was raised by this attack was so great that the Republican Party immediately issued statements in favor of farm price supports--in principle, they said.

Does that mean that they are for the farm price program, or are they against it?

I think you will find that they are against it, when you get right down to brass tacks. The first thing this Congress tried to do was to cut the throat of the farmers in cutting appropriations for the Agriculture Department of the United States. The next thing they tried to do was to take the freedom away from the laboringman. They are not for the common everyday citizen.

The income of the United States was $217 billion this year, and it has been distributed fairly evenly to all the people, the farmers, the laboringman, and the small businessman. They have had a fair share of this $217 billion income--which was in 1947--I said this year--it is a great deal more this year, but we can't add it up until we get to the last day of the year.

But that situation was not brought about by accident. It is the policy of the Democratic administration--of the Democratic Party--to be for the people. For 2 years there has been a fine and comprehensive bill up before the Both Congress for the extension of farm prices support programs.

Are the Republican leaders for that bill, or are they against it ?

That Republican 80th Congress had that bill before them for 2 years. Finally, they got around to doing something about it just 1 hour before the Congress adjourned. Do you know why they did that?

I've been out in Omaha, Nebr., and I told the farmers out in the farm belt at Omaha, Nebr., just exactly what the 80th Congress was doing to them. That was back in June. And as quickly as the farmers heard that speech they put so much heat on that Republican Congress that just 1 hour before they adjourned they passed a half-baked farm bill--just a half-baked farm bill--and they passed that, they said, because they'd have time to work on it a little more in 1949 when they had both the Congress and the presidency.

They're not going to get either one.

You know--and I've tried to make it perfectly plain--that the Republicans are only for the farmer in an election year when they think they can get his vote. That's been the case ever since I can remember, and I've been a politician a long time. That shouldn't surprise you because this Congress had the biggest lobbies surrounding it of any Congress in the history of the country. They had the real estate lobby and the National Association of Manufacturers lobby, and they had every kind of a lobby you can name-and the money flowed up there like water.

And this Republican Congress never acted until it heard its master's voice--the chief lobbies for whatever bill was pending before the Congress. I make that charge advisedly, and if they want me to prove it and name names and give them the chapter and verse, I can give them that, too.

Now, I want you to weigh these things carefully. Muskogee, here, is in a very great valley. Muskogee is very much interested in the development of the waterways around here. Muskogee is interested in the development of power because Muskogee has hope, some time or other, of being a great industrial city. And you can be right in the center of a cheap power belt if, if--there's a big "if"--if you return the Democrats to power so we can carry out those power projects to their logical conclusions.

The Republicans are against public power. And the power interests had one of those powerful lobbies in Washington I was telling you about. And they tried to sabotage the policy of the United States Government toward power. Muskogee is interested in that--very much interested in that.

Bob Kerr handed me a telegram today that Newt Graham sent to him in regard to including in the budget an appropriation for one of these dams over here--Eufaula Dam, I believe they call it. That was in last year's budget and the Republicans knocked it out.

I hope you won't give the Republicans a chance to knock it out this next year. I hope you'll have Democrats in that Congress that I can work with. Now, I'm urging you with everything that I possibly can to do your duty as a citizen. And your first duty as a citizen is to exercise the franchise which the Constitution of the United States guarantees to you--that is, go out and vote on election day.

In 1946 only a third of the people voted. Two-thirds of them stayed at home, and look what you got--you got that 80th Congress. Don't do that this time. Show the world that this is a .people's government. If you do that--go out on election day and vote the Democratic ticket straight--the country will be safe for the next 4 years, and I won't be troubled with the housing problem--I can still stay in the White House.

[8.] TULSA, OKLAHOMA (Address at Skelly Stadium, 3:55 p.m., see Item 217)

[9.] CLAREMORE, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 5:20 p.m.)

Thank you very much, I appreciate that [statuette of Will Rogers] very much. Will Rogers was one of my heroes. I knew him very well. He used to come to Washington when I was in the Senate, and he and Vice President Garner always had lunch together; and on a number of occasions, I had luncheon with them at the same time.

He was a man of the utmost commonsense. He, I think, represented and said in a way that everybody could understand what most Americans think all the time.

He contributed not only to the commonsense approach to things in this country, but he gave us a laugh every once in a while.

He wrote a piece about the 1932 Democratic Convention that nominated Franklin D. Roosevelt, which I thought was as funny as it could be. He said,

"Ah, they was Democrats today--and we was proud of 'em. They fought, they fit, they split, and adjourned in a dandy wave of dissension. That's the old Democratic spirit."

He always had something like that to say, no matter what happened.

I heard him say one time that a pedestrian was a man with a wife, a daughter, and two cars. I think that is the best definition I ever heard, for I have a wife, a daughter, and two cars.

I wish it were possible for me, but the time does not permit, to go to the memorial for this great man, and lay a wreath on that memorial to him. He was a terrific loss to this country. We all suffered.

It is going to be my privilege now to present to Mrs. Paula Love, his niece, a wreath which I hope she will lay on the memorial for me.

I was just telling Mrs. Love, that I was here when the memorial was opened. I wasn't so well known then, and I didn't attract nearly so much attention as I do today.

[10.] CHELSEA, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 6 p.m.)

Thank you very much, Governor. I appreciate that introduction and I certainly appreciate this turnout in this great city of Chelsea. It certainly is a compliment to the President of the United States to have you come out this way to see and hear what he has to say.

I just had the privilege of stopping over at Claremore a while ago and presenting a wreath to Will Rogers--to the memorial over there. I understand that his sister, Mrs. McFadden, lived in this town for a long time and he was a frequent visitor here while he was alive. I also understand that the first oil well in Indian territory was found here and that it was found at a depth of 31 feet. Think how nice it would be now if we could drill some of these big oil wells and strike at 31 feet! We'd have plenty of oil in that case, because we could get the pipe and everything to make a well operate nowadays. I suppose that well probably cost $50, and nowadays you can't even get the first section drilled for less than a hundred thousand.

But this country now is vitally interested in the farm situation; and it's to your interest to become vitally interested in the farm situation as it affects you right here.

This last Congress did everything it possibly could to wreck the Democratic farm program which has been in effect since 1933. That program was instituted for the benefit of the farmers, and it has benefited the farmer because the farmer in 1932 had an income of $4 1/2 billion, and the farmer last year had an income of over $18 billion in this country. There isn't a farmer in this country who is not better off now than he was in 1932. That year 123,000 farmers were kicked off their farms by foreclosure. Last year there were less than 800. The farmer has reduced his debt by 50 percent in this Democratic administration of the last 16 years.

If the farmer is looking after his own interests, just as the laboringman should look after his own interests, he can't do anything in the world but send Dixie Gilmer to the Congress and send Bob Kerr to the Senate-and then I'll have somebody I can work with.

I certainly appreciate your turnout, and I want to compliment you on this nice band; and I'm tickled to death to see the young people come out and listen because the next generation is the one on which this country is depending. And this election will affect the next generation and the generation after that if it goes the wrong way because these Republicans want to turn the clock back.

You don't want to see that done, and if you don't, get out there on election day and vote and pile up the biggest majority Oklahoma has ever given the Democrats--and that will be a notice to the world that we believe in going forward and not backward.

[11.] VINITA, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 6:40 p.m.)

Governor Turner and fellow Democrats:

It certainly is a pleasure to be here tonight in your wonderful city of Vinita. I have been here many a time. I was driving out here at one time and stopped here at 5 o'clock in the morning to get breakfast. And I got a good one, too. It wasn't quite as much as John Garner gave me the other day, but I had plenty to get me to Houston on, anyway.

I am going through the United States from one end to the other, to give you some idea of what the real issues are in this campaign. You have a right to know what those issues are. If you understand those issues, you won't have any trouble making up your mind how to vote.

There are just two things in this campaign that you want to keep in mind. One is that the Republicans are for special interests, and the Democrats are for the people. That is the difference between the two parties. The Democrats are the forward-looking party, they are the party of the people, and they do things for the people.

You have been troubled here with floods. The Democratic Party has been for flood control. The gateway to this Grand River project up here, which not only furnishes you power and controls the floods, but it is a nice place to go to for an outing. There are hundreds of cases like that all over the United States, where the Democratic Party has been for the people.

This last Congress tried its best to "do in" the REA, and to cut the farmers' throat, which they are most happy to do. They want to turn the farmers back to the speculators, and that I am not going to have, while I am President of the United States.

These standpatters, known as the 80th Congress, fought our approach to these things.

Now, you can remedy that situation very easily by just turning them out and putting in some people that know where they are going.

You ought to be sure and send Dixie Gilmer to the Congress, and I am sure you are going to send Bob Kerr to the Senate.

I would like very much for every Democrat in Oklahoma, and every good man and woman in Oklahoma who is interested in the welfare of this country, to turn out and vote the Democratic ticket straight on election day; and if you do that, the country will be safe for another 4 years--and I won't be troubled with the housing shortage.

[12.] AFTON, OKLAHOMA (Rear platform, 6:50 p.m.)

Madam Turner and Governor Turner:

I certainly do appreciate this turnout. You know, I feel like I did when I started to come out over Texas. When I got to Gainesville, Tex., there was a crowd just about like this. Gainesville was the last town in Texas, and I had been riding in Texas for two days and had met a million people in Texas; and the Governor of Texas had been my host, and I kinda hated to leave Texas.

Then I came across the river to Marietta, Okla., and a crowd just like this met me there. Then I went up to Ardmore, and there were 50,000 people there just like this all the way along. This afternoon there were 100,000 people on the streets in Tulsa, and about 30,000 in the stadium out there. It looks as if you people are really interested in things. In McAlester and the rest of the cities where we stopped, the crowds were just like this.

I want to say to your Governor that I don't think my family and I have ever enjoyed a day more thoroughly than we have this day across Oklahoma. We have been most hospitably treated. I couldn't ask for anything better, and as I say, while I am right next door to Missouri, I hate to leave Oklahoma, and my family feels the same way about it.

I am going to tell you something--I am going to tell you a secret. I have been discussing the issues all the way across Oklahoma in these towns, and I made a couple of major speeches in the State. The train has managed to get away 20 to 25 minutes late, and I am due in Missouri at certain hours for three towns over there, and I have asked Bob Kerr to stop here and make my speech for me. He is going to speak to you after the train leaves. I know you would like to hear him, because he is a much better speaker than I am. You are going to send him to the Senate, because this is a fight between the special interests and the people.

The Democratic Party stands for the people. The Republican Party stands for the special interests, and that has been the case ever since the two parties have been in existence.

And the actions of this "do-nothing" 80th Congress have conclusively proved that the Republicans are still the same old gang they always were. They are for special interests. They don't care much about what happens to the people.

The best way to cure that situation is for everybody to go out and vote on election day, and roll up such a big majority here in Oklahoma that the whole world will know that you don't believe in special privilege, that you believe in the rights of the people.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate the cordial reception I have had in this great State. If you turn out like this on election day, I have got nothing to worry about.

[13.] NEOSHO, MISSOURI (Rear platform, 8:10 p.m.)

Mr. Chairman, and fellow Missourians:

I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this most cordial welcome to my home State, in this lovely town of Neosho. I spent many a happy hour in Neosho when I didn't cause so much confusion.

I've had a most wonderful and instructive trip over the Nation. I started out at Des Moines, Iowa, at a plowing contest, and there were 100,000 farmers at that plowing contest; and they wanted to find out just exactly what I thought about the farm program and how I stood on the farm program. There were just about 10 acres of people in front of the stand where I spoke, and I told them that if they had a four-mule team and a two-gang plow I thought maybe I could plow, but they didn't have a mule on the place. And I told them I didn't want to turn the clock back because we wanted to go forward, like the Democrats, and not backward, like the Republicans. And I explained to those farmers just exactly what the farm program is, how the farm program started, who was responsible and who is responsible for the welfare of the farmer.

You know, the farmer got the biggest income this year that he ever had in his history, and had the smallest income he ever had in his history in 1932. There were 123,000 of them kicked off their farms in 1932, and there were less than 800 foreclosures last year. And the farmer owes just less than 50 percent of what he owed in 1932--and he feels like he's rather safe because he knows that when he raises a crop he is going to get a fair price for it.

Now, on my way home from Des Moines, Iowa, out West, I went to Denver--and there were 100,000 people who met me in Denver--and went on down the Denver-Rio Grande Railroad and went over to Salt Lake City and talked about reclamation. Everybody in Utah was at that meeting. We had the meeting in the Mormon Tabernacle. It holds 11,000 people, and there were about 12,500 at the place. And when I got through with them I don't think there was a Republican in Utah that didn't feel like he wanted to vote the Democratic ticket.

Then we went on to Nevada, and at Reno, Nev., I think everybody in the State was there. You know, there are only 80,000 people in Nevada, and they had about an acre and a half of people in that park. I'm telling you all this just to show you the reason and the necessity for this trip. I'm sure I don't need to campaign in Missouri, but I can't pass Missouri up--and don't intend to. I'm going to wind up the campaign in Missouri because I want Missouri to give the Democrats the biggest vote they have ever been given in history--and I think Missouri is going to do just that.

We went from Reno, Nev., to San Francisco, Calif., and on the way stopped at the capital of California--Sacramento. We had more people out in Sacramento early in the morning than I had when I was there before, and they said at that time that that was the biggest crowd that had ever been down to the station to meet anybody.

At San Francisco, out in front of the City Hall--on account of a chilly night when the Hearst papers out there prophesied that it was going to rain and nobody should come out--they had about 25,000 people at that place.

Then I went over to Oakland to a public park, and they had the same sort of a turnout there.

In Los Angeles we had about 30,000 people out at the Gilmore Stadium, and they seemed to be highly interested.

We got to San Diego the next morning before breakfast and went to the ball park, and there were 30,000 people in that ball park and 100,000 people out on the streets. So there are people around the country interested in seeing the President.

In Phoenix, Ariz., away along in the middle of the night--about 11 ,'clock, I think it was--there were about, oh, nearly twice as many people out there as there are here because everybody there in Arizona had driven all day to see what was going on. There must have been 30,000 people at that place.

Then we went into Texas--and everybody said Texas was going to be cold to the President. And the first city we stopped in was El Paso, and everybody in El Paso was down at the station. The Chief of Police said he estimated the crowd at 25,000. Then I went over and had breakfast with John Garner, former Vice President, a good friend of mine, and he gave me a breakfast to write home about. We had chicken and white-wing dove, and we had ham and bacon and scrambled eggs and hot biscuits, and I don't know what all. And the Governor of Texas met me there, as did Sam Rayburn. And we went across Texas, and I must have seen a million people in Texas.

I saw 500,000 people today in Oklahoma. Every town turned out, just like this, just the same as if I was having a homecoming in Missouri.

I believe the people are interested in the issues before the country. And I've been trying to tell the people what the issues are. The big issue is special privilege against the people. The Democrats stand for the people; the Republicans stand for special privilege, just as they always have.

This good-for-nothing 80th Congress proved it.

You know, in 1946 two-thirds of you stayed at home. You did that here in Missouri, too. Two-thirds of you stayed at home and you elected that Republican 80th Congress--and you got just exactly what you deserved. Now, you ought to correct that this time and give me a Democratic Congress so I can do something for the country in the next 4 years.

I'm exceedingly happy to have so many good Missouri Democratic candidates meet me here tonight. And I'm going to introduce them to you and ask them if they want to say anything to you; but first I wonder how you would like to meet my family.

[14.] MONETT, MISSOURI (Rear platform, 9 p.m.)

Mr. Chairman, and citizens of Monett:

This certainly is a very great honor to me. I am highly pleased to see so many Missourians out here on the platform at this time of night. I want to say to you that I had hoped to be able to get off the train and dedicate this Legion Hall here tonight, but I want to explain to you that it is like moving the Ringling Brothers circus to get the President around, and it would take at least 40 minutes or an hour to get the President off the train and then back on again. Then there is also my entourage that has to go with me, so I thought it would be much better if I could present this wonderful gavel here to the Post Commander, Art Jackman, and say to you that I am now taking part in the dedication of that Legion Hall.

You have got a record here in men who served, and I want to congratulate you on the contribution you made, not only to the Second World War but to the first one. Some of my old cronies came from this part of the State, and I am very proud indeed to present to you, Art, this gavel. I hope you will use it with circumspection and that you will never be arbitrary in the use of it. I appreciate the privilege of being able to do this.

Now I just want to call your attention to a fact or two. This campaign of mine is a crusade. It is a crusade in the interest of the people. There is just one issue in this campaign, and that is whether special privilege shall run the country, or whether the people shall run the country.

You know, we have the greatest Government in the world in this country. It is a government for the people, as long as the people attend to their business and make that government work.

Well now, back in 1946 two-thirds of the people stayed at home and one-third of the people of this country elected, I would say, the next to the worst Congress this country ever had. And the other two-thirds didn't have anything to cry about, because they stayed at home and let it happen.

Now, if you do that this time, you won't have anybody to blame but yourselves, because the welfare of this Nation and the welfare of this world depends on what you do on November the 2d in this campaign.

I want you here in Missouri to roll up a majority that will give you a full Democratic congressional delegation in the Congress, and show the world that you are hind your President in his efforts for peace, and in his efforts for the welfare of the people of this country.

For the last 16 years, policies have been inaugurated by the Democratic administrations during that period for the welfare of the everyday man, the welfare of the farmer, the welfare of the laboringman, and the welfare of the small businessman and white-collar worker.

If you want to overturn that and give the country back to the special privilege boys, that is your affair, because you are the Government; but if you are going to do that, go out and vote for it, don't stay at home and then blame the other fellow because you get bad government.

Let me urge you with everything I have got, to go to the polls November the 2d, just as early as you can get up and get there, and vote the straight Democratic ticket from President down to constable, and the country will then be safe.

[15.] SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI (Rear platform, 10:05 p.m.)

Mr. Chairman, and fellow Missourians:

I don't think I've ever had anything please me more than to see this crowd in this great hometown of mine of Springfield. It's a wonderful, wonderful turnout.

I've had some grand times down here in Springfield. I've attended Legion conventions and Democratic conventions and every other kind of a convention in this town, and I have myself run for the Senate 4 times-twice in the primary and twice in the general election. And each time I paid several visits to this great city you were always kind to me, and I appreciate it. It shows how you feel towards your President--your Missouri President.

It looks to me as if the whole 60,000 Springfield people are down here tonight. And you know--

Voice: Republicans!

Oh, the Republicans are going to be converted.

You know, in my trip across the country, at nearly every city where I stopped--I say, at nearly every city--at every city where I stopped the turnout was in proportion to this one here in Springfield. Very few of them were as big, but in a little town up in Iowa there were 2,500 people on the platform, and I asked the Mayor how many people lived in that town, and he said 500. And I said, "Where did the rest of them come from?"

Down here in West Texas, in a little town called Sierra Blanca, they had just a half a dozen people in the town, but when the train got there there were 500 people on the platform.

That goes to show that the people are interested in the story I've got to tell them. They want to know what the issues are in this campaign. And that issue is finely drawn, clearly drawn. The issue is between the special interests and the people. That's the issue in this campaign. And I've been making that .perfectly plain across this country, and the people are interested in it. And the reason they are interested in it is because they have had enough of this "donothing" 80th Congress--which you stayed at home and allowed to be elected by the Republicans.

Now, you right here in Springfield have got a chance to remedy that situation. You want to send George Christopher to Congress so I'll have somebody from this district I can work with.

I don't want you to stop there. I want you to elect the whole Democratic ticket in Missouri, and I know that's what you're going to do.

There is one thing that you are vitally interested in around here, and that's farming and the dairy business. I know all about what this town depends upon. And then, you have a great many good railroad workers here in this town--and the railroad workers are my friends, and I thank them for that.

Now let me tell you: There's a lot of propaganda going on in this country. They're trying to make the laboring people and the white-collar workers who live in town believe that the high cost of living is due to the fact that the farmer is getting a fair price for his crops; and they're trying to make the farmer believe that the high cost of things is caused by the laboringman getting good pay. Now, there's no truth in either one of those statements.

In this country last year there was an income of $217 billion, and that income was fairly distributed so the farmer got his fair share, the laboringman got his fair share, the white-collar man got his fair pay, and the merchant got his. That's what the Democrats stand for: a fair distribution of the income of this country.

That's not what the Republicans want. They want the special privilege fellows to get the money.

They tried to cut the ground from under our farm program the first thing when they went in there, and they gave themselves a rich man's tax bill, and tried to take the liberties away from labor. That's what they did as soon as they got a chance.

And you want to bear those things in mind when you go to the polls this fall, because you're voting for yourselves when you vote the Democratic ticket, and you're voting for the special interests when you vote the Republican ticket--and it's always been that way. Don't let anybody tell you anything different.

I've been across this country, from one end to the other, and the people are beginning to wake up. I'm making a crusade for the Government and for the people. This is one of the most crucial elections this country has ever been through. You're either going to turn the country over to the special privilege fellows, or you're going to keep it yourselves. If you want to keep it yourselves you want to send me back to the White House and you want to elect a Democratic Congressman. Then you'll be safe.

The best thing you can do now is to get up early on election day, go down there, and vote the Democratic ticket straight.

You know what you did in 1946. Twothirds of you stayed at home--and look what you got. You got just what you deserved. You don't want to do that again, because we certainly don't want this country to go down hill.

Those backward-looking fellows want to turn the clock back; they want to go back to some place. The Democrats want to forward, and they've always wanted to go forward--and everything that's progressive in this country has been inaugurated by a Democratic administration. Just study your history and you'll find that is true.

Be sure and vote early on election day an don't any of you stay at home.

I wish it wasn't so late at night. I would like to go into all the issues in this campaign. I could talk from now until morning on this subject, but you don't want to stay up that late.

[16.] MARSHFIELD, MISSOURI (Rear platform, 11:10 p.m.)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for that wonderful introduction. I think you are a good prophet. You know, it is always a pleasure for me to stop in Missouri and see my old friends. I have been here in this town time and again, when I was running for the Senate, and this town was always good to me in the campaigns that we have had here before, and I am sure that this town is going to be good to me this time.

Some of the newspapermen on board say I talk too much about Missouri, in every State where I have been I am always comparing some of the things that they have with how much better Missouri is. They say I talk too much about that, but I can't help it because Missouri is just as good as there is, and they don't make 'era any better.

As I came across the Nation--I have been across the Nation and back, starting in Washington and going to San Francisco, and I am this far on the way to Washington again--the country is in a more prosperous condition, so far as the farms are concerned, than ever in the country's history.

I stopped in Iowa at Des Moines and attended a plowing contest, where there were a hundred thousand people present, and all those farmers were from all over, from Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and North Dakota, and South Dakota, and Missouri, and Kansas. And they were having a plowing contest; and I suggested that I would like to see whether I could plow again, if they had a four-mule, two-gang plow, I would see what I could do; and they said I was an old fogy, that they didn't use that sort of plow any more. So I told them all right, I wouldn't be like the Republicans who want to turn the clock back, they could go ahead and do their plowing with tractors.

Then I went on from there to Colorado, across Kansas, and people turned out at every place, just like you have turned out here to see the President, because they are interested in the welfare of this country, they want to know what the issues are in this campaign, and I think all the people are going to try to vote intelligently this time. If they do that, they will vote the Democratic ticket, because the Democrats have always stood for the people, and they stand for the people now. The Republicans are for the special interests, every time they have had control of the Government--the special interests had a back-door entrance to the Treasury. I am sure that is not what you want. You want this Government to go on as our forefathers rounded it--a government of the people. You are the Government, when you exercise your right to vote; and if you exercise the right to vote, and enough people vote, the right people will always get into office.

It is the lazy people who don't go to the polls that cause bad men to be elected to office, they don't want to exercise that authority which they have, to create a government.

Now Missouri has a splendid ticket in the field this time from top to bottom, and I would give anything in the world if every county in Missouri would go Democratic, because you have a Missourian running for President. Missouri is in the forward-looking column. Missouri does not want to turn the clock back. Missouri wants to go ahead with progress; and that is what the Democratic Party stands for.

I wish I had more time to go into all the details of the issues in this campaign, but it is getting so late tonight, and you have been standing up here so long waiting for me to arrive, that I don't feel like I ought to bore you with too much conversation.