Rear Platform Remarks in Indiana and Illinois

[1.] NAPPANEE, INDIANA (7:25 a.m.)

My friends:

I want to express to you the appreciation I have for your coming out so early and coming down to the station to give us this greeting. It is encouraging, and it is very heartening. And it is a good sign of what you will be likely to do on the 8th day of November. This is not an occasion for a political address or a discussion of national issues. I am going to try to do that at 3:30 this afternoon and again at 7:30 tonight, and as most of you, I have no doubt, are able to get to the radio, you will hear a lot of it then.

[2.] WELLSBORO, INDIANA (Water stop)

I have to get up pretty early to do my job ordinarily, but you get up earlier than I do. Don't you think this is pretty early in the morning to begin to make a speech ? I am grateful for your coming down to give a greeting like this. It is very encouraging, and it is heartening. And it is a sign of what you are likely to do on the 8th of November. At 3:30 this afternoon you will be able to hear something of a speech more than I can make on this occasion.

[3.] WOODVILLE, INDIANA (8:40 a.m.)

I certainly appreciate your coming to give me this greeting. It shows you get up as early in the morning as I do to do my job. I greatly appreciate it. It is heartening, and it is encouraging. And it is a sign of what you will do on the 8th of November.

[4.] GARY, INDIANA (9 a.m.)

I doubt whether any President has ever received such a greeting as you are giving to me this morning. I appreciate it. It is heartening. It is encouraging in this fight. It is an indication of the action which you will take on the 8th day of November.

We have passed through 3 long years of national crisis. These difficulties of our Nation were brought on us from abroad. The administration in Washington has taken unprecedented measures calling into action the full powers of the Federal Government in the protection of our people from this invasion. We have succeeded in the defense of our people from the invasion of fear and interference from abroad, and we have preserved the institutions of the United States. We first fought a great battle of defense. We have turned our great instrumentalities and measures into an offensive all along the economic front and are restoring employment and agriculture to the United States. We are able at this moment to say to you that men are returning to their jobs at the rate of 500,000 per month, that, since the adjournment of the Democratic House of Representatives and the cessation of their interferences with our program of recovery, we have returned over 1 million men to their jobs.

There is one fundamental difference between our program and that of our opponents that is absolutely fundamental to all of you, that is, the continued protection of our industries from foreign goods. If it were not for the protective tariff today there would be millions more unemployed in our country. If we were to let down the tariff barriers which surround you and which protect you, we should have a new and worse depression.

It is the most potent of all the emergency measures in protection of our people, and yet our opponents propose to reduce that protection. They propose to reduce it at a time when, in the economic debacle among other nations of the world, currencies have depreciated and brought lowered standards of living and lower wages to them, your competitors. They are able to penetrate our tariff wall in many places. The Tariff Commission is at present engaged in investigating these questions. Through it we may be able to repair these breaks which today are depriving the American workman of his employment and decreasing the prices to the American farmer. Our opponents have proposed in this campaign that they will abolish the authority which was established to the Tariff Commission to act in these emergencies. And not only do they propose to reduce the tariff but they propose to destroy the means of readjustment when it becomes necessary to preserve your jobs.

If the protective tariff is to be maintained and if the policies of the Republican Party of restricting immigration so that our own people may be employed are to be maintained, it rests with you, the workingmen and workingwomen of the United States. It can be done solely and only by the return of the Republican Party to power on the 8th day of November. If you desire a change by which the tariff on which your jobs are built shall be reduced, if you desire a change by which immigration shall be allowed to reenter the United States to compete for jobs at the gates of your factories, you have only to vote for our opponents. We are fighting against. these changes. We are fighting for the protection of the American people in their homes and firesides. We have no other interest than to maintain the stability of our own country and restore its employment from the shocks which it has received from outside our borders. We have builded up protection to you in a score of directions, and those protections and those measures are at this moment working steadily for the restoration of our country.

Now, I want again to express my appreciation for the support which you have shown by your gigantic welcome this morning. I have never seen so great a crowd gathered at such a time, and it is a demonstration that the Republican Party will be returned on the 8th day of November to complete its task.

[5.] GRESHAM JUNCTION, ILLINOIS (9:42 a.m.)

My friends:

I deeply appreciate this greeting. It is encouraging. It is heartening, and it is evidence as to where you will stand in this State on the 8th day of November next.

You will realize that this is hardly an occasion for a long discussion of national issues. I have to speak twice during the day today, once at Springfield at about 3:30 and again in St. Louis at 7:30, and I am in hopes you may be able to listen on the radio. I do have something to say on those two occasions, and I know you would like for me to preserve my voice so as to be able to get it across.

Thank you.

[6.] JOLIET, ILLINOIS (10:35 a.m.)

My friends:

I have had receptions of a dimension, since coming into this State, that have been almost unparalleled in the history of Presidential campaigns, and I deeply appreciate your greeting. It is heartening. It is encouraging, and it is stimulating to continue this fight. And it is a profound indication of where the Republican State of Illinois will be on the 8th day of November.

I am confident that the State of our Union that gave us the first Republican President is going to maintain the Republican Party in the guidance of the policies of this Government.

You will realize that this is not an opportunity for a long discussion of our national issues. I am speaking at Springfield at 3:30 this afternoon, and I am speaking again at St. Louis at 7:30 tonight. I know that most of you have access to the radio. I hope you will listen in because I am going to have something to say with regard to our opponents and the policies they propose for the American people.

This town among all towns has had much from the Republican Party. It has protection to its industries, and it has protection in a double sense today, through not only the present tariff but its protection through a Republican agency created in the last tariff bill, by which breaches which are being made today in the tariff wall can be repaired. They will not be repaired by the Democratic Party, who propose to reduce those tariffs and to increase unemployment in the United States thereby. And those breaches must be repaired to protect the American people in our factories. Therefore, our problem today is not the reduction proposed by our opponents, but it is the very large question as to whether it is necessary to increase the tariff in order to make more jobs for our factories and our farms.

My friends, we have gone through 3 years of difficult times. These times have brought great hardships. They have come upon us as the aftermath of the World War and the collapse of 30 nations abroad from that war. We have established instrumentalities and measures by which we have protected the United States from infinitely worse conditions than those with which we have been confronted, and we have turned those measures to an attack upon the economic situation. The result has begun to show since the adjournment of the Democratic House of Representatives. We have now had 4 months in which to see the results of those measures established by the Republican administration for meeting this battle.

I am glad to give to you this today, to carry some conviction to you, and that one figure is that in the last 4 months 1 million men have been returned to their jobs.

I thank you again for your greeting. It is the most impressive evidence of where your heart lies, and that is in the Republican Party.

[7.] MORRIS, ILLINOIS (11:04 a.m.)

My friends:

I am afraid I cannot undertake to make myself heard over all parts of this tremendous crowd. I have to save my voice for this afternoon at Springfield and tonight at St. Louis, but I do want to express my appreciation for this greeting. It is a sign of what you will do on November 8th.

[8.] Ottawa, ILLINOIS (11:35 a.m.)

My friends:

I find it difficult to assemble the words to express the appreciation I have for such greetings as have been given to me since I came into the State of Illinois this morning. It is heartening and encouraging and a sure sign of what will happen on November 8th--that the State of Illinois, which furnished the first Republican President of the United States, will continue to be under Republican leadership.

I will speak to you this afternoon from Springfield. I trust many of you have radios, so that you can listen in. I am going to speak to you tonight from St. Louis, and I have to conserve my voice in the open air, so that I can give the impressions which I have of our opponents with the vigor which they deserve.

I thank you for your greeting.

[9.] LASALLE, ILLINOIS (12 noon)

My friends:

I do want to express my appreciation for this tremendous greeting. It is heartening, and it is encouraging. It is a sign of what you will do on the 8th day of November.

I thank you.

[10.] HENRY, ILLINOIS ( 12:45 p.m.)

I want to express my appreciation for this greeting. It is encouraging, and it is a great stimulation to continue the fight. And it is a sound indication as to what Illinois will do on the 8th day of November.

Thank you.

[11.] PEORIA, ILLINOIS ( 1:30 p.m.)

This is unquestionably the greatest assembly of citizens at a railway station yet in history. I find it difficult to formulate the words which express my gratitude for your greeting. It is encouraging. It is heartening in this battle, and it is evidence of where the State of Illinois will be on the 8th day of November.

This is not a time to discuss at length our national issues. Within 2 or 3 hours I shall be able to talk to you by radio from Springfield and again this evening from St. Louis. I have one point of which I always wish to remind both the citizens of the town and the citizens of the country, and that is that in these terrible times--and I use the word advisedly--the Republican Party has given a protection to this country from collapses that would have endangered this Nation to a degree of which you have no comprehension. We have turned our great instrumentalities and those unprecedented measures now into complete attack upon the depression. We are moving forward. We are succeeding. Over a million of men have returned to work during the past 4 months, and they are returning to work at the rate of half a million a month. That is the evidence of the success of the great program which the Republican Party offers to this country.

Our opponents are offering you no emergency program. They are giving you some vague promises with regard to the future. The real problem of the American people is to get out of this depression, to restore men to their jobs, and to restore to agriculture their prices. That is the problem upon which our party has concentrated itself. That is the battle in which we are engaged. We have carried the first-line trenches, and we say to you that this is no time to change policies and strategies until we have won this battle complete.

Now, I wish I could more adequately express the appreciation which I have for this greeting. It is the most impressive group that has yet greeted me at any point in the United States, and some of the groups have been most encouraging indeed. I see in your faces and by your looks that we will carry the State of Illinois and by so doing you carry the Nation.