Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Pueblo, Colorado

"NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE" IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT PUEBLO, COLORADO, SEPTEMBER 20, 1948 6:07, p. m., m. S. t. Mr. Chairman, Governor Knous, Senator Johnson: I am most happy to be in this great city of Pueblo. I have been here many a time. One of the times I was here was a very, very, sad one. I was here at the funeral of Alva Adams, one of the great Sena- tors from Colorado. He was my personal friend. I was very fond of him, and he made history while he was in the Senate. I hope that Pueblo will always stay in the Democratic column. I understand that you'v almost doubled your population in the last ten years; and that wasn't by accident. It was because the Democrats in power in Washington were able to help you improve your conditions here. You know, Pueblo is the site of one of the greatest con- troversies that ever took place in the history of the country; and as a result of that controversy and the Pullman strike in Chicago, and the Homestead Steel strike in Pittsburgh, labor began to come into its own. And, when Franklin Rcasevelt was elected President of the United States, we got a Bill of Rights for labor. That Bill of Rights become effective, known as the Wagner Act, 13 years ago. Well, in 1946 labor stayed at home and didn't vote, and a lot of other people stayed at home and didn't vote because only one-third of the people entitled to vote in 1946 did vote; and we got the 80th Congress. The first thing that 80th Congress did -- and I vetood it three times; it tock three times to get it; I vetoed it three times -- they passed a rich man's tax bill. They began to line their own pockets. And the next thing they did WC S to take some of the freedom away from labor, that famous Taft-Hartley Act. Well, now, you're faced with this situation; As I told you a while ago, you thought you wanted & change in 1946. You got it. You got that rich man's tax bill end you got the Taft-Hartley Act. I wonder if you went to go any further with that sort of change? All right; if you don't on November the second you better get out and vote. You better get out and vote, and you better elect a Democratic Senator and & Democratic Congressmen from this district. And, well, if you do that, you can't help but elect the President because he's on the ticket ahead of them. There are a lot of other things besides those two things which I shell just call to your attention. One of them is recla- mation end irrigation. The Reclamation Act was passed about 30 years ago. Not much was done about it until you elected a Deuteratic administroticn in 1932, and then things began to happen. Since that time, more than 5,000,000 acres have been put to work that otherwise would be desert by the Democratic policies, and more then 90,000 f rms have been put under cultivation as 8 result of that policy. Now, yeu've got a great project here in this neighborhood, known ES the Gunnison-Arkansss project. If that project is carried out -- and it won't be carried out if the Republicans have their way, and if you let them have their way that will be your fault if that project is carried cut, that one project will create more power by ten or fifteen times -- twenty-two, I think -- twenty=two times 8 S much power as is used right here in Pueblo. That will mean more industries for this part of the world. It will mean more desert land under cultivation. It will mean prosperity for this part of the West. OVER