Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, El Paso, Texas

IMVEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT EL PASO, TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 25, 1948, 11:20 a. m., M. S. T. Mr. Chairman, Governor Jester, Honorable Mayor of E1 Paso, the Attorney General of the United States, and distinguished guests on this platform, and fellow Democrats of Texas: It gives me a great deal of pleasure to come back to El Paso once more. I have been here on a number of occasions, and I have spent here some of the pleasantest hours of my life. I want to talk to you very fränkly about some of the vital issues in this campaign, issues in which you are interested. You all know what the Democratic record has been in building up the West. In 1933, the Demo- crats took the reclamation program out of moth balls and put it into practice. This was because the American people had elected a President who believed in the West -- Franklin D. Roosevelt. Today, reclamation projects irrigate four and a half million acres of land and provide more than three million kilowatts of power. You people in E1 Paso know how important these things are. Over twenty million dollars has been S pent on the Rio Grande project. Right here in your area, it irrigatos 160,000 acres. The Republicans have consistently fought this program for the development of the West. That is why I have been amazed in this campaign to hear spokesmen for the Republican Party claim that the Republican Party is a friend of reclamation. The record proves that that is not so. There is not a word of truth in that claim. The record shows that the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives cut the reclamation program for the West by more than fifty per cent in 1948. You 'people here in the West rose up in anger at this slaughter. Now, what do you suppose the Republican Chairman of the Appropriations Committee thought about your protests? "Well," he said, "the West is squeal- ing like a stuck pig." That is what the Republican leaders thought about you. That same Republican Chairman squeals himself every time he has to make an appropriation that would be helpful to this part of the world. The Democrats in the Senate and in the House succeeded in restoring some of the necessary funds. Ninety-five per cent of the Republicans in the House voted against providing the money I said was necessary for reclamation. Ninety-two per cent of the Democrats voted for the restoration. By their votes the shall know them. That is the difference between the Republican and the Democratic attitude toward the West. These are hard, cold facts. That is why I am amazed when I hear Republican campaign orators trying to take credit for a program that the Democrats had to save from the Republican meat axe. That is just one example of what the Republicans tried tn do to the West last year. Now, what do you suppose they are planning to do if they gain com- p lete control of the Government n'ext year? Let me give you one example of that. Let me tell you about their plans for electric power, which is SO vitall; important to the continued growth and prosperitypof all the West. You know how public power from publicly constructed dams has helped bring new industries but here. The Republicans don't like to see cheap public power, because it means that the big power monopolies cannot get their rake-off at the expense of the public. The Republican Congressman, who would be Chairman of the Committee on Public Works in the House of Representatives if we get another Republican Congress, has just written a very revealing article for a magazine. That man's name is George A. Dondero, and he comes from Detroit, Mi chigan. His article is entitled, "VANTED: A NEW FEDERAL POWER POLICY." It is printed in the PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY. I can' give you the chapter and verse, and I am going to give you some quotes from it. If you want to read it in full, you can get it. The date is September 9, 1948, and it is called, PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY. I am going to read you some of the things OVER