Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Oneida, New York

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELE SE "NATIONAL REAR PLAtFORM REMARKS OF THE ARCHIVES PRESIDENT AT ONEIDA, NEW YORK RECORDS October 8, 1948 - 1:10 P.M., E.S.T Thank you, Mr. Abbott. It certainly is exhilirating 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 aday like this to listen to the President unless you were interested in the welfare of the country end 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 isione big issue -- and that issue is the people against special interests. That issue can be net 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 two days that are set aside for that purpose and then get up early in the morning on election dey 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 I 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-locking 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-lookine 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 compaign. Now, this Republican Congress -- this 80th Congress, this backward-loukin Congress -- made an attempt to turn the clock back. And if you hedn't had an advocate in the White House looking after your interests, who was perfectly willing to use the veto power which the Constitution sives him, then there is no telling what would have happened in the last two years. They tried to put a halter on labor. They tried to undermine the farm program, and they have tried with everything at their commandto turn the country over to the special interests. I hope you won't let that happen, really. I hope you, here in thiss 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 OVER