Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Willard, Ohio

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND REAR platForm REMARKS OF THE PRE IDENT RECORDS AT WILLARD, OHIO, OCTOBER 11, 1948 at SERVICE" 4:55 e. S. t. I have had a most wonderful reception in Ohio today. It has been just like this all across the State of Ohio. We start- ed in Cincinnati and came up the Western border of the State, and now we are headed for Akron, and it seems as if everybody in the neighborhood and in every city has turned out, because they are in- terested in what is taking place in the country today and in the world. It is good to be here in Willard this afternoon, even for a short stop. You people here in Willerd have a great tradition, a tradition set by Dan Willard many years 8 O when he was Presi- dent of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. I think it is significant that the name of Dan Willard is loved and respected all over the country, because he was the man who believed in the common people of the nation. He liked end respected the people who worked for him, and he recognized their right to join a union and bargain collectively. New, Dan Willard did not sneer at the "whistle stops" of our country. He trusted people, and people trusted him. I think that is a good principle. It is e,good way to run a railroed, and it is a good way to run a country. That is the way I have tried to run the country, but the Republican Cener SS would not cooper- ate, this 80th Congress. Now, that is the way, with your help, we are going to run the country for the next four years. The Republican candidate and the Republican Congress do not trust the people. They just work along at their old problem of trying to fool the people into voting for the interests of the few. They try to do it without telling you what they think. I have been cut among the people now for nearly a month. I believe you have got a right to know what I think, and I have been telling you what I think. Tonight, in Akron, I am going to talk over the radio about the Republican Toft-Hertley law. I am really going to tear the mask off the Republican Congress and the Republican candidate. In Cincinnati this morning, at C splenMid meeting, I talked about housing. I told the people there how your President had tried for three years to get a decent housing bill passed. At other places we stopped at in Ohio, I talked about prices. I told the people how your President had twice called Congress into special session in neffortto get something done about inflation that is picking your pockets. Since I have been in the White House, there has not been A moment of doubt about where I stood on issues which are of concern to the people of America today. I have always spoken out and I have taken a stand on every issue es it has come up. I don't wait for any polls to tell me what to think. That is a statement some of the Republican candidates cannot make. You know, since I started this campaign, I have talked to over 3 million people in various communities. They have come down to the train, just as, you did this afternoon, because they were interested in this election. They know that the peace of the Nation and the neace of the world depend, to a large extent, on this elec- tion. They know that the continued prosperity of our nation depends upon this election, and they want to know where the candidates stand on the issues. And that is what I have been telling you as simply and as plainly as I know how. There is not a single, solitary man or woman in the United States today who can't find cut in two minutes where I stand on the important matters like foreign policy, Iabor, agriculture, social security, housing, high prices, and all the other problems we as a nation have to face. (OVER)