Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Springfield, Illinois

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE October 12, 1948 CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President, to be delivered in Springfield, Illinois, this evening, Tuesday, October 12, 1948, is for RELEASE IN ALL REGULAR EDITIONS OF MORNING NEWSPAPERS of Wednesday, Octo- ber 13, 1948. Radio release is at 9:00 p.m., Central Standard Time, today, October 12, 1948 - or upon delivery if earlier. PLEASE USE CARE TO AVOID PREMATURE PUBLICATION OR RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT. CHARLES G. ROSS "NATIONAL Secretary to the President ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE - - - I'm glad to be here in Illinois tonight. I'm glad to be here because I have a lot of friends here, and besides, it's close to Missouri. I'm glad to be. here to tell you how proud I am of the ticket the Democratic Party is offering to the voters of Illinois. Never within my memory has any party offered your State a finer team than Adlai Stevenson and Paul Douglas. I know that Adlai Stevenson is going to make a splendid Governor. And when Senator Douglas gets down to Washington to work with your present great Senator, Scott Lucas; it will be a good thing for Illinois and a good thing for the country. A man is known by the company he keeps. I find myself in good company on your election ballot. I feel especially good about that when I consider the unhappy situation of the Republican candidate for President in that respect. He certainly is lining up with some queer characters. You ought to check the voting wecords of the candidates that he has been trying to get re-elected to the United States S,nate and the House of Representatives. Then you can judge for yourselves whether the elephant's "new look" means anything. No one ever comes to this historic city without thinking of Abraham Lincoln. I wonder tonight, as I have wondered many times in the past, what Lincoln would say if he could see how far the Republican Party has departed from the fundamental principles in which he SO deeply believed. Lincoln came from the plain people and he always believed in them. He put labor ahead of capital -- people ahead of property -- and principle above all else. I wonder what Lincoln would say if he could see how his party has become the tool of big business. How far do you suppose the real estate lobby would get with Abraham Lincoln? What do you suppose he would say to the power lobby and the railroad lobby? I have a notion that the only kind of lobby he would like would be a school teachers' lobby. The masters of the Republican Party today would have been the bitter enemies of Lincoln in his time, just as they are the enemies of his principles today. But I did not come here to talk about principles alone. I came to talk about putting principles to work for the good of our people. We Democrats are practical folks. We like to get down to cases and talk business. It's curious that our opponents, who claim to be so business- like and efficient, refuse to get down to specific issues. I don't blame them for trying to campaign on theory. They are afraid to tell the people where they stand on specific issues. The Republicans know that they can't run on their record - that record is too bad. But you ought, to know about their record. And since they won't tell you, I will. OVER