Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Madison, Wisconsin

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT AT THE TRUMAN STOCK PAVILION, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, MADISON, WISCONSIN NATIONAL THEREY OCTOBER 14, 1948 - 4:25 P.M., C.S.T. Mr. Chairman and Fellow Democrats of Wisconsin: I am more than happy to have this opportunity to talk to the people of Wisconsin. My Secretary of the Interior, Julius Krug, is a native of this great city, and he is a magnificient public official. I am especially glad to be in Madison which I remember was named by a nátional magazine as the perfect city to live in. Wisconsin is a State which gave us fighting Bob LaFollette; a State which has led all others in sound, progressive legislation; a State which has served as the model and the inspiration for all the other States in the country in the way in which its University has worked with the leaders of the State in pioneering a better way of life for all the people. Wisconsin needs to regain her position in leadership in the cause of liberalism in the Unitod States. Wisconsin about-faced a short time ago, ând they ought to come back and get in step with the people that are going forward. you can do that by rallying all your liberal fordes behind the common banner -- the banner of the Democratic Party. I am pleased that the followers of old Fighting Bob have recognized that the Democratic Party is the Party which has their interests at heart. I am very pleased that a leader of the old Progressive Party of Wisconsin, Carl Thompson, is the Democratic candidate for Governor in this election. And I think you will do yourselves a favor, in this Congressional District, if you send Horace Wilkie to the Congress. These men have joined the Democratic ranks because they know i,t is the only truly liberal Party today. What happened to the Republican Party in Wisconsin has been repeated on a national level. The 80 th Congress was the tragic answer to all those who hoped that the clephant had acquired a "new look." That 80th Congress was controlled -- a controlled Congross, where lobbyists pulled the strings and the people got stung. An excellent example of how we got legislation by lobby, instead of laws to meet our needs is found in the story of the Taft-Ellender-Wagner Housing Bill. I would like to tell you a little about that bill. It was sponsored by two Democrats and one Republican. It has been developed through three years of study. During this time, hundreds of thousands of words of testimony fróm every corner of the United States was collected. This study showèd that the United States, the most powerful Nation on earth, had failed to provide decent housing for its citizons. Three million American families are living doubled up with other families. Five million families are living in housing that isn't fit for an American citizen to live in. Five million are living in slums that are rotting out the cores of our great cities. We are falling fu5ther behind every year as construction fails to keep up with our needs, There is nothing more unAmerican than a city slum. Slums are tho breeding spots of crime, sickness, and chaos in every large city in America. Our farm housing is something that Americans don't like to talk about, either. More than half our farm homes do not meet modern American standards. The Democratic Party has placed at the top of its. program an answer to the housing problem. But what do the Republicans say? They say that private builders can do the job. They say this in, spite of the fact that private builders are not doing the job. This year the real estate is crowing that more homes are being built than were built in the former peak year of 1926. I ask you, what kind of hope is there when we brag about passing a mark set 22 years ago, when the needs, the job, and the problems were very much smaller? OVER