Press Release, Remarks of President harry S. Truman in Queens, New York

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE TRUMAN REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT THE LOST BATTALION ARCHIVES AND NATIONAL SERVICE LIBRARY HALL, IN QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY, OCTOBER 29 GOVERNMENT 1928, 8:10 p. m. E. S. T. Mr. President, distinguished guests, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Farley -- and all good Democrats of Queens. This reception is really heart-warming. In fact, I have had the grandest two days in Greater New York than any man in the world could want to have. I think I have seen at least three and a half million people, and they have had a chance to see me; and I have also had a chance and will have a chance tonight to éxpress to you my views on the thing with which this great nation of ours is faced. We haven't been able to get the candidate on the other ticket to do that, but we are smoking him out slowly. This is the kind of reception that a winning team gets, and don't let anyone fool you, The Democrats this time are the winning team -- as they usually are. Let me tell you why we are the winning team. We are winning because the American people are aroused. The people have learned what this election is all about. They have made up their minds to vote for the party that is working for them. Sixty million people are going to vote on November the second. That is a conservative estimate in my mind. Sixty-one million people are at work now. f that sixty-one million will vote, the Democratic ticket, we will be all right. And when those people vote, they are going to throw the Galluping Polls right in the ashecan -- you watch !em. There are going to. be more red-faced pollsters on November the third than there were in 1936, when the Literary Digest said that Roosevelt shouldn't be elected. Yes, that is what the polls sh owed. They said the man who wants so much to be President couldn't lose in New York State. Well, you know what happened in 1944. In 1944, when the polle showed that Now York.State was going Republican, you re- member what happened, don't you? Well, the Democrats won in New York, and we are going to do it again. In entering this Lost Battalion Hall tonight, I noticed pictures showe ing the record of the Lost Battalion. The 77th Division -- 28th Division -- 35th Division -- and the 90th Division were all side by side in that drive. It was my duty to fire some 75 mm shells over into the Argonne Forest and put a Battery out of action. I don't know whether that Battery was firing on the Lost Battalion or not, but it was over there and they didn't fire any more after we got through with them. I remember the late Major General Alexander E. Anderson. I knew him very well. I had a very high regard, as did every member of the 36th' Division, for the 165th Infantry. I see some men sitting down here in this audience with whom I am well acquainted, who were present in those days when the coun- try really needed help. I wish I had time this evening to talk to you about all the issues in this campaign. However, you people in Queens, I am sure, know the facts about housing, and the educational crisis, and the acute shortage of hospitals and doctors. These are matters on which the Republican Party has a most disgraceful record. The Democrats have a fine record of fighting for your interests, and I am proud to be a Democrat. The Democratic Party was founded by Thomas Jefferson to be the Party of the people. Andrew Jackson implemented that when he had his fight with the United States Bank, and kept the Biddles from owning the Government, in 1828 to 1836. And then Woodrow Wilson revived the Democratic Party and set it on the right track once more. Franklin Roosevelt carried on in those great tradi- tions to make the Democratic Party the Party of the people, and I have been doing my best to carry on in that same line, because I believe in the Demop cratic Party. (OVER)