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483030849
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Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Oxford, Iowa
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483030849
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document
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Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Oxford, Iowa
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collections
President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)
Speech Files
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483030849
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18
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1948-09-18
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9
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1948
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Sept. 18, 1948
"NATIONAL
ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
ENTER
SERVICE
BOVERNY
ENT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT OXFORD,
IONA, 8:50 a. m., C. S. t.
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, ladies and gentlemen: I certainly
am happy to see this wonderful turnout in Oxford, Iowa. You know,
your candidate for Senator, who will be Senator from Iowa after this
election is over -- Senator Gillette, told me that Oxford University
in England was named after this town. It was rather difficult to
understand that, since I understand you just celebrated your 100th
anniversary last year, but it is interesting anyway.
I know you live in 8 very wonderful, fertile part of this
great United States, and I heard another remarkable fact about this
great city of Oxford. They tell me in all the hundred years of your
existence you never went wrong politically -- you have always been
democratic.
I don't have to stand here and convince you, then, that the
Democratic Party stands for what is best for the farmer. I am going
to elaborate on that down in Dexter, which I understand is a hot-bed
of Republicanism. But I know I don't have to convince you about con-
servation and crop insurance and rural electrification and those
other things which the Democratic Party instituted and which has
given the farmers the greatest prosperity they have ever had in their
history.
There is only one thing I want to caution you about. Pros-
perity sometimes is a bad thing for some people. It makes them lezy
and indifferent to the welfare of their country and their neighbors.
The farmer now is in 8 prosperous condition, the most prosperous
condition he has ever been in in the history of the country, or in
the history of the world, for that matter.
I want to urge you people who live in the great farming
communities to remember that the government of the United States is
a government of the people. It is your government. In fact, you
are the government. In order to implement that government and make
it work as it should, you must exercise that greatest of all privi-
leges, the privilege of voting -- expressing yourself at the polls
in a free country.
Now, in 1946, people didn't do that. They didn't exercise
their right on election day, and a very small minority of the voting
population of the country gave us the worst congresswe have had in
the history of the country, except one. Only one, I would say, was
worse than this 80th Congress which has just finished. I will let
you look up your history books to see which one that was, and I
think you will agree with me when you read about it.
I
want to urge you,
don't make that mistake again -- don't make that mistake again.
Turn out and vote the Democratic ticket on November the second, and
elect a Democratic Governor from Iowa, a Democratic Senator, and a
Democratic Congressmen from this district. It will be 8 lot easier
for your President to protect the rights of the people.
I can't tell you, again, how much I appreciate this privilege
They tell me these bands come from all over Iowa that are here this
morning. That is a compliment, and I appreciate it. I hope you
have a most successful celebration the rest of the day.
Thanks again.