Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Alpine, Texas

TRUMAN ENTER "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND SECURITY RECORDS IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT LPINE, TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 25, 1948 - 7:30 p.m. C.s.t. Doctor., Congressmen Regan, Governor Jester, and fellow Democrats: This certainly is a wonderful turnout. You know, I have been to Alpine before. At that time, you didn't pay any attention to me. That Was before most of you were born, about 1908 or 9. I came down here and went over & great part of this great State with a bunch of people who were interested in ir- rigation problems on the Pincus River, and I had :a great time going over the Davis Mountains I didn't-catch anything, but I didn't have to run from any bears. I wish I had time to visit the Big Ben National Park. That is a most wonderful park, and I hope that sometime during my next term I will have a chance to come down here and visit it. I understand that you have nearly forty thousand people E year who visit that great park. The park is a shining example of how State and Federal Governments can cooperate. All the people of this country have reason to be grateful to the great State of Texas for appropriating one and a half million dollars to buy the land for this fine highway that is built into the park. We also have reason to be grateful to the cattlemen who formerly grazed their herds in that area, and who voluntarily withdrew those herds when this great piece of land became a park. Now, that is real patrictism, because those men were making money raising their cattle over there, but they wanted that park to be for the pub- lic; and I congratulate them on that attitude. There is still a lot of work to be done in the Big Ben National Park, and I am hoping it will be done soon. The park will be finished, if -- if Democrats are re- elected, because the Democratic Party believes in E great system of parks for the enjoyment of all the people. The Republican Party, however, is so interested in what it calls economy -- in quotation marks -- it isn't real economy, but they call it economy -- it's 8 matter of cut end slash here and there without any system whatever, that it has been hacking away at appropriations for all our national parks. This Republican do-nothing 80th Congress cut off nearly four million dollars from the appropriation for the National Park Service this year. Last year they cut it much more than that. The Renublicans have been cutting funds for reclamation, irrigation, soil conservation, public power, and all the other projects that mean so much to all you people here in the West. On November the second, you are going to have a chance to make up your mind whether you want to go along with people who want to turn the clock back. The Republicans want to turn the clock back to 1898. They have got 0 lot of moss backs in Congress who are Chairmen of principal Committees in the Congress who are living in 1898. Don't let anybody tell you anything different, that if the Republicans can obtain control of the Congress, the same old moss back: gang will be in control, and the people in the West and in Texas won't have a hinaman's chance. Bear that in mind. You have got to vote for the principles of the people who are looking forward, not for those who are looking back. I am very happy to be here tonight. I can't tell you how very much I appreciate this wonderful turnout. This is magni- ficent. I went to say to you that turncuts all over the country have been mernificent, and those turnouts have scared the Repub- licans to death. They have got to work! They are actually on the run, and we are going to keep them that way.