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    "label": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Seminole, Oklahoma",
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    "title": "Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Seminole, Oklahoma",
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            "day": 29,
            "logicalDate": "1948-09-29",
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/201505/734733/734733-02-002.tif",
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    "ocrText": "IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nIMMEDIATE REIEASE\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES AND\nRECORDS\nREAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT SEMINOLE, OKLAHOMA,\nSERVICE\"\nSEPTEMBER 29, 1948, 8:25 2. m., c.s.t.\nThis is a wonderful morning to be in one of the oil capitals of Oklahoma\nthis early and to see that everybody is out. That's what pleases me -- and to\nsee that you' re all so happy.\nI've had a most pleasant trip from the Red River to Oklahoma City and\nacross the Rock Island to Eastern Oklahoma. Your Governor has been a perfect\nhost. He has seen to it that the President has had every courtesy. He and\nMrs. Turner made it SO pleasant for us last night in Oklahoma City. I was told\nthat they had one of the finest meetings for women there that's ever been held\nin any part of the United States, and I suggested that the managers of that\nmeeting go up to Kansas City and show them how to do it.\nYou people are interested in the issues that are before the country in this\ncampaign or you wouldn't be out hore this morning to listen to what your\nPresident has to say. And these issues are clearly drawn. It me ans special\nprivilege against the people. The Republicans have always stood for special\nprivilege. They conclusively proved, in this last meeting of the Congress which\nthey controlled, that their ideal is for those people who are at the top.\nThey're not interested in the welfare of the people as a whole.\nIt has been the policy of the Democratic Party, from the beginning, to work\nin the interests of the country as a whole. You know, this last year we had\nthe greatest income in the history of the world -- 217 billion dollars -- and\nthat income was SO distributed that the farmer got his/share, the working man\ngot his fair share, and the businessman got his fair share. There wasn't any\ndistribution of that wealth SO that the hogs could get the best of it.\nBut the Republicans are trying to repeal that situation. They have begun\nimmediately to undermine the farm program, to take the liberties away from\nlabor, and to absolutely smother the small businessman. That's the issue in\nthis campaign. I want you to bear that in mind. I want you to study those\nissues. I'm trying to put them to you. baldly so you can understand exactly\nwhat we are doing.\nAs President of the United Statos I represent all the people in the country.\nI don't represent any special interest. But you'll find that this 80th\nCongress was completely surrounded by lobbies from every special interest in\nthe country, and they listened to those lobbies, as the results show. They\ntried to tear up the rural electrification program. They cut the appropriations\nfor the farmers to the point where it was almost necessary to close up shop,\nIf it hadn't been for the fighting Domocrats in the Senate of the Unitod States\nthe farm appropriation would have been cut 37%\nNow, you're interested in soil conservation. You're interested in farm\nsupport prices. You're interested in REA. I am, too. I want to continue those\nthings. I want to continue them on a basis so that instead of having 65% of\nthe farms in the United States with rural elentrification I want 100% of them\nto have it.\nNow, you didn't have any rural ectrification before the Democrats came\nalong and gave it to you. And now if you want to throw it away, the best way\nto do it is to take these special priviloge fellows and let them take it away\nfrom you and give it to the power trust. That's what they want to do. The cut\nout the appropriations for the feeder lines from the dams where most of this\npower is developed for rural electrification, and tried their best to make it\npossible for the power trust to take that power at the dam and then charge you\nwhatever they pleased for it.\nI'm against that. I think the Government is for the people and I've tried\nto show that all over the country. You know where I stand, Try and find out\nwhere the other people stand. They'11 give you a lot of double talk, and talk\nabout home and mother and what a beautiful country this is; but they won't\ntell you what the issues are in this campaign, because they're afraid. They know\nvery woll that if the people understand what the issues are they haven't a chance\nto win on November second.\nAnd I want to tell you something: If you want to help this situation you\nwant to turn out en masse on Election Day and see that Bob Kerr and Bob Stoed\ngo to the Congress. They're two fighting men and they're Democrats and they\nbolieve in the same principles of government that I do.\nOVER"
}