Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Carbondale, Illinois

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE SEPTEMBER 30, 1948 CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President to be delivered at Carbondale, Illinois, today, Friday, September 30, 1948, IS FOR RELEASE IN ALL REGULAR EDITIONS OF AFTERNOON NEWSPAPERS of today, September 30. Release to radio is upon delivery. PLEASE USE CARE TO PREVENT PREMATURE PUBLICATION OR RADIO "NATIONAL ANNOUNCEMENT. ARCHIVES AND RECORDS CHARLES G. ROSS ? Secretary to the President - - - I feel that I must talk to you today without mincing words about the danger of reaction that confronts this country. You are faced this coming Election Day with a fundamental decision that will affect you every year and every day for the rest of your lives. You are about to choose not merely between the Democratic and Republican parties, but between two different kinds of government. We are hearing a lot of propaganda these days to the effect that there is no real difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. That is a malicious untruth. When you elected Franklin Roosevelt in 1932, you found out what a difference there is between Democrats and Republicans. The very course of your lives was changed. The dark Republican days of discouragement and fear gave way to new hope and revived energy, as the Democratic Administration went to work for the people. We have be n working for the people - far all the people - for the past sixteen years. You remember how the Democratic Administration aided the farmer, until now farm income is ten times higher than in 1932. You remember how we saved millions of home owners and farm owners from foreclosure and eviction. You remember how we rescued the banking system, brought truth into the sale of securities, and established deposit insurance. Because of these safeguards, there has not been a single bank failure in the past three years. We established social security. The sweatshop and child labor were abolished. Respect for human rights was written into the statutes of the American government by the Democratic Party. We wrote into law for the first time the collective bargaining principle in labor relations, which protects the entire Nation. We enacted a minimum-wage law and started a program for slum- clearance and low-rent housing. We began the great multi-purpose operations in river valleys, which have brought irrigation, electric power, navigation and flood control to vast areas of the United States. Under the Democratic Administration, employment has risen to record-breaking heights. And the profits of business are larger than ever before. Despite obstructions from isolationists, we prepared our country against danger from abroad. Under Democratic leadership, the people gained an overwhelming victory in war against the forces of tyranny abroad. (OVER)