Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Lexington, Kentucky

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT TAUNTI LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY INTERNATIONAL "NATIONAL ARCHIVES OCTOBER 1, 1948, 10.35 AM CST RECORDS SERVICE" Thank you very much, Mr. Underwood, next Congressman from this District! -- I anpreciate that introduction very much. I am certainly happy to be here in Lexington, in the heart of the blue grass country. You know, every Kentuckian that used to come ti Misscuri -- and they are pretty near the same way yet -- would always.say they had come from the blue grass of Kentucky near Lexington, and that old Doc udley had been the physician of their grandparents, and that set them up just right in misscuri. I am sorry 1 can't stay very long this time, but you know that I am in the midst of a politicalrace, and I have to keep running. You people know a great deal about horse races in Lex- ington, and you know that it duesn't matter which horse is ahead or behind at any given moment, it's the horse that comes cut ahead at the finish that counts. I am trying to do in politics what CITATION has done in the horse races. I propose at the finish line on November the second to come out ahead, because I think the people understand what the issues are in this campaign. The stakes are high. In fact, the presperity of this country is at stake. For the last 16 years our country has enjoyed increasing prosperity. The forms are prosperous, business is doing well, and the workers are reaping the benefits of full employment. You know, last year this nation had the greatest income in the history of the world. The national income was more than 217 billion dollars, and there was a fair distribution of that income. The business men got his fair share, the business man got his fair share, and the farmers get their fair share. That was not a Republican policy, that was a policy inaugurated by the Democratic Perty in 1933, when the fermer was at the bottom of the pile, and the working man was cut of work -- 14 or 15 million idle people in the cluntry in 1932 when Franklin Roosevelt tock over the Government. Since that time, the farmer is at the top of the heap. We have 61 million employed, the greatest number of employed in the history of the world. And if we had inflation control, which I have asked for from the Congress time and time again, everybody would have been extremely happy. New, I wonder if you people here want to SC back to 8$ tobacco, and 3 hogs, and 15c corn, End 25$ wheat. Well, that is what you were getting in 1932, when your farms were being taken away from you. You almost didn't have E market for your tobacco because you didn't have a place tu raise it part of the time because the mortgagors were taking away your farms. There were 123 thousand farmers taken off their farms in 1932. The smallest number of foreclosures in the history of the country was last year, less than 800. That's all there is in this campaign -- it's the special interests against the people. The people, I am sure, understand that situation, and if they understand it, they are going to send Virgil Channan to the Senate frum Kentucky this year, and they are going to send Tom Underwood to the House from this District this year. (OVER)