Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Wilmington, Delaware

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT WILMINGTON, DELAWARE. "NATIONAL AND RECORDS SERVICE" October 6, 1948 - 10:45 A.M. GOVERN MENT Mr. Chairman, I am certainly highly pleased at this wonderful reception: This reception reminds me of those I have been receiving all over the United States. It shows that the people are interested in the issues in this cam- paign, and they are coming out to learn about them. This is my first stop in Delaware for a speech. This is a crusade I am carrying to the people. I have many wonderful friends in this great State -- former Senator Hughes served with me in the Senate, and of course, your great man, Jim Tunnell, who is fighting for the same cause I am. It was a great blow to the people of Delaware when you stayed at home in 1946 and let Jim Tunnell get beaten. I don't want you to do that anymore. You have got a chance to undo that this year. This year, the country has awakened, I think. I have seen it on my trips through the West, and I know that on election day you are going to send Allen Frear to the Senate and Carl McGuigan to the House. Last year, I am told, he was named the man of the year in Delaware. This year, all Delaware is going to name him the man of 1948. Carl McGuigan is proud that Wilmington is his home town, and we of the Democratic Party are proud of his great labor background. This will be mighty helpful to us when we come to write some of the decent Democratic labor legislation in Washington. Mr. McGuigan and Mr. Allen Frear tell me that some of the people who work here in Wilmington are forced to find a place to live way over in Pennsylvania. I say that is wrong, I say they ought to do something about it, and I say they can do something about it. You all know about FHA and low rent public housing, and slum clearance and other great housing programs enacted by President Roosevelt's administration. During the war we were too busy building guns and tanks to build houses. When the war ended, it became clear that we were going to have a housing shortage, so I submitted to Congress a comprehensive housing program to take care of that shortage. We called it the Wagner-Ellender-Taft Bill. It would have enabled every American family, whatever that family's income, to have a decent place to live. The Republicans and the powerful real estate lobby fought that bill tooth-and-toe-nail I proposed this great housing program to the 80th do-nothing Con- gress. I told that Republican 80th Congress that we needed 20 million more homes by 1960. I explained to them that if we continue at the present rate of construction, we would hardly have more than half that many by 1960. The House of Representatives refused to act, so I called the special session of Congress in, just to deal with this housing, and high prices. Republicans and Democrats had to stand up before the people and be counted. 70% of the Democrats in the Senate stood up and said they were in favor of providing low-cost housing for the people of America. 70% of the Republicans who controlled the leaders in the Congress stood up and said they don't want to provide the people of America with low-cost housing. The record stands. The Congressional Record will show you just exactly how the two Parties divided on that proposition. You remember back in Hoover's campaign, the slogan was: "Two cars in every garage." Apparently, the Republican candidate is running on a slogan of two families in every garage. You can break up the housing shortage, if you want to, You can get lower prices, -- more social security -- health insurance for your family -- fair labor laws, and all the others you want and you need. You won't have any trouble getting them, but you can only get them by coming out and voting on the 2nd of November. You can only do that by going to the polls early, and making no mistake. Just vote the Democratic ticket (OVER)