Ask the Scholar
Document scope · 1 page
Scholar
Ask about this object, its catalog metadata, its source description, or the page inventory.
For page-specific OCR and visual context, open one of the page chats.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
498052601
label
Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Bridgeport, Pennsylvania
core
doc
dtoType
document
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
498052601
contentType
document
title
Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Bridgeport, Pennsylvania
citationUrl
collections
President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)
Speech Files
largeImageUrl
imageCount
1
hasImages
yes
source
import
hasTranscription
no
Source extras
naId
498052601
levelOfDescription
item
productionDates
day
7
logicalDate
1948-10-07
month
10
year
1948
recordType
description
ocrSource
nara-archive
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
bfa64270975e5190
ocrText
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT AT
BRIDGEPORT, PENNSYLVANIA
"NATIONAL
OCTOBER 7, 1948
--
9:40
A.M.,
E.S.T.
ARCHIVES AND
RECORDS
SERVICE"
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Fellow Democrats of
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania: I can't tell you howI appreciate
this wonderful turnout in this great industrial center in Pennsylvania
at this time of day. It shows to me very plainly that you are really
interested in the coming campaign. It shows to me that you want to
find out just exactly what the issues are, and that you want to see
what your President looks like, you want to know what he stands for,
and then you can go to the polls on November 2nd and vote intelligently
for your own interests.
Now, there are a number of issues in this campaign, but there
is only one fundamental issue and that is the people against the
special interests.
The Democratic Party
represents the people. The Republican
Party does now and always has represented the special interests.
Among the first things they did when they got control of the
Congress of the United States -- that lawful 80th Congress which has
shown conclusively that they are for the special interests --
was to pass a rich-man's tax bill for themselves, and to begin to
take liberties away from labor.
The Democratic platform is for the repeal of the Taft-Hartley
Act, and if you will elect a Democratic Congress, send Harry Keller
to Congress from this District, and that will help, because if we
get a Democratic Congress we will work on that Taft-Hartley Bill mn
your interests. If you send a Republican Congress, they will take the
rest of your liberties away from you.
I have been trying to get this Congress to do something in
the public interest. They met first in January 1947, and I went to them
with a Message on the State of the Union asking for certain things.
They didn't do anything I talked with them about. Then in November 1947
I caled a Special Session and asked them to do certain things about
prices, and in the interests of the general public. They did nothing.
Then in my Message on the State of the Union in 1948, I put the same
proposition up to them. They did nothing.
Then they went to Philadelphia, and they wrote the most hypotritical
platform that has ever been put before the public. I called them back
into session to do some of the things they said they were for. Do you
know what they did? They wenthone without doing a single, solitary thing;
and now they think they are going to fool the people.
They did nothing about prices. You know, Taft said that if we would
let the price controls off, everything would level off, particularly
clothing. Now, all you people who have to buy clothing for your children
starting school thisfall, know exactly what the situation is -- that
prices went up, and up and up -- went through the roof. Didn't hurt
Mr. Taft or
the economic royalists.
Remember those' things now when you go to the polls on the 2nd
of November, and watch what I am saying to you people. They dare not
answer me. They are afraid to get on the issues. They talk about home,
and Mother, what a nice country it is, "you can trust us." You can't
trust 'em. The 80th Congress proved that. That Congress was a special
interests Congress. It had more lobbyists around its doors than any
other Congress that has ever met in the history of the United States.
Don't send back another one like that. ab the polls on the
2nd of November, Just to be sure you are right, vote the straight
Democratic ticket, and then you will have a State Administration and
a National Administration that is in the interests of the people and
not the special interests.