Press Release, Speech of President Harry S. Truman, Syracuse, New York

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REMARK OF THE PRESIDENT AT SYRACUSE, s TREHAY NEW YORK, October 8, 1948 at 1:50 p.m. "NATIONAL E. S. T. RECORDS and Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor, Mr. Chairman, and WENT fellow Democrats of Syracuse, New York: If you will bear with me, I will try not to keep you in this rain but a few minutes. I appreciate most highly your willingness to come out here and stand in this downpour in order to see and hear your President, but I will be as quick and as fast as I can in getting this thing over, but I want you to listen to me for just is little while. I am glad to be in this great industrial city which is surrounded on all sides by wonderfully presperous form country. I know that the farmers around here and the city people here in Syracuse are rulling together as team to provide this country with the greatest prosperity it has ever known. The Democratic Porty believes in that kind of teamwork - in that kind of unity. I want to see fermers and workers resper side by side. There are some Republicans, however, who talk unity cut of one side of their mouth, then de their best to set the people in the cities against the people on the farms. That is one If the things they are trying to do in this campaign. You must listen to the fects and not allow that to happen, be- cause your interests are mutual. Whatever makes the farmer prosper- ous makes you prosper. What makes the everyday men presperous makes the farmer prosper. It is mutual. They are telling the city people that we have high prices because the farmer is getting too much for his crop and then they go out and tell the farmers that prices are high be- cause workers are getting too much mcney in wages. That is not the truth. It is E very peculiar brand of unity. It is not my brand. I believe that the farmers can be prosperous only Vv hen workers in the cities are getting good wages, and I believe that you people in the cities will be prosperous only when the people out on the farms have enough money to buy who t you have to sell. I wish I could telk to you about all the issues in this campeign. I have been on a crusade, going around the country, telling the meonle just exactly what the Democratic Party stands for, and where I stand. I would like you to get the Remublicans to tell you where they stand on that subject. You just can't find out where the Republicans stand, for they won't tell you. They just talk in plstitudes and not in facts. I do not have time to talk about all the issues, but there is one I want to discuss here in this City which is famous for its great educational institutions. -- Syracuse University and LeMoyne College. I might say right here that I am exceedingly happy to see so many of you young people cut here from these schools for the simple reason that that shows you are interested in your Govern- ment and in the welfare of this Country. If you will inform your- selves, you will make better future citizens, and you can also do something for your Country by preventing it from going backward. Now, the issue I want to discuss with you today is the issue of Federal aid to education. Schools all over the country are terribly crowded. There is a shortage of teachers. Teachers are so badly underpaid in many places that they are having to leave school and get other jobs. I consider that S tragedy, for the future welfare of the Country depends on the education that you young people got. I believe that every American, regardless of race or creed, color or national origin, or whether he lives in a poor area or a rich area should be entitled to and should get an education. OVER