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

IMMEDIATE RELEASE IMMEDIATE RELEASE REAR PLATFORM REMARKS OF TRUMAN THE PRESIDENT AT SENECA FALLS, NEW YORK - October 8, 1948 - "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND 4:06 P.M.; E.S.T. RECORDS SERVICE" Thank you very much. I certainly appreciate most highly this cordial reception which you have accorded to ne as your President. I believe it indicates that you are vitally interested in the welfare of this great country if ours and that you are interested in knowing what the issue S in this campaign are. I have been trying to tell the citizens of New York all day long, ever since we started out at Albony this morning, just what II think the issues are and how important I think it is that you become, yourself, familiar with those issues. Now, I have heard of this city of Seneca Fells all my life. I heard that this is the town where they invented bloomers; and that this is the town, the first town, where the woman suffrage movement really got its kick-off to a successful conclusion, when the women got the vote. I think that is 8 great thing and I think that is a great thing for Seneca Falls, to be a starting point for a great movement like that. Now, I want you to be the starting point in New York for & great movement toward the Democratic Party. I think New York needs the Democratic Party and the principles of the Democratic Party. You are in the center of C. great farming community here, and the welfare of the farmer has been fundamental with the Democratic Party. In 1932 all the farmers in the country were going broke. They were losing their forms so fast that the courts really didn't have time to act on them. 123 thousand formers were dispossessed in 1932. Now, last year there were less than 800 farmers who lost their farms because they couldn't pay the interest on their mortgagos. And those mortgages have been reduced by more than 50%. The farmer's income has been increased from 4 billion 500 million collers to 18 billion dollars in 1947 -- and he will have a greater income this year because he has a bigger crop and is getting a fair price for it. The Republicans would like to tear that price support program down if they could, and they made every effort to do that in this Congress. New, there are a number of issues in this campaign that I would like to discuss with you, but I want to say just a word or two, in addition to what I have said about the farmer, about the servicemen. The Democratic Administration assured our service- men and women as early as 1943 that they would net get the treatment that the Veterans of World War I received from the Republican Administration. The Veterans Bureau in the early 1920's was unfortunately used as an opportunity for grafters and shysters to get rich. Dishonesty in the Veterans Bureau in the 1920's cost the Government 200 million dollars, and several officials went to jail. The head of the Veterans Bureau went to jail in the 1920's. This time the story has been different. President Roosevelt and I have assured one Veterans of their rights, and we have had outstanding men handling the largest adminis- trative job in the world. The Veterans Bureau is the largest administrative job in this country. The Democratic Program for veterans is a 4-point program which has proved an outstanding success. Veterans received mustering -out pay and readjustment allowances to help fit them back into civilian life; and second, there has been an excellent medical care program for the wounded and the sick. Third, the Veterans have received educational and vocational training SO that they may be prepared for the (OVER)