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

HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE HOLD FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 8, 1948 CONFIDENTIAL: The following address of the President, to be delivered in Buffalo, New York, this evening, Friday, October 8, 1948, IS FOR RELEASE IN ALL REGULAR EDITIONS OF MORNING NEWSPAPERS OF Saturday, October 9, 1948. TRUNSP Radio release is at 10:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, "NATIONAL today, October 8, 1948 -- or upon delivery if earlier. RECORDS SERVICE" PLEASE USE CARE TO AVOID PREMATURE PUBLICATION OR RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT. CHARLES G. ROSS Secretary to the President In less than a month, you will have the responsibility of choosing a government for the four years, 1949 to 1953. These are very likely to be crucial years in American history, and in world history. They are years which are likely to hold the answer to two great questions in the hearts of most of us today. These questions I can briefly sum up as: 1. War or peace? 2. Hard times or prosperit?? Now, as to the first question, war or peace. I know that every right-thinking American wants peace. I believe that our prayers will be answered and that we will have peace. Of course, present world conditions are of grave concern to all of us. Because of these conditions, I have found it necessary to cancel visits I had planned to make to a number of cities tomorrow I must return to Washington to meet with Secretary of State Marshall, who is flying back from Paris to confer with me. I shall discuss. with Secretary Marshall means for working out constructive and peace- ful solutions of our problems abroad, within the framework of our basic American principles. I am sorry to disappoint SO many of my friends whom I had expected to see tomorrow. But I know that they will forgive me. Tonight I am going to talk to you about the second great question I mentioned -- hard times or prosperity. The election in November clearly presents that question to the people of the United States. Of course, there is no open argument on this question. Nobody wants hard times. Everybody wants prosperity. The Republicans are quite sincere in saying that they want prosperity just as much as the Democrats. Of course they do. Who doesn't? But the leaders who now control the Republican Party want prosperity for special privilege groups first, and for other people second. They want high profits for their campaign contributers, and high prices for the special interest lobbies. In the mad scramble to get that selfish kind of prosperity, they forget about the rest of the country They forget about the needs of the farmer, and labor, and small business. They forget about housewives struggling with their budgets, and families using up their savings to meet the high cost of living. They forget about the prosperity of the consumers and wage earners of the country. Then, of course, their own: prosperity goes smash -- and we are all in a depression together. Real prosperity is based on justice. Real prosperity depends. on fair treatment for all groups in our society. That's a rule as old as the Bible. That's what the Bible means when it says: "We are every one members, one of another." OVER